SEC’s Division of Enforcement Issues 2018 Annual Report
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Key takeaways:
- On November 2, 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC” or “Commission”) Division of Enforcement released its 2018 Annual Report (“Report”) which presents and assesses the Division’s accomplishments during the 2018 Fiscal Year (“FY”)
- The Report’s statistics leave little doubt that enforcement remains a robust part of the Commission agenda with a continued focus on protecting retail investors and addressing cyber security issues. FY 2018 saw an increase in the number of enforcement actions with the Commission bringing 821 actions as compared to 754 in FY 2017.
- In terms of penalties and disgorgement, FY 2018 saw an increase in the amount of penalties obtained ($1.439 billion) and a slight decrease in the amount of disgorgement ($2.506 billion), with the most significant driver of these numbers coming from the settled action against Petrobras.