Senior SEC Enforcement Official Antonia Apps to Depart Agency Dec. 1, 2025

Deputy Director of Enforcement Antonia M. Apps to Conclude Her Tenure at the SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Antonia M. Apps, Deputy Director of the Division of Enforcement (Northeast), will conclude her tenure with the agency effective Dec. 1, 2025. […]

Ms. Apps served as Regional Director of the New York Regional Office from January 2023 through January 2025. In this role, she oversaw an office of over 600 attorneys, accountants, investigators, securities compliance examiners and others, and led the examination and enforcement programs for the New York region. Under Ms. Apps’ leadership, the New York Office brought more stand-alone enforcement actions and completed more examinations than any other office in the country, and hired more staff in a two-year period than were hired in any previous two-year period in the history of the New York office. With her support, the New York office also engaged in more investor education and outreach events than ever before.

In January 2025, Ms. Apps was appointed Acting Deputy Director of the Division of Enforcement and, subsequently, Deputy Director of Enforcement (Northeast), helping to lead the Division of Enforcement on a national level.

Before joining the SEC as Regional Director in 2023, Ms. Apps was a litigation partner at Milbank LLP, where she represented clients in high-stakes criminal, regulatory, and complex civil matters. She previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the Southern District of New York, where she investigated and prosecuted high-profile securities fraud and other white-collar cases.

UK billionaire Joe Lewis receives pardon from President Trump

Billionaire UK businessman Joe Lewis, whose family trust owns Tottenham Hotspur football club, has received a pardon from US President Donald Trump.

Lewis, 88, pleaded guilty to insider trading as part of an agreement with prosecutors in 2024 that saw him avoid prison.

He was accused of passing on information about his companies to his private pilots, friends, personal assistants and romantic partners in a fraud that authorities said netted millions of dollars in profit.

A White House official said Trump approved the pardon for Lewis, who requested it so he could receive medical treatment and visit his grandchildren and great grandchildren in the US.

“Mr Lewis admitted he made a terrible mistake, did not fight extradition in the case, and paid a $5 million fine,” the official told the BBC.

How Apollo, Soros and others spotted red flags at First Brands

Apollo took a hit in 2019 from the collapse of Vari-Form, a chassis and roof rail maker to which its private credit funds had lent more than $130mn.

But rather than taking the loss and moving on, the ordeal gave rise to a new trade idea for the $840bn-in-assets private capital firm. Apollo last year began shorting the debt of a larger business owned by Vari-Form’s sole shareholder, Patrick James: First Brands.

While Apollo was one of the few Wall Street firms to profit from the First Brands debacle, a larger cohort including the family office of investor George Soros identified red flags around James’s sprawling empire and avoided losses by refusing to lend or cutting their exposure.

Robinhood Joining with GoPuff on Cash Home Delivery

Robinhood Markets is betting its Gen Z and millennial clientele are as eager to send out for delivery of a wad of cash as they are to order pizza or a pint of ice cream.

The brokerage is joining with food-and-drink delivery app Gopuff to allow customers to withdraw cash from their Robinhood bank accounts and have it brought right to their door. For a $6.99 delivery fee—or $2.99 if they have more than $100,000 in assets across their Robinhood accounts—users can skip the ATM and have money delivered in a sealed paper bag while they are at home.

‘Big Short’ investor Michael Burry deregisters Scion hedge fund amid bets against AI titans

Michael Burry, the investor whose successful bets against the US housing market in 2008 were recounted in the movie “The Big Short,” is closing his hedge fund, Scion Asset Management.

In a letter to investors dated Oct. 27, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Burry said he would liquidate the funds and return capital, “but for a small audit/tax holdback” by the end of the year. A person directly familiar with the matter confirmed the contents of the letter.

“My estimation of value in securities is not now, and has not been for some time, in sync with the markets,” Burry said in the letter.

AI Litigation, Enforcement, and Compliance Risk: Q4 2025 Regulatory Update

The Current Regulatory Landscape

The regulatory environment has entered an implementation phase. Federal agencies are advancing the Trump administration’s pro-growth priorities but continue to use existing authorities to address AI-related disclosure, governance, and consumer-protection issues. The SEC’s new task force and DOJ guidance to prosecutors both signal continued focus on how companies describe and govern their AI systems. At the state level, legislatures are advancing frameworks that address requirements related to automated decision-making and generative AI disclosures. In the past six months, multiple cases were brought by DOJ, the SEC, and the FTC related to AI washing and AI fraud. Abroad, the EU AI Act’s initial obligations took effect in August, and regulators in Brazil, China, Japan, Singapore, and the UAE are introducing complementary measures that collectively establish a more defined global baseline for AI oversight.