Credit rating agencies can have a significant impact on the on the market place. The rating assigned by the agencies to securities can impact things such as the price, interest rate and marketability. Yet the inner workings of these agencies have traditionally... Read More

Periodically, there have been calls to merge the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). As the market crisis unfolded, for example, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson proposed reforms which included merging the SEC and the CFTC... Read More

In a strongly worded November 28, 2011 opinion ( here ), Southern District of New York Judge Jed Rakoff rejected the proposed $285 million settlement of the enforcement action that the SEC brought against Citigroup Capital Markets. But while he emphatically... Read More

The SEC charged another investment professional with fraud and self-dealing. SEC v. Ahmed, Civil Action No. 3:15-cv-00675 (D. Conn. Filed May 5, 2015). Defendant Iftikar Ahmed is an investment professional who was a partner at Oak Investment Partners... Read More

Settlement trends in Commission enforcement actions last year show increases in most case categories, according to a study released by NERA economic consulting. In several categories the number of cases settled in the last fiscal year is the highest... Read More

This is the final installment in a series of articles that has been published periodically analyzing the direction of SEC enforcement. The Division of Enforcement is critical to the overall mission of the SEC. To bring a new ethics to the market... Read More

The Commission filed its fifth case, and second insider trading action, related to children’s clothing maker Carter’s Inc. This time the case was brought against Dennis S. Rosenberg, an equity analyst who operated his own investment consulting... Read More

The "classical theory" of insider trading targets "a corporate insider's breach of duty to shareholders with whom the insider transacts[, and the] misappropriation theory outlaws trading on the basis of nonpublic information by a... Read More

The SEC lost another case in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. This time, however, it did not involve rule making. Rather, the action focused on the imposition of a life time bar from the securities business by FINRA which was affirmed by the Commission... Read More

The SEC suffered another trial loss when a Kansas jury returned a verdict against the agency in an enforcement action brought against former NIC, Inc. CFO Stephen Kovzan, SEC v. Kovzan, Civil Action No. 2:11-cv-02017 (D. Ka. Filed Jan. 12, 2011). The... Read More

The Commission announced that its enforcement program remains vibrant, having filed just one less action last year that its record setting 735 actions in the prior fiscal year. The enforcement program is being bolstered by over 3,000 whistleblower... Read More

Insider trading cases can be difficult to prove. Few if any are willing to admit they breached their duty and traded, misappropriated or stole inside information or illegally tipped someone. Absent the kind of blue collar tactics seen in the Galleon... Read More

The SEC filed a settled administrative proceeding charging a former head of investor relations with violating Regulation FD. The Commission elected not to charge the company, however, based on its culture of compliance and cooperation. In the Matter of... Read More

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services was named as a Respondent in three settled administrative proceedings by the SEC. Each is tied to the Rating Services’ role in the conduit/fusion Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities market after the... Read More