US SEC enforcement activity drops dramatically as agency 'resets'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: msn/Reuters

11h


NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - Enforcement cases brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fell more than 20% in the latest fiscal year as the regulator "recentered" its enforcement program, the agency said on Tuesday. The SEC brought 456 enforcement actions in the fiscal year that ran through the end of September, the agency said in a long-awaited annual enforcement report.

The regulator brought nearly half of those actions before the start of the Trump administration in January 2025, SEC data showed. Total monetary penalties surged to a whopping $17.9 billion, largely due to a final judgment in a Ponzi scheme case the SEC originally brought in 2009. Excluding that case, the SEC levied penalties and disgorgement of $2.7 billion. That compares to $8.2 billion in financial remedies and 583 actions a year earlier.

"We have redirected resources toward the types of misconduct that inflict the greatest harm - particularly fraud, market manipulation, and abuses of trust - and away from approaches that prioritized volume and record-setting penalties over true investor protection," SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in a statement.

To be sure, enforcement activity typically slows during transition years as new leaders come into the building, according to experts and past data. But 2025's dramatic decline points to a deeper change in how the SEC views enforcement activity under Republican leadership.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/us-sec-enforcement-activity-drops-dramatically-as-agency-resets/ar-AA20njrf

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Link to SEC annual enforcement REPORT - SEC Announces Enforcement Results for Fiscal Year 2025

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[Javaman]

1. the SEC was already grossly understaffed

aka there will be virtually no investigations at all.

[wolfie001]

2. Seems like so many misdeeds are swept under the rug

Of course, after the greedy fat orange pig gets involved with his oily hands.

[Initech]

6. All benefiting the billionaire white collar criminal class.

While us rubes are left to fight for what's left of the scraps. Fuck the GOP. They have been failing us for 45 years. It needs to end now.

[OC375]

3. SEC is a joke.

Look around to see their handiwork.

[mdbl]

4. No lie.

They were worthless before but now that it has only some GOP hacks running it, nothing will be done to stop the corruption that is just getting worse. Even after they managed to prosecute, Dump will just pardon them hoping for a payoff.

[republianmushroom]

5. Our Republican administration, crooked as a dogs hind leg.

[lonely bird]

7. Market manipulation?

Are we sure this isn’t The Onion?

[pat_k]

8. Shocked! Shocked, I say!

Corrupting the SEC to render it incapable of legitimate enforcement has been top of the list for decades. Republicans ALWAYS purge SEC personnel to put in cyphers and pawns (e.g., my dad, a CPA and lawyer with the Kennedy/Johnson administrations was among those purged by Nixon).

At least, until now, they continued to do enough actual enforcement to keep up a pretense of legitimacy.

Now all bets are off. The so-called party of "law and order" has proudly and openly taken on the mantle of Lawlessness and Disorder.