The Securities and Exchange Commission brought a record number of enforcement filings in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, the final quarter under former Chair Gary Gensler.
Based on preliminary results, the commission filed 200 total enforcement actions between October and December 2024, four of which were municipal securities actions.
The municipal securities violations alleged include quoting municipal bonds at above-market prices, failure to disclose material conflicts of interest, and failure to register with the commission. Of the four cases, three have been settled.
The remaining unsettled case charges
"The Division has not taken its foot off the pedal in the new fiscal year," said Sanjay Wadhwa, Acting Director of the Division of Enforcement. "On the contrary, the hard work of the dedicated staff in the Division, with assistance from throughout the Agency, has resulted in the busiest start to a fiscal year that I have witnessed in my 20-plus years at the Commission, providing invaluable protections to investors and promoting fairness and integrity in the securities markets."
The agency's figures represent the most actions filed in their respective periods since at least 2000. The SEC continued to credit parties that self-police, self-report, remediate, and otherwise cooperate with aiding in the division's investigations.
The historic numbers highlight the commission under the leadership of Gensler, who as of January 21st was replaced by Trump appointee Mark T. Uyeda on an acting basis.
Ed Fierro, former senior counsel to the director of the SEC's Office of Municipal Securities, spoke to the likelihood of extreme change under Uyeda's leadership. "[The figures] show that they're going to continue to be aggressive… that's not going to go away with the change in administration," Fierro said. "Under Gensler, the commission was super aggressive, going after outside violations like record-keeping. It's possible that the next four years will be more like what we've seen in the past, with those sorts of charges decreasing, but I believe the SEC is going to continue to be aggressive when it comes to the fraud market."
The SEC filed more than 40 enforcement actions from Jan. 1 through Jan. 17 of this year, indicating that the commission's high level of productivity has continued into the second quarter of fiscal year 2025.
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