In a significant ruling, the SEC v. Sripetch upheld a $2.25 million disgorgement award plus interest, holding that the SEC need not prove that investors suffered actual financial losses before reclaiming a defendant’s profits. The Commission had charged Sripetch and others with manipulating penny stock schemes, and while the defendant argued that disgorgement requires evidence of investor “pecuniary harm,” the …

The SEC is executing a coordinated enforcement strategy designed to deter fraud at scale. Its latest cases reveal a clear pattern: fraudulent offerings promising outsized returns, Ponzi-like structures disguised as legitimate enterprises, and insider misuse of confidential information. The message for boards and executives is unmistakable — weak governance and opaque compliance controls are not lapses, they are enforcement triggers. …

In SEC v. Barry (9th Cir. 2025), the Ninth Circuit delivered a decisive ruling that reinforces the SEC’s expansive use of the Howey test to define securities. The case involved Pacific West Capital Group’s sale of fractional interests in life settlements—arrangements where investors purchased shares in life insurance policies and relied on the company to pay premiums and manage reserves …

The SEC, under the leadership of Chair Paul Atkins, has made good on its pledge to return to the agency’s core mission of market integrity. In recent weeks, the Commission—sometimes in coordination with the DOJ and FBI—has announced a series of insider trading cases that read like a throwback to classic enforcement playbooks. For companies, boards, and compliance officers, these …

On January 13, 2022, CFTC Commissioner Dawn D. Stump delivered remarks at the Chamber of Digital Commerce. Commissioner Stump acknowledged that: (1) market regulators must avoid stifling beneficial market innovations by rigidly clinging to past regulatory approaches that do not fit the current paradigm of products and services offered to the public; and (2) infrastructure providers must accept regulatory oversight to assure market integrity and consumer protection.

In December 2021, the White House released the “United States Strategy on Countering Corruption” (the “Strategy”). The Strategy is a follow-on document to the June 3, 2021, Memorandum on Establishing the Fight Against Corruption; (See our prior Alert regarding corruption as national security priority), which set Administration policies regarding the corrosive impact of corruption globally and directed key agencies and departments to develop strategies to attack corruption.

Next year the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) will adopt a new four-year strategic plan for fiscal years 2022-2026, as required by the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010. This Act requires federal agencies to update their strategic plans every four years.

On November 23, 2021, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively, “Supervisory Agencies”) issued the Joint Statement on Crypto-Asset Policy Sprint Initiative and Next Steps (“Joint Statement”).

On November 18, 2021, the Chief Counsel of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) published Interpretative Letter #1179 to clarify the Digital Asset Letters (defined below) related to the permissibility of national banks and Federal savings associations (collectively, “Banks”) to engage in cryptocurrency, distributed ledger, and stablecoin activities.

On November 4, 2021, SEC Chair Gary Gensler delivered remarks at a Securities Enforcement Forum and explained why enforcement is a “fundamental pillar in achieving the SEC’s mission” of investor protection, capital formation, and efficient and orderly markets. Chair Gensler’s remarks came one-week after Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco delivered the keynote address at the ABA’s 36th Annual Institute on White Collar Crime on October 28th, in which she outlined the DOJ’s priorities to prevent corporate crime.