Reduced Enforcement Activity by SEC but "Foreign Companies Should Remain Vigilant"

SEC Enforcement Actions Decline, But Foreign Cos. Should Remain Vigilant

While the agency’s shifting priorities and reduced enforcement activity might be welcomed by many companies, there are signs that at least one category of companies in particular should remain vigilant. According to a November 14, 2025, Law360 article from the Cooley law firm (here), there are signs based on recent SEC activity that foreign companies participating in the U.S. capital markets “should anticipate heightened SEC oversight and enforcement in coming years.

”In support of its thesis that foreign companies may experience increased scrutiny, the Cooley law firm memo cites four recent developments.

We should make insider trading a thing of the past

Hence why academics led by Henry Manne have long argued that allowing insiders to trade on material information moves prices towards their fundamental value more quickly — which is better for all. It reduces the mispricing borne by uninformed investors and improves capital allocation to boot.

“You want more insider trading, not less,” said economist Milton Friedman in 2002 for precisely this reason. Others such as researcher Frank Easterbrook argue for treating non-public information as an asset with property rights that a company should be able to allocate as it pleases. Sell to the highest bidder or let shareholders decide the price. […]

Legalisation of insider trading therefore requires absolute transparency — either in the form of real-time corporate reporting (which we’re light years away from) or the mandatory disclosure of everyone’s trades. Making job titles public would be a bonus. […]

Insider trading laws are not fit for purpose. They never have been. But we now have the technology to make the dissemination of information fairer for everyone.

Pelosi’s stock trades launched a multimillion dollar company

Nancy Pelosi may be retiring, but Autopilot — the app that helped make her an iconic stock trader by tracking her investments — is just getting started.

It now has $1 billion under management and three million downloads — and it just raised $8 million to grow the company and expand its physical presence from San Francisco to New York City.

“Our mission is the same… it’s to find the best investors and showcase them all in an effort to bring more transparency to the broader institutions,” Chris Josephs, the 30-year-old founder of Autopilot and the Pelosi Tracker on social media, told me. […]

Despite Pelosi’s departure from Washington, D.C., Josephs is not intending to change the name of his popular social media account — @pelositracker — for the next few years. He sees it as sort of an homage to the woman who started it all.

But, he admits, “It’s kind of the end of an era … you’re losing the queen.”

Autopilot will no longer follow Pelosi’s trades once she retires at the end of her term in January, and the company will roll over the roughly $500 million people have bet following her trades into what the company is calling a “general insider trading’ portfolio. It will track the top politicians in her wake, such as Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

‘My retirement is completely in bitcoin’: Why don’t more people do what I do?

Dear Quentin,

I’ve managed to acquire one bitcoin. I’m a 51-year-old single woman, and I’m a fully signed-up bitcoin follower. Given the volatility, I don’t want to cash it in, as I don’t think the crypto market is “bubblish.” When I first bought bitcoin it was $48,000, and then it fell to $16,000. I bought it at the wrong time, but anyone who has ridden the storm once isn’t worried about this downturn, and they’re buying furiously. My car is a piece of s—, but there’s no way I’m spending any money on anything other than bitcoin. […]

My retirement is completely in bitcoin. That is, I invested in Strategy, a bitcoin treasury company. That’s because of my faith in Strategy CEO Michael Saylor. Strategy buys bitcoin and sells shares of the company. I’m not a bit worried, and I would lose lots of money if I sold today. When I bought bitcoin in 2021, I didn’t fully understand it. But I do know it’s not something that should not be traded. Once you understand that, you buy and you hold. If I had money, I’d buy the dip.

… Why don’t more people do what I’m doing? What’s the catch? I don’t see one.

50-Something Bitcoin Fan

Legal AI startup draws new $50 million Blackstone investment, opens law firm

Asset manager Blackstone (BX.N), opens new tab has invested $50 million in Norm Ai, a legal and compliance technology startup that also said on Thursday that it is launching an independent law firm that will offer “AI-native legal services.”

Lawyers at the new New York-based firm, Norm Law LLP, will use Norm Ai’s artificial intelligence technology to do legal work for Blackstone and other financial services clients, said Norm Ai founder and CEO John Nay.

The technology startup says it has created AI agents that help corporate in-house legal and compliance teams automate regulatory reviews…. […]

SEC Focused On Fraud As Actions Markedly Declined In 2025

It should surprise no one that the SEC is bringing fewer cases during this time of transition, staff reductions and new leadership. More than 15 years ago, then-Commissioner Atkins criticized the SEC’s emphasis on statistics on penalties imposed and the number of actions brought, and in 2008, he called for a “re-evaluation of the incentives” for Division of Enforcement staff to bring such actions, which he noted include “promotions, awards, and public recognition.”

His views have not changed. During his Oct. 7 keynote at the A.A. Sommer Jr. lecture, Atkins delivered a similar message:

“If we reward the staff only for bringing enforcement actions, then we have discouraged the staff from determining not to recommend an enforcement action. A basic tenet of management is, “You get what you measure.” The wrong incentives make it more difficult for the staff to follow the evidence and the law wherever it leads and instead encourage the staff to stretch the boundaries of existing law. Our goal is to reward the staff for their quality work and [judgment] on cases to bring, violations to charge, and relief to seek. All of this aligns with the belief that I share with Al Sommer: that the manner in which we achieve outcomes is critical.”

Only nine months into the new administration, it is too early to tell what will define Atkins’ tenure, though we have a sense that he will not stray far from his stated commitment to focus on what has traditionally been considered fraudulent activity.

As we have seen so far, this is not the SEC of 10 months ago. Recordkeeping violations are much less likely to trigger SEC enforcement, but insider trading, fraudulent securities offerings and market manipulation remain a surefire way to end up on the wrong end of an SEC investigation.