SEC files record 55 new actions against public firms in 2018 second half
Reprints
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a record-setting 55 new actions against public companies and subsidiaries during this year’s second half, says a report.
The new actions, which resulted in a total of 71 new actions for the fiscal year, follows a decline in new enforcement actions that began in the second half of fiscal year 2017 and continued into the first half of fiscal year 2018, according to the report issued Tuesday by New York University’s Pollack Center for Law & Business and San Francisco-based Cornerstone Research Inc.
Data on public company and subsidiary defendants are based on data from the Securities Enforcement Empirical, database, a collaboration between the Pollack Center and Cornerstone.
“While we often see end-of-year upticks, the number of actions filed in the second half of fiscal year 2018 was more than triple the number filed in the first half of the year,” Stephen Choi, the Murray and Kathleen Bring Professor of Law at the NYU School of Law and director of the Pollack Center for Law & Business, said in a statement.
According to the report, “SEC Enforcement Activity: Public Companies and subsidiaries,” the SEC initiated a total of 490 independent enforcement actions in fiscal year 2018, which was the third-highest on record. Of these, 71 were new actions against public companies and subsidiaries, a 9% increase from fiscal year 2017.
Among other survey results, the 2018 fiscal year’s last quarter had the highest number of public company and subsidiary actions that also named individuals as defendants in any single quarter tracked by the data base, which covers fiscal year 2010 through the present.
A total of 45% of the public company and subsidiary action involved broker dealer or investment adviser allegations, according to the report. Most frequently targeted among these firms was the finance, insurance and real estate industry sector, accounting for 51% of the total.
Read Next
-
SEC enforcement actions hit yearly record
WASHINGTON—The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a record 735 enforcement actions in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the agency said Wednesday.
