With more than 130 highly trained enforcement accountants at his disposal, Matthew Jacques, the Chief Accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), provided a firsthand glimpse into current enforcement objectives for policing accounting and auditor misconduct. Mr. Jacques was a featured panelist at the Securities Docket annual conference at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, October 23,…
2020 is not just an election year; it is also a year where regulators are signaling their intent to continue to increase their focus on big data and the privacy of personally identifiable information (PII). The recent announcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) that it will focus on registered advisers’ use…
The Commission is also analyzing “big data” to identify patterns of suspected insider trading. During a panel at the Securities Enforcement Forum 2019 on October 23, 2019, presented by Securities Docket, in Washington, D.C., Joseph Brenner, Chief Counsel of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, stated that 20% of the Commission’s insider trading cases are generated through data analysis by the Market…
The SEC has never been more effective at detecting and investigating insider trading than it is today. Recent actions against senior lawyers in large, well-known companies suggest that insider trading by in-house lawyers may be on the rise. If true, this could have reputational and possible legal implications for legal departments and the companies they serve. In early May 2019,…
The SEC has continued to pursue a number of insider trading cases this year, both large-scale and small. Some of those matters involved trades that yielded relatively small amounts of profits: $40,000-$60,000. Why does the enforcement division spend resources on these smaller cases? First, they serve as a reminder that violations can be identified, even if trades are relatively small.…
Why it matters: Data analytics, used by the SEC to find suspicious trading patterns, has in recent years become a formidable weapon in the SEC’s arsenal to combat insider trading and other fraudulent trading schemes. Two recent SEC enforcement actions, where the SEC specifically credited the use of data analytics to “crack the case,” bear this out. via SEC—Data Analytics Key…
Last fall, the agency reported a record number of enforcement cases. Former SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White attributed the increase to its use of data to “uncover tough cases” and bring “novel and significant actions” to enhance investor protection. It’s an effort that has been underway for several years and has involved hiring personnel with expertise in data science and…
“More than ever, the SEC is developing in-house innovative analytical tools to take advantage of todays data-rich environment,” said White, who took the helm of the SEC in 2013 but will leave at the end of President Barack Obamas term. “The result is that the number of cases we are able to originate in-house has risen dramatically.” In each of…
When plumber Gary Pusey pleaded guilty in May to insider trading, it was a victory not just for New York prosecutors but for a little-known squad inside the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that uses data analysis to spot unusual trading patterns. Formed in 2010, the Analysis and Detection Center of the SEC’s Market Abuse Unit culls through billions of…