SEC Announces Departure of Enforcement Director, Names New General Counsel and Chief Accountant

SEC

On January 9, the SEC announced that its Enforcement Director, Robert Khuzami, is leaving the agency. Mr. Khuzami was appointed to the position in February 2009. The SEC press release credits him with, among other things, restructuring the division and aggressively pursuing financial crisis-related cases and insider trading enforcement, which, together with other enforcement activities, yielded the all-time record number of 735 SEC enforcement actions in FY 2011 and another 734 actions in FY 2012. Earlier in the week, the SEC announced that Geoffrey Aronow will serve as the agency’s General Counsel. Mr. Aronow previously served as the Director of the Division of Enforcement at the CFTC for nearly four years, but most recently was in private practice. Last week, the SEC named Paul Beswick as Chief Accountant, head of the agency office responsible for establishing and enforcing accounting and auditing policy. Mr. Beswick joined the SEC in September 2007 and has filled the position in an acting role since July 2012.