Don’t expect SEC enforcement to just disappear under new chairman Paul Atkins, warn the three former general counsels
- SEC Chairman Paul Atkins was sworn in last week And after the Doge’s departure flood, they will preside over the newly formed SEC. Experts say the agenda creating the rules is likely to cause major changes, but Atkins has not reduced Violet when it comes to enforcement actions.
Three of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s last four general advice predicts that Enforcement priority It shifts but it doesn’t disappear oath Chairman Paul Atkins at the helm of the agency.
Atkins chaired a major federal regulator in the US securities market last week, but he is unfamiliar with the SEC. Atkins was previously a commissioner from 2002 to 2008, and he is well known. Crypto loversand previously held crypto assets of up to $6 million. Marketwatchers were predicting a light touch enforcement from the SEC given President Trump’s focus on business-friendly policies, but there’s no mistake.
According to Hodgman, Atkins’s enforcement remarks usually came to a number of important topics. She said fraud, including accounting and disclosure fraud, and insider trading, will likely be a high-five issue. Berkle Lace Spring Forum for M&A and Boardrooms.
Hodgman is currently a partner at the Freshfields law firm, but spent nearly 16 years in the SEC’s executive branch. She warned the audience that because regulators have become “very good” when connecting dots in insider trading cases through social media and AI use, lawyers should adapt to the way executives and directors who own important nonpublic information buy and sell securities.
“They use data and analytics in ways that didn’t take part in my career there,” says Hodgman. “This is a very focused executive branch in that area.”
Other enforcement cases may show changes in rules violations brought before the committee.
Robert Stebbins, SEC adviser to the 2017-2021, President Trump’s Speaker Jay Clayton predicted that enforcement would return to Clayton’s priorities during his tenure.
That would mean focusing on “main street” or on private investors, he said. Furthermore, this time there is no foreign corrupt practices law enforcement, Stebbins noted. The Trump administration suspended the FCPA enforcement in February, Presidential Order That hindered America’s economic competitiveness.
From 2021 to 2023, Dan Berkowitz, an adviser under former chairman Gary Gensler, said the enforcement would focus more on cases where investor harm was not a procedural violation.
Similarly, Megan Barbaro, an advisor for 2023-2025, said Aslo under Gensler is likely to seek lower corporate penalties due to deeper concerns from the committee extracted from indirect harmful shareholders between companies.
“In such cases, we expect a lower dollar amount,” said Barbaro, who agreed that Barkowitz had imposed a lower penalty. “It focuses on fraud and has fewer policy and procedural violations.”
In 2024, the SEC filed an order collecting 583 enforcement measures and fines of more than $8 billion. The number of cases fell 26%, but the $8.2 billion fine was the highest SEC History. Former Chairman Jensler has been criticized by companies, including his broad rulemaking agenda and even by Commissioner Hester Perth. Called Genzler’s approach to cryptography in certain cases: “Enforcement Regulation.”
In the course of the flow, all three former lead lawyers said they hope that the SEC under Atkins will address crypto regulations.
Day 4 as a chair, Atkins spoke The third roundtable of the SEC’s newly established cryptographic task force. Atkins gave Perth a hint of hats, called “cryptomom.”
In the area of rulemaking, agents may also act formally in environmental disclosure, Stebbins said.
In March 2024, the SEC was adopted Final Rules New disclosures from public companies regarding direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions are required. The rules faced immediate and swift legal backlash, and following the 2024 election of President Trump, SEC Chairman Mark Weda announced Committee He voted to no longer defend the climate risk disclosure rules in court.
In addition to the code, Berkovic said the regulatory landscape will focus on expanding and increasing access to private markets. Thresholds for certified investors.
The SEC last addressed the threshold in 2020, Expand the definition Investors and companies that can invest in private equity, hedge funds, venture capital and Pre-IPO stocks.
This story was originally introduced Fortune.com