U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fines and investor relief doubled to $17.9 billion in the 2025 fiscal year, a surge bolstered by enforcement actions at the end of the Biden administration that likely won't continue as priorities shift under President Donald Trump.
The Wall Street watchdog levied $7.2 billion in civil penalties and ordered a return of $10.8 billion in illegal profits in the year ended Sept. 30, the SEC said in a report published Tuesday. That's up from $2.1 billion in civil fines and $6.1 billion of disgorgements a year earlier.
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, tapped by Trump to helm the agency, said in a statement that over the past year the SEC has redirected resources to combat "fraud, market manipulation and abuses of trust — and away from approaches that prioritized volume and record-setting penalties over true investor protection."
Tuesday's report includes results from the final months of former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler's tenure, when the agency announced so many fines and lawsuits it put out an unusual press release touting record enforcement actions for October through December 2024, the first quarter of fiscal 2025.
According to an SEC statement, the numbers were inflated by the prior administration's attempts to "pursue media headlines and run up the numbers."
The SEC claimed the previous administration focused on "an unprecedented rush to bring a significant number of cases in advance of the presidential inauguration and the aggressive pursuit of novel legal theories under the prior Commission."
The report criticized some of SEC's prior enforcement actions, including penalizing firms for off-channel communications and suing cryptocurrency companies.
The SEC typically releases enforcement results in the fall, soon after the close of the fiscal year. Atkins had come under fire from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren about the delay in releasing the agency's statistics.
The SEC's enforcement actions have plunged during the second Trump administration, as have the size of the penalties levied on firms and individuals, according to a report from Cornerstone Research.
The agency's enforcement division's leadership is also in flux. Former director Margaret "Meg" Ryan quit in March after about six months on the job, giving no reason for her resignation. The acting head of the unit later in March said the agency would focus on "quality over quantity."
Courtesy photo: SEC building
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