SEC Enforcement Alerts
Wed 23 Jan, 2019 | Client Alerts by Carl Schoeppl vCard
SEC Division of Enforcement Publishes Enforcement Results for 2018 November 2, 2018, | Client Alert: Securities Enforcement By Carl F. Schoeppl
On November 2, 2018, the SEC Division of Enforcement published its Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2018. In FY 2018, the SEC brought a diverse mix of 821 enforcement actions of which consisted of 490 “stand-alone” actions brought in federal court or as administrative proceedings, 210 were “follow-on” proceedings seeking bars based upon the outcomes of SEC actions or actions by criminal authorities or other regulators, and 121 were proceedings to deregister public companies that were delinquent in their SEC filings. As depicted in the chart
SEC Division of Enforcement Publishes Enforcement Results for 2018
2018, the SEC Division of Enforcement dual Report for the Fiscal Year Ended 18 (“FY 2018″). In FY 2018, the SEC mix of 821 enforcement actions of which “stand-alone” actions brought in federal-state proceedings, 210 were “follow-on” ng bars based upon the outcomes of SEC by criminal authorities or other regulators, proceedings to deregister public companies not in their SEC filings. As depicted in the compared to FY 2017 in which a total of enforcement actions were filed, the types of ed as stand-alone actions in FY 2018 ties offerings (25%), investment advisory issuer reporting/accounting and auditing (16%), dealer (13%), insider trading (10%), to market and other miscellaneous cases (7%).
In FY 2018, the SEC obtained a total of $2.506 billion in judgments and orders of disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and a total of $1.439 billion in the imposition of civil penalties in enforcement actions. Notably, five percent of the cases that involved the largest financial remedies accounted for the majority of all disgorgement and civil penalties the SEC obtained in FY 2018. In FY 2018, the SEC returned $794 million to harmed investors, suspended trading in the securities of 280 companies, and obtained nearly 550 bars and suspensions. By these raw quantitative metrics, the SEC’s overall results improved when compared to its performance in FY 2017.
Observations:
The SEC’s Division of Enforcement continued its focus on protecting retail investors in FY 2018. Over half of the stand-alone enforcement actions brought by the SEC in FY 2018 involved wrongdoing against retail investors. The Division’s Retail Strategy Task Force, which was formed in FY 2018, made significant contributions to the Division’s retail focus including initiatives involving several important issues impacting retail investors such as, disclosures concerning fees and expenses and conflicts of interest for managed accounts, market manipulations, and fraud in connection with unregistered offerings.