SEC’s Division of Enforcement 2019 Annual Report Presents Strong Enforcement Results
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Key takeaways:
- On November 6, 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC” or “Commission”) released its 2019 Annual Report (the “Report”), which details the activities and results of the Division of Enforcement (the “Division”) for the period October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019.
- The Report shows that the SEC’s enforcement numbers – which have trended lower during the Trump administration – held relatively steady in FY 2019. The Division filed 862 enforcement actions in FY 2019—the most in the Trump era and an increase of 5% from last year. This 862 total includes 526 standalone enforcement actions (95 of which were from the Share Class Selection Disclosure Initiative), 210 follow-on administrative proceedings, and 126 actions to deregister public companies delinquent on their SEC filings.
- Although the Report offers little in terms of statistics from which to extrapolate future enforcement numbers, we expect the enforcement levels of the past couple of years to continue into the Commission’s FY 2020.