Supreme Court Appears "Skeptical," With "Little Enthusiasm" for Challenge to SEC’s Disgorgement Power

Justices Appear Skeptical of Challenge to SEC’s Disgorgement Power, but Press Feds on Where the Money Goes

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday appeared unwilling to block the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from forcing white collar defendants to disgorge ill-gotten gains in cases where regulators can’t identify a victim.

The high court hearing marked at least the third time, in the past decade, that the justices have considered SEC disgorgement orders, which are one of the agency’s primary enforcement tools. The last time the issue went before the justices, in 2020, the majority ruled in a decision penned by Justice Sonia Sotomayor that disgorgement orders are an equitable form of relief that must be “for the benefit of investors.”

Daniel Geyser, a Haynes and Boone partner, argued that the SEC’s $2.2 million disgorgement order against his client, Ongkaruck Sripetch, a Los Angeles resident, wasn’t equitable at all, as the agency hadn’t identified any investor harmed by Sripetch. Sripetch admitted to securities fraud in connection with a scheme to artificially inflate penny stocks.

“My friend says we’re trying to make it as difficult as possible to get funds to victims. That is not our goal. Our goal is to simply delineate between penalties and disgorgement,” Geyser said.

If the government wanted to punish Sripetch, they could seek civil penalties and “deprive us of every penny,” Geyser said.

The insider trading suspicions looming over Trump’s presidency

Throughout US President Donald Trump’s second term in office, traders have been betting millions of dollars just before he makes major announcements.
The BBC has examined trade volume data on several financial markets and matched them to some of the president’s most significant market-moving statements.

It found a consistent pattern of spikes just hours, or sometimes minutes, before a social media post or media interview was made public.

Some analysts say it bears the hallmarks of illegal insider trading, whereby bets are made by people based on information that is not available to the general public.

Others say the picture is more complicated and that some traders have become more adept at anticipating the president’s interventions.

Here are five of the most significant examples.

First Half of FY26 SEC Enforcement Activity: New Evidence of a Continued Slowdown

According to a new Brattle report, SEC enforcement activity remained subdued in the first half of fiscal year 2026, continuing the decline that began in late FY25. With just 92 enforcement actions filed, activity in H1 FY26 stands well below historical norms and ranks among the lowest first-half levels observed in recent years.

The analysis builds on the SEC’s recently released FY25 results and examines how enforcement trends are evolving in FY26. In addition to overall activity levels, the report highlights a continued emphasis on individual respondents and shifts in the mix of allegation types, alongside a relatively elevated share of cases involving parallel criminal indictments.

No More Suing: SEC Chair Paul Atkins Swaps Lawsuits for ‘ACT’ Strategy

Appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box nearly a year into his tenure, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins looked like a man who finally found the keys to a house that had been locked from the inside for years. He promised a “new day” at the agency, and if his blueprint is any indication, the SEC is trading its litigation-first boxing gloves for a more sophisticated set of tools designed to actually help markets function.

Atkins distilled his vision into a three-letter acronym that even a distracted day trader can remember: ACT. That stands for Advance, Clarify, and Transform. It is a sharp pivot from the Biden administration, which seemed to prefer “Sue, Silence, and Stagnate” as its unofficial motto.