December 23, 2014

SEC Boasts Record Wins but Powerful Execs Remain at Large

Top regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission have been taking victory laps for having scored a record 755 enforcement cases in the fiscal year that ended September 30. Enforcement chief Andrew J. Ceresney said in a press release that the agency was holding wrongdoers accountable.

But it’s enlightening to see which wrongdoers he’s talking about, because the SEC has been under fire for wimping out when it comes to going after individuals.

In a telephone interview, Ceresney told me that 70 percent of the agency’s cases in 2014 were against individuals. Bet you didn’t know that. Dig deeper into the cases, though, and you find this result: Only 15 were against national or international institutions. Of those, only four named individuals.

Here’s my story for TheStreet.com.