The Evolution and 2020 Status of Cooperation in SEC Enforcement Investigations

When facing potential enforcement action from the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), companies often seek to mitigate the consequences by cooperating with the SEC in one or more of the following ways: self-policing, self-reporting, remediation, and cooperation. While a 2001 SEC re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Business Lawyer 2020-09, Vol.75 (4), p.2427-2465
Main Authors: Johnson, Dixie L, Lawrence, Carmen J, Stinson, Jamie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amnesties
Anniversaries
Commercial law
Companies
Cooperation
Corruption
Cost control
Disclosure
Enforcement
Exceptions
Investigations
Polls & surveys
Public companies
Remedies
SEC 33
Securities fraud
Self report
Violations
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Summary:When facing potential enforcement action from the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), companies often seek to mitigate the consequences by cooperating with the SEC in one or more of the following ways: self-policing, self-reporting, remediation, and cooperation. While a 2001 SEC report of investigation known as the Seaboard Report provides a roadmap for what steps to take in order to earn cooperation credit and describes generally the potential benefits to be received, no such report or guidance exists that details exactly what tangible benefits a company will receive in return for the earned credit and how it will be determined. In addition, outside of narrow exceptions where the SEC engages in self-reporting initiatives, companies looking for publicly available guidance on how best to cooperate face a lack of consistency in the SEC's settlement documentation describing cooperation factors and what benefits may be earned.
ISSN:0007-6899
2164-1838