This is press release that would not have been written by judge Margaret Ryan if she was still serving as the Director of Enforcement. She only lasted six months with the rapid down-sizing and lack of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
I was stunned to see the SEC attack its prior stewardship in its Report on Enforcement Results for Fiscal Year 2025.
“Central to an effective enforcement program is determining which cases to bring and responsibly stewarding Commission resources. Regrettably, such resources have been misapplied in prior years to pursue media headlines and run up numbers, and in turn, led to misguided expectations on what constitutes effective enforcement.”
and
“FY 2025 was a unique period of transition for the enforcement division never experienced before in modern SEC history. It was characterized by an unprecedented rush to bring a significant number of cases in advance of the presidential inauguration[1] and the aggressive pursuit of novel legal theories under the prior Commission.”
It should come as no surprise that enforcement results are down. During fiscal year 2025, the SEC filed 456 enforcement actions, including 303 standalone actions. During fiscal year 2024, the SEC had filed 583 enforcement actions of which 432 were standalone actions.
The SEC touts $17.9 billion in recovery. But $14.9 billion of that was from the Stanford case that was filed more than 15 years ago. If a registrant used that kind of misleading language it would end up with an SEC action against it.
This release comes as the SEC announces the new Director of Enforcement: David Woodcock.
We know the Division of Enforcement is understaffed. DOGE opened the door for 18% of the staff to depart. Enforcement is key to weed out bad actors. We’ve got looming crises in private credit markets and the AI bubble.
Is the SEC enforcement doing enough to stop bad actors?
Sources:
- SEC Announces Enforcement Results for Fiscal Year 2025
- Addendum – FY25 Enforcement Statistics
- So This Is How The SEC Dies . . . by John Reed Stark
- US SEC’s top cop resigns after just six months on the job by Dawn Kopecki and Chris Prentice
- SEC Announces Enforcement Results for Fiscal Year 2024
- During fiscal year 2025, the Commission filed 456 enforcement actions, including 303 standalone actions
- SEC Appoints David Woodcock as Director of the Division of Enforcement