Temple Law Professor Harwell Wells writes about the history of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Enforcement Division for the SEC Historical Society and how the Division has been underfunded.
SEC rules governing accredited investors are designed to protect individual investors from risks that could result from the lack of regulatory oversight associated with unregistered private securities offerings. By expanding the definition of “accredited investor,” the SEC has provided more investors with the opportunity to access alternative investments and given companies, private-equity firms, and hedge funds access to a larger pool of investors.
Under the rule amendments, the SEC significantly revised public company business disclosure rules for the first time in more than 30 years. The amendments were crafted from a proposed rule released in August 2019 that was part of a comprehensive review by the SEC of the disclosure requirements per a study mandated by the JOBS Act.
On June 22, 2020, in Liu v. SEC, the Supreme Court affirmed in an 8-1 ruling that the Securities and Exchange Commission may continue to pursue disgorgement awards under the federal securities law provided that the award is capped at the defendant’s net profits, and further, provided that the award is made for the benefit of wronged investors. In so holding, the Court struck a middle ground by narrowly preserving one of the most powerful enforcement mechanisms available to the agency but limiting the awards more closely than the awards the SEC has sought over the years.
Pepper Hamilton partner Deborah Enea reports on the SEC’s leveraged loan market.
O Pictured Above: (Left to Right) Kevin Dill, GC and CCO at Tabula Rasa Healthcare; Stephanie Avakian, Co-Director, Division of Enforcement, SEC; Jeff Boujoukos LAW ’92, Regional Director of the SEC Philadelphia On Tuesday, October 29, 2019, Temple Law’s Center for Compliance and Ethics held a roundtable event featuring Stephanie Avakian (LAW ’95), Co-Director of
Baker & Hostetler attorneys discuss the DOJ investigation into price-fixing in the chicken industry.
This article is the first in a series of four primers on the key legal regimes incentivizing and protecting whistleblowers who report fraud: the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblower programs.
Interested in Securities and White Collar law? Read the newest article from the 10-Q, How 3 Simple Acts May Change the Securities and White-Collar Landscape.
Learn about recent developments in SEC Executive Perquisite Disclosures in the newest #Temple10Q post.