U.S. Senators Introduce Legislation Seeking to Increase SEC Penalty Amounts

SEC Enforcement U.S. Senate

On July 9, U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced Senate bill 1730, the Stronger Enforcement of Civil Penalties Act of 2015 (SECPA), aimed at increasing the SEC’s ability to combat securities’ laws violations to better protect investors and bolster oversight and accountability. Specifically, the SECPA “increase[es] the statutory limits on civil monetary penalties, directly linking the size of these penalties to the scope of harm and associated investor losses, and substantially raising the financial stakes for repeat securities law violators.” In addition, the legislation calls for expanded penalty authority for violations of previously imposed injunctions or bars, and would categorize individual injunction violations as separate charges.