InfoBytes Blog
SEC releases enforcement results for fiscal year 2022
On November 15, the SEC announced that it filed 760 total enforcement actions in fiscal year 2022—a nine percent increase in total enforcement actions from fiscal year 2021. The fiscal year 2022 actions included: (i) 462 new, or “stand alone,” enforcement actions, a 6.5 percent increase over fiscal year 2021; (ii) 129 actions against issuers who were allegedly delinquent in making required filings with the SEC; and (iii) 169 “follow-on” administrative proceedings seeking to bar or suspend individuals from certain functions in the securities markets based on criminal convictions, civil injunctions, or other orders. The SEC also noted that the stand-alone enforcement actions in fiscal year 2022 “ran the gamut of conduct, from ‘first-of-their-kind’ actions to cases charging traditional securities law violations.” Among other things, the SEC described that money ordered in the actions, which is comprised of civil penalties, disgorgement, and pre-judgment interest, totaled $6.439 billion, the most on record in SEC history and an increase from $3.852 billion in fiscal year 2021. However, disgorgement was down 6 percent from the prior year, according to the SEC. The SEC also noted that fiscal year 2022 was its second highest year ever in whistleblower awards. According to SEC Director of the Division of Enforcement Gurbir S. Grewal, “the Enforcement Division is working with a sense of urgency to protect investors, hold wrongdoers accountable and deter future misconduct in our financial markets.”