SEC Enforcement

On June 4, 2026, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Sripetch v. SEC, holding that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not need to prove that investors suffered pecuniary loss in order to obtain disgorgement. The decision resolves a circuit split and rejects the Second Circuit’s more restrictive approach articulated in…

The SEC has rescinded Rule 202.5(e), the no-admit/no-deny policy originally adopted in 1972 that prohibited settling defendants from publicly denying the allegations in an SEC complaint or administrative order. The SEC can still settle cases on a no-admissions basis, and can still seek admissions in particular cases, but settling parties will no longer be…

The SEC is reported to be planning to issue rule proposals creating a regulatory framework for trading of tokenized, digital securities of publicly-traded companies that are issued by third parties unaffiliated with the issuer.  The tokens would be similar to “phantom stock,” representing digital representations of the securities, but would have no equity or voting…

On March 17, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) issued interpretive guidance addressing how existing federal securities laws apply to certain types of crypto assets and certain transactions involving crypto assets (the “Interpretation”). The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) joined the guidance and confirmed its staff would administer the Commodity Exchange Act…

On December 18, 2025, President Trump signed into law the Holding Foreign Insiders Accountable Act (the “HFIAA”), which will terminate an exemption that long enabled directors and officers of foreign private issuers (“FPIs”) to avoid certain insider reporting obligations under Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended…

In July 2025, the SEC settled charges against the Chief Compliance Officers (CCOs) of two investment advisers that involved backdating compliance documents and attempting to conceal these fabrications from examiners. The settlements imposed civil monetary penalties for both officers as well as a three-year bar for the more severe violation.

These actions reinforce a lesson…

On August 15, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued an order settling proceedings against TZP Management Associates, LLC (“TZP”) for allegedly miscalculating management fee offsets between 2018 and 2023. The SEC’s action, based solely on a non-scienter claim, underscores the SEC’s ongoing focus on management fee calculation practices, despite talk of deregulation and…

On June 12, 2025 the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) formally withdrew fourteen outstanding rule proposals issued by the prior administration. Although most observers doubted that the current Commission would adopt these proposals, the SEC’s action confirms that any future rulemaking on these topics must start anew with a new proposal and a fresh opportunity…

On April 8, 2025, Acting SEC Chairman Mark T. Uyeda gave a speech signaling that the SEC may revisit the current minimum assets under management (“AUM”) threshold for federal registration, potentially reducing the number of investment advisers required to register with the SEC. Though Uyeda’s time as Acting Chair has now ended due to the…