Clayton Warns Private Funds on Valuation Marks at MFA Legal & Compliance, May 13, 2026
May 13, 2026 · MFA · 0:29:51
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What happened
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton sat for the keynote interview at MFA Legal & Compliance 2026, the Managed Funds Association’s conference in New York, on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in a session moderated by Andrea Griswold, a Skadden partner in white-collar defense and investigations, according to the MFA’s published record of the session.
The interview continued the private-markets enforcement warning Clayton had been delivering through the spring. At the May 2026 Managed Funds Association conference, Clayton reiterated that “if people are mismarking in order to generate fees, that’s always been a no-no,” according to Mondaq’s analysis of his remarks, which also recorded his broader position that there are areas of concern in private markets and that financial regulators and the Justice Department are looking at them. Law-firm analyses of Clayton’s remarks in this period describe the same focus: how private fund advisers value illiquid assets — including assets moved between affiliated vehicles, where an internally set price can benefit the adviser over investors — and whether valuations are calculated in ways that increase the adviser’s fees, according to Debevoise’s summary of his remarks.
The keynote came three months after his office formally launched its revised Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Program for financial crimes on February 24, 2026 — the program he had previewed at the Securities Enforcement Forum on February 5 — under which a qualifying company that self-reports can expect a conditional declination letter within two to three weeks, according to WilmerHale’s summary of the program.
Why it matters
Together with the February forum keynote and the December 2025 Tricolor indictment, this interview completes the public arc of Clayton’s SDNY enforcement doctrine: certainty and speed for companies that cooperate and self-report, and personal criminal exposure for individuals who cook valuations or collateral — the record he brought to the Senate six weeks later as the nominee for Director of National Intelligence.
Scoreboard watch
This is a candidate item for the weekly scoreboard: Clayton’s stated private-fund valuation enforcement focus — mismarking to generate fees, and cherry-picked prices on assets moved between affiliated vehicles — as stated at the May 13, 2026 MFA conference, checkable against Southern District enforcement actions in private markets.
Sources: MFA, “Keynote interview with U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, Southern District of NY | MFA L&C 2026,” May 13, 2026 (keynote interview, embedded above); Mondaq, 2026, reporting Clayton’s remarks at the May 2026 Managed Funds Association conference; Debevoise, on Clayton’s private-fund valuation remarks; WilmerHale, February 2026, on the SDNY self-disclosure program’s February 24, 2026 launch. All characterizations as stated by Mr. Clayton.
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