We have become used to the Securities and Exchange Commission extracting disgorgement of ill-gotten gains from those violating the securities laws. However, the enabling laws do not explicitly grant the SEC the right to disgorgement. We seem to accept that power, but how far back can the SEC go to grab cash from defendants?
In the SEC’s case against Charles Kokesh, the SEC wants to go back ten years. Between 1995 and 2006, Kokesh pilfered $34.9 million from the business-development companies for which his firm was acting as investment adviser. Some of that ill-gotten cash was overcharging to pay expenses of the investment advisory firm, but some went into his pocket and that of his stable of polo ponies. The SEC brought charges in 2009. The court ordered disgorgement of all of the pilfered funds.
Mr. Kokesh argues that 28 U.S.C. §2462 limits the disgorgement to five years by stating that “an action, suit or proceeding for the enforcement of any civil fine, penalty, or forfeiture, pecuniary or otherwise, shall not be entertained unless commenced within five years from the date when the claim first accrued”.
If the five-year limit is imposed, Mr. Korkesh’s penalty would be reduced to $5 million.
The briefs and arguments are a delight for legal scholars. The parties are battling over legal history and dictionary definitions to determine what Congress meant in 1839 when it passed that five year limit and used the word “forfeiture.”
The arguments are compounded by the creation of the SEC’s power of disgorgement, not by Congressional action, but by case law. The SEC only legitimized disgorgement in 1970 in the case of SEC v. Texas Gulf Sulphur Co., 312 F. Supp. 77 (S.D.N.Y. 1970).
The Kokesh case was argued in front of the Supreme Court last month, so we should be looking ahead to decision shortly that may have a profound impact on SEC enforcement actions.
Sources:
1 thought on “The SEC Reaching Back Far In The Past With Its Powers of Disgorgement”