Given that these preliminary numbers clearly point toward another strong year, it’s curious that the SEC and other agencies were criticized by some in a Wall Street Journal article for levying less in penalties in the first half of the year compared to 2016.
Having spent more than 15 years in the enforcement division of the SEC, I know first-hand that it’s nearly impossible to draw conclusions about the Commission’s broad enforcement agenda by looking at monetary penalties assessed in a six-month vacuum.
via SEC on Track for Record Enforcement Activity in 2017 — CFO.com