"morality" exercise:Responsibilities of Supervisors

A is correct. Full disclosure should be made as required by Standard VI(A). This standard does not preclude an analyst from owning shares in a covered company but any ownership needs to be adequately disclosed. As the stock in question has been held for many years it may not be practical to sell it due to issues such as tax consequences. In addition, since the analyst has been hired to initiate coverage of mining companies, the firm may not have other analysts that would be as competent in completing a research report on mining companies.

B is incorrect because the stock in question has been held for many years and it may not be practical to sell it due to capital gains taxes or other issues. Full disclosure should be made as required by Standard VI(A), but selling any existing holdings prior to writing a research report is not a requirement of the standards.

C is incorrect. Tsang is able to write the report for his employer as long as his ownership is adequately disclosed.

C is correct as once a supervisor learns that an employee has violated or may have violated the law or the Code and Standards, the supervisor must promptly initiate an investigation to ascertain the extent of the wrongdoing as required by Standard IV(C)–Responsibilities of Supervisors. Relying on an employee’s statements about the extent of the violation or assurances that the wrongdoing will not recur is not enough. Reporting the misconduct up the chain of command and warning the employee to cease the activity are also not enough. Pending the outcome of the investigation, a supervisor should take steps to ensure that the violation will not be repeated, such as placing limits on the employee’s activities or increasing the monitoring of the employee’s activities.

A is incorrect as a violation of Standard IV(C)–Responsibilities of Supervisors has occurred.

B is incorrect as there is no indication that the supervisor failed to take reasonable efforts to detect and prevent violations of Oaktree’s policies by Longtree.