Today in the Supreme Court: Oral Arguments on Limiting the SEC's Disgorgement Power

Supreme Court Weighs New Curbs on SEC Disgorgement Power

Three times over the past decade, the US Supreme Court has cut the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ability to extract millions of dollars from alleged wrongdoers.

Critics of the commission say it’s not enough. In arguments Monday they are asking the justices to put new limits on “disgorgement,” one of the SEC’s most potent enforcement tools, designed to recoup illicit profits and return them to victims.

The dispute will shape a panoply of SEC cases in which victims aren’t easy to pinpoint, from low-profile record-keeping violations to major insider trading allegations. The SEC used disgorgement to secure orders for more than $6 billion in fiscal 2024 and almost $11 billion last year.

Inside the rise of wrench attacks against crypto holders and how France has become the focus

France is facing a rise in crypto-related kidnappings as so-called “wrench attacks” become more frequent, brazen and violent.

That shift was visible this week amid the staging of an annual international blockchain and crypto conference. A police motorcade escorted VIP guests to a dinner at the Palace of Versailles. And security was also notably reinforced at the Carrousel du Louver, where the conference was taking place.

Wrench attacks in France have put the country so notably under the international spotlight that government officials took the stage at the conference in Paris to acknowledge their alarm at the scale of the problem. They said that this year alone, the country has suffered at least 41 crypto-related kidnappings and home invasions. That’s one every two to three days.

SEC Decries Biden-Era ‘Rush’ as Enforcement Numbers Fall

Dennis Kelleher, president of the SEC watchdog group Better Markets, lambasted the commission’s low enforcement figures, accusing the SEC of abandoning its oversight responsibilities and investor protection mission.

“The SEC’s 2025 enforcement record is a pathetic and indefensible dereliction of duty and its attempt to characterize its failures as success would make George Orwell envious of the agency’s double-talking duplicity,” Kelleher said in a statement.

The SEC in releasing its enforcement results repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s approach.

The SEC under Gensler used resources to “pursue media headlines and run up numbers, and in turn, led to misguided expectations on what constitutes effective enforcement,” the SEC stated.

Marlier, now a partner at Morrison & Foerster, questioned the SEC’s characterization.

“In my experience, there was a pretty robust process for determining whether or not to charge a securities law violation, and the staff and the supervisors were very conscientious about that process, including under the first Trump administration,” said Marlier, who left the SEC in 2020.

How Cybercrime Became a Leading Industry in ‘Scambodia’

A gold-hued skyscraper is rising above the traffic-clogged streets of the capital city on the Mekong River.

The building is already Cambodia’s tallest structure—and a monument to the spoils generated by transnational cybergangs that have stolen billions of dollars from unsuspecting Americans and others worldwide.

The skyscraper is being built by a company under sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department for its alleged connection to one of hundreds of scam operations that have cropped up across Cambodia. Scam compounds, some the size of small towns, have housed enslaved workers doing the grunt work of online scams, posing as love interests, investors or police.

Predominantly Chinese syndicates operating in Cambodia have grown so enormous in scale that some foreign politicians refer to the country of 18 million people as “Scambodia.”