Rich Godfrey is the principal of Cogent CRC LLC, a Chapel Hill-based compliance and research consultancy that partners with Baker Donelson's Investment Management practice group on regulatory, operational, and investigative matters. With more than 30 years of global investment operations and compliance experience, Rich provides non-legal, specialized support to attorneys and their clients navigating complex financial, regulatory, and enforcement issues. Rich draws on his experience as both a compliance practitioner and a regulator to offer industry practice context and common-sense, actionable insight to Baker Donelson attorneys and their clients.
Before founding Cogent in 2018, Rich held senior leadership roles in the investment management industry, including serving as Vice President within the operations group at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Director of Operations at Argent Funds Group, and a founding partner and Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) of Raven Rock Capital, an SEC-registered convertible arbitrage and corporate credit hedge fund. From 2016 to 2018, he served as a Financial Investigator in the Enforcement Division of the North Carolina Secretary of State's Securities Division, where he conducted investigations involving investment adviser misconduct, private fund operations, cryptocurrency schemes, crowdfunding offerings, and securities fraud. His work included open-source intelligence gathering, financial and trading record analysis, witness and subject interviews, drafting reports of investigation, and presenting findings to enforcement attorneys, the Deputy Securities Director, and, when required, the Secretary of State.
Rich is a licensed Private Investigator in North Carolina (License #169435) and an approved Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Dispute Resolution Services arbitrator. Through Cogent, he assists Baker Donelson attorneys and their clients with investment adviser compliance, operational due diligence, regulatory risk management, and investigative support in enforcement matters and civil litigation.