The Division of Trading and Markets establishes and maintains standards for fair, orderly, and efficient markets. It regulates the major securities market participants, including broker-dealers, self-regulatory organizations (such as stock exchanges, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and clearing agencies), and transfer agents. The position is in Washington, DC.

The Division of Trading and Markets establishes and maintains standards for fair, orderly, and efficient markets. It regulates the major securities market participants, including broker-dealers, self-regulatory organizations (such as stock exchanges, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and clearing agencies), and transfer agents. The position is in Washington, DC.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced awards of approximately $110 million and $4 million to two whistleblowers whose information and assistance led to successful SEC and related actions.  With these awards, the SEC's whistleblower program has now paid more than $1 billion in awards to 207 whistleblowers, including over $500 million in fiscal year 2021 alone. The $110 million award stands as the second-highest award in the program's history, following the over $114 million whistleblower award the SEC issued in October 2020.

"Today's announcement underscores the important role that whistleblowers play in helping the SEC detect, investigate, and prosecute potential violations of the securities laws," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. "The assistance that whistleblowers provide is crucial to the SEC's ability to enforce the rules of the road for our capital markets."

"The whistleblower program has been instrumental to the success of numerous...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced awards of approximately $110 million and $4 million to two whistleblowers whose information and assistance led to successful SEC and related actions.  With these awards, the SEC's whistleblower program has now paid more than $1 billion in awards to 207 whistleblowers, including over $500 million in fiscal year 2021 alone. The $110 million award stands as the second-highest award in the program's history, following the over $114 million whistleblower award the SEC issued in October 2020.

"Today's announcement underscores the important role that whistleblowers play in helping the SEC detect, investigate, and prosecute potential violations of the securities laws," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. "The assistance that whistleblowers provide is crucial to the SEC's ability to enforce the rules of the road for our capital markets."

"The whistleblower program has been instrumental to the success of numerous...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that App Annie Inc., a leading alternative data provider for the mobile app industry, and its co-founder and former CEO and Chairman Bertrand Schmitt, have agreed to settle securities fraud charges for engaging in deceptive practices and making material misrepresentations about how App Annie's alternative data was derived. App Annie and Schmitt have agreed to pay more than $10 million to settle the matter, which is the SEC's first enforcement action charging an alternative data provider with securities fraud.

According to the SEC's order, App Annie is one of the largest sellers of market data on mobile app performance, including estimates on the number of times a particular company's app is downloaded, how often it's used, and the amount of revenue the app generates for the company. Trading firms commonly refer to this type of information as "alternative data" because it is not contained within companies' financial...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that App Annie Inc., a leading alternative data provider for the mobile app industry, and its co-founder and former CEO and Chairman Bertrand Schmitt, have agreed to settle securities fraud charges for engaging in deceptive practices and making material misrepresentations about how App Annie's alternative data was derived. App Annie and Schmitt have agreed to pay more than $10 million to settle the matter, which is the SEC's first enforcement action charging an alternative data provider with securities fraud.

According to the SEC's order, App Annie is one of the largest sellers of market data on mobile app performance, including estimates on the number of times a particular company's app is downloaded, how often it's used, and the amount of revenue the app generates for the company. Trading firms commonly refer to this type of information as "alternative data" because it is not contained within companies' financial...

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The Securities and Exchange Commission today instituted settled charges against Crews & Associates Inc., an Arkansas-based broker-dealer, and its former CEO, Rush F. Harding III, for unfair dealing in connection with a municipal bond tender offer.

The SEC's orders find that Crews, at Harding's direction, recommended to a county in West Virginia that the county attempt to reduce the amount of its outstanding debt service expense through a tender offer for bonds it had issued years earlier.  According to the orders, in the months following the discussions of the tender offer, Crews, with Harding's approval, purchased millions of dollars of the county's outstanding bonds and sold them to an entity affiliated with Crews and to Crews' customers. Almost all of the bonds Crews acquired were eventually sold to its affiliate and tendered back to the county at a price that Crews had recommended, resulting in a net profit to the affiliate. In recommending the purchase...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the appointment of Barbara Roper as Senior Advisor to the Chair. Ms. Roper's focus will be on issues relating to retail investor protection, including matters relating to policy, broker-dealer oversight, investment adviser oversight, and examinations. She is currently the Director of Investor Protection for the Consumer Federation of America (CFA).

"Barb is a champion for investors and will provide invaluable counsel on behalf of the American public," Chair Gary Gensler said. "I've had the pleasure of working closely with her on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the critical market reforms of the Dodd-Frank Act, and I’m thrilled to collaborate with her again at the SEC."

"I'm excited to join the SEC and Chair Gensler's leadership team," Ms. Roper said. "I've dedicated my career to ensuring that our capital markets work for the average investor. With investor protection at the core of the SEC's mission, I’m looking...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Manish Lachwani, the former CEO of HeadSpin Inc., a Silicon Valley-based private technology company, with defrauding investors out of $80 million by falsely claiming that the company had achieved strong and consistent growth in acquiring customers and generating revenue.

The SEC's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that from at least 2018 through 2020, Lachwani engaged in a fraudulent scheme to propel HeadSpin's valuation to over $1 billion by falsely inflating the company's key financial metrics and doctoring its internal sales records. According to the complaint, Lachwani, who allegedly controlled all important aspects of HeadSpin's financials and sales operations, significantly inflated the value of numerous customer deals and fraudulently treated potential deal amounts that he had discussed with customers as if they were guaranteed future payments. The...

On Aug. 20, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency action to stop a fraudulent Ponzi scheme allegedly perpetrated by Marietta, Georgia resident John Woods and two entities he controls: registered investment adviser Livingston Group Asset Management Company, d/b/a Southport Capital (Southport), and investment fund Horizon Private Equity, III LLC (Horizon). On Aug. 24, 2021, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted a temporary restraining order and asset freeze with respect to defendants Woods and Horizon and ordered expedited discovery with respect to Southport, among other relief.

According to the SEC's complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, the defendants have raised more than $110 million from over 400 investors in 20 states by offering and selling membership units in Horizon.  Woods, Southport, and other Southport investment adviser representatives...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Pennsylvania-based Healthcare Services Group, Inc. has agreed to pay $6 million to settle charges that the company engaged in accounting and disclosure violations that enabled the company to report inflated quarterly earnings per share (EPS) that met research analysts' consensus estimates for multiple quarters. This is the third action to result from the Division of Enforcement's ongoing EPS Initiative, which uses risk-based data analytics to uncover potential accounting and disclosure violations caused by, among other things, earnings management practices.

The SEC's order finds that in 2014 and 2015, HCSG, a provider of housekeeping, dining, and other services to healthcare facilities, failed to timely accrue for and disclose material loss contingencies related to the settlement of private litigation against the company, as required by U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. By failing to properly record...

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Joseph K. Brenner has retired as the Chief Counsel of the Division of Enforcement, a role he held since January 2011. As Chief Counsel, Mr. Brenner served as the head of the Division of Enforcement's Office of Chief Counsel, where he oversaw the process of providing legal and policy advice on potential enforcement actions and other critical issues to the Division’s leadership and 1400-person staff.

"Joe's expertise, counsel, and advice have been invaluable to more than half a dozen Enforcement Directors and countless members of the staff of the Division," said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the Division of Enforcement. "Joe's thoughtful approach to some of the thorniest issues we face has made us more effective in protecting investors and the integrity of the markets."

"We would like to thank Joe for his decade-long service to this agency as our Division of Enforcement's Chief Counsel," said SEC Chair Gary...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that in fiscal year 2022 the fees that public companies and other issuers pay to register their securities with the Commission will be set at $92.70 per million dollars.

Background

The securities laws require the Commission to make annual adjustments to the rates for fees paid under Section 6(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Sections 13(e) and 14(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Commission must set rates for the fees paid under Section 6(b) to levels that the Commission projects will generate collections equal to annual statutory target amounts. The Commission's projections are calculated using a methodology developed in consultation with the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget. As directed by the statute, the Commission determined the statutory target amount for fiscal year 2022 to be $747,806,372 by adjusting the fiscal year 2021 target collection amount of...

The Division of Enforcement investigates possible violations of securities laws and, when appropriate, recommends Commission enforcement action. The Office of Chief Counsel serves as the chief legal and policy advisor to the Division Director and the Division, and provides guidance and consultation on a wide range of matters of programmatic importance. Typical Duties Include:

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced open data enhancements that provide public access to financial statements and other disclosures made by publicly traded companies on its Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system (EDGAR).

The SEC is releasing for the first time Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that aggregate financial statement data, making corporate disclosures quicker and easier for developers and third-party services to use. APIs will allow developers to create web or mobile apps that directly serve retail investors.

"These new APIs make important information about public companies more accessible and usable than ever before," said Jed Hickman, Director, EDGAR Business Office. "This marks another important milestone in the SEC's continuing efforts to facilitate innovation and make financial disclosure data accessible to all market participants."

The free APIs provide access to EDGAR submission history by...

The Office of Minority & Women Inclusion (OMWI) is sponsoring a roundtable panel discussion with leaders from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) business and law schools. The event's focus will be on developing sustained relationships that result in impactful outcomes for both HBCU students and partner organizations like the SEC..

Panelists include: Pamela A. Gibbs (SEC-Moderator), Jo Ann Rolle (Dean-Medgar Evers School of Business); David A. Green (Professor of Law-North Carolina Central University Law School/General Counsel-NBA), John K. Pierre (Chancellor-Southern University Law Center); and Isaac McCoy (Dean-Stillman College School of Business)

The panelist will discuss among other topics: what tangible and substantive steps agency’s should take in order to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with HBCUs; the importance of student financial education and how partner organizations can assist with these efforts; the challenges...

The Office of Minority & Women Inclusion (OMWI) is sponsoring a roundtable panel discussion with leaders from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) business and law schools. The event's focus will be on developing sustained relationships that result in impactful outcomes for both HBCU students and partner organizations like the SEC..

Panelists include: Pamela A. Gibbs (SEC-Moderator), Jo Ann Rolle (Dean-Medgar Evers School of Business); David A. Green (Professor of Law-North Carolina Central University Law School/General Counsel-NBA), John K. Pierre (Chancellor-Southern University Law Center); and Isaac McCoy (Dean-Stillman College School of Business)

The panelist will discuss among other topics: what tangible and substantive steps agency’s should take in order to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with HBCUs; the importance of student financial education and how partner organizations can assist with these efforts; the challenges...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced insider trading charges against three former Netflix Inc. software engineers and two close associates who generated over $3 million in total profits by trading on confidential information about Netflix's subscriber growth.

According to the SEC's complaint, Sung Mo "Jay" Jun was at the center of a long-running scheme to illegally trade on non-public information concerning the growth in Netflix's subscriber base, a key metric Netflix reported in its quarterly earnings announcements. The complaint alleges that Sung Mo Jun, while employed at Netflix in 2016 and 2017, repeatedly tipped this information to his brother, Joon Mo Jun, and his close friend, Junwoo Chon, who both used it to trade in advance of multiple Netflix earnings announcements.

The SEC's complaint further alleges that after Sung Mo Jun left Netflix in 2017, he obtained confidential Netflix subscriber growth information from another Netflix insider,...

The Office of Minority & Women Inclusion (OMWI) is sponsoring a roundtable panel discussion with leaders from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) business and law schools. The event's focus will be on developing sustained relationships that result in impactful outcomes for both HBCU students and partner organizations like the SEC..

Panelists include: Pamela A. Gibbs (SEC-Moderator), Jo Ann Rolle (Dean-Medgar Evers School of Business); David A. Green (Professor of Law-North Carolina Central University Law School/General Counsel-NBA), John K. Pierre (Chancellor-Southern University Law Center); and Isaac McCoy (Dean-Stillman College School of Business)

The panelist will discuss among other topics: what tangible and substantive steps agency’s should take in order to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with HBCUs; the importance of student financial education and how partner organizations can assist with these efforts; the challenges...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the appointment of Sanjay Wadhwa as Deputy Director of the Division of Enforcement. Mr. Wadhwa most recently served as the Senior Associate Director of the Division of Enforcement in the New York Regional Office (NYRO), where he managed more than 150 personnel in enforcing federal securities laws. His new role is effective immediately.

"Over the hundreds of investigations he has overseen, Sanjay has helped the SEC root out wrongdoing, pursue charges against those who seek to manipulate or defraud investors, and partner with criminal authorities to prosecute bad actors," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. "Sanjay's breadth of experience and dedication to protecting investors make him well qualified to serve as Deputy Director of the Enforcement Division. I look forward to working with him in his new role."

"I also would like to thank Melissa Hodgman and Kelly Gibson for their leadership service in the Enforcement...