The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Gurbir S. Grewal has been appointed Director of the Division of Enforcement, effective July 26, 2021. Grewal currently serves as Attorney General for the State of New Jersey, a role he has held since January 2018, when he was confirmed by the New Jersey State Senate after being nominated by Governor Phil Murphy.

"I'm honored and delighted to welcome Attorney General Grewal to the SEC," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. "He has had a distinguished career as New Jersey's chief law enforcement officer and as a prosecutor at both the local and federal levels. He has the ideal combination of experience, values, and leadership ability to helm the Enforcement Division at this critical time. I look forward to working closely with him to protect investors and root out wrongdoing in our markets."

"I thank Melissa Hodgman for her service as the Enforcement Division's Acting Director," Chair Gensler added....

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Neovest Inc., a provider of an order and execution management system (OEMS) that facilitates electronic trading, has agreed to pay a $2.75 million penalty for its failure to register as a broker-dealer in violation of the federal securities laws.  This is the SEC’s first case charging an OEMS provider for operating as an unregistered broker-dealer. 

According to the SEC’s order, Neovest, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co., operates an OEMS that allows customers to route orders for stocks and options to more than 360 customer-selected destination brokers for execution.  The SEC’s order finds that prior to being acquired by JPMorgan Chase, Neovest engaged in this activity through its registered broker-dealer, Neovest Trading Inc.  The order finds that although Neovest withdrew its broker-dealer registration after it was acquired, it continued to operate the OEMS as an unregistered...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Neovest Inc., a provider of an order and execution management system (OEMS) that facilitates electronic trading, has agreed to pay a $2.75 million penalty for its failure to register as a broker-dealer in violation of the federal securities laws.  This is the SEC’s first case charging an OEMS provider for operating as an unregistered broker-dealer. 

According to the SEC’s order, Neovest, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co., operates an OEMS that allows customers to route orders for stocks and options to more than 360 customer-selected destination brokers for execution.  The SEC’s order finds that prior to being acquired by JPMorgan Chase, Neovest engaged in this activity through its registered broker-dealer, Neovest Trading Inc.  The order finds that although Neovest withdrew its broker-dealer registration after it was acquired, it continued to operate the OEMS as an unregistered...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has obtained an asset freeze and other emergency relief, and filed fraud charges, against a Miami-based investment professional and two investment firms for engaging in an alleged “cherry-picking” scheme in which they channeled millions of dollars in trading profits to preferred accounts.

According to the SEC’s complaint filed under seal on June 10 in federal court in the Southern District of Florida and unsealed today, defendants Ramiro Jose Sugranes, UCB Financial Advisers Inc., and UCB Financial Services Limited engaged in a scheme since at least September 2015 to divert profitable trades to two accounts believed to be held by Sugranes’ relatives and saddle other clients with losing trades. The defendants allegedly used a single account to place trades without specifying the intended recipients of the securities at the time they placed the trades. As alleged, after the defendants established a position, if...

Thank you, Jean, for that kind introduction and for your question. Before I answer, as is customary, I’d like to note that my views are my own, and I am not speaking on behalf of my fellow Commissioners or the staff.

Your question is particularly relevant for this audience. I welcome the opportunity to share some thoughts on executive stock ownership and the means by which insiders — CFOs, other executives, directors, and senior officers — sell shares in the companies with which they’re affiliated.

The core issue, as this audience knows, is that these insiders regularly have material information that the public doesn’t have.

When I started out in finance, the accepted practice was that such insiders would limit their transactions to what was known, then and now, as open trading windows: limited periods of time following quarterly earnings announcements and other major company disclosures.

About 20 years ago, the SEC further addressed this issue in...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced insider trading charges against a Silicon Valley trading ring whose members generated nearly $1.7 million in illegal profits and losses avoided by trading on the confidential earnings information of two local technology companies. 

According to the SEC’s complaint, Nathaniel Brown, who served as the revenue recognition manager for Infinera Corporation, repeatedly tipped Infinera’s unannounced quarterly earnings and financial performance to his best friend, Benjamin Wylam, from April 2016 until Brown left the company in November 2017.  The SEC’s complaint alleges that Wylam, a high school teacher and bookmaker, traded on this information and also tipped Naveen Sood, who owed Wylam a six-figure gambling debt.  Sood allegedly traded on this information and tipped his three friends Marcus Bannon, Matthew Rauch, and Naresh Ramaiya, each of whom also illegally traded on the information. ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced insider trading charges against a Silicon Valley trading ring whose members generated nearly $1.7 million in illegal profits and losses avoided by trading on the confidential earnings information of two local technology companies. 

According to the SEC’s complaint, Nathaniel Brown, who served as the revenue recognition manager for Infinera Corporation, repeatedly tipped Infinera’s unannounced quarterly earnings and financial performance to his best friend, Benjamin Wylam, from April 2016 until Brown left the company in November 2017.  The SEC’s complaint alleges that Wylam, a high school teacher and bookmaker, traded on this information and also tipped Naveen Sood, who owed Wylam a six-figure gambling debt.  Sood allegedly traded on this information and tipped his three friends Marcus Bannon, Matthew Rauch, and Naresh Ramaiya, each of whom also illegally traded on the information. ...

Thank you. I’d like to discuss the transition from the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).

I’d also like to talk about Hans Christian Andersen and Warren Buffet. Now you might be wondering why I’m thinking about these two men — born 125 years and an ocean apart — in the context of LIBOR. I’ll get to that in a minute.

LIBOR came together in the early 1970s so that banks could make loans with floating rates. The question was, what rate would they reference?

By the 1980s, they had coalesced around the idea of using the unsecured rate at which banks in London loaned to each other.

Over the years, LIBOR got to be so popular that it was embedded in hundreds of trillions of dollars of financial contracts around the world. Loans, derivatives, mortgages, and even supplier arrangements referenced LIBOR.

And yet, there was a problem. In good times, there was very little lending of unsecured term loans between banks — in London, or anywhere else for...

Thank you. I am honored to be here rejoining the Financial Stability Oversight Council meeting, today for the first time as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. I believe in this Council’s mission to identify and respond to financial stability risks and to better promote market discipline. Financial stability is also a part of my remit as Chair of the SEC. 

Last spring, we witnessed system-wide issues affecting critical parts of our short-term funding markets, including money market funds, commercial paper, and the treasury repo markets. We also saw challenges in the treasury repo markets in the fall of 2019.

Let me turn to money market funds, which are an important part of our markets and source of wholesale funding for many issuers. The SEC sought to address structural issues in these funds in reforms adopted in 2010 and 2014. Based on the events of last spring, the SEC, this Council, and the President’s Working Group have engaged in a review...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced awards of approximately $13 million and $10 million to two whistleblowers whose information and assistance led to successful SEC and related actions. 

The whistleblowers’ substantial assistance, provided to the SEC and another federal agency, included submitting information and documents, participating in interviews, and identifying key individuals who engaged in the misconduct at issue.

“The whistleblowers’ information and assistance led to multiple successful enforcement actions related to a complex and fraudulent scheme involving multiple individuals and tens of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains,” said Emily Pasquinelli, Acting Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower. “Today’s awards demonstrate the SEC’s continuing commitment to making awards to individuals who provide high-quality information that assists the SEC and other government agencies in bringing successful enforcement...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Alex Oh has resigned her position as Director of the Division of Enforcement for personal reasons. Melissa Hodgman will return to the role of Acting Director of the Division of Enforcement.

"Melissa is an exceptional attorney who has proven to be an effective leader of the Enforcement Division. I’m grateful that she will take on this role again and look forward to working closely with her to fulfill the mission of the SEC," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. "I thank Alex for her willingness to serve the country at this important time."

Ms. Hodgman served as the Enforcement Division's Acting Director from January 2021, through April 2021. Before that, she was the Associate Director in the SEC's Home Office since October 2016. Ms. Hodgman began working in the Enforcement Division in 2008 as a staff attorney. She joined the Market Abuse Unit in 2010 and was promoted to Assistant Director in 2012....