The SEC recently announced that Elad Roisman, an SEC commissioner since 2018, has been designated as Acting Chairman of the SEC.
While Roisman’s tenure is likely to be short (due to the upcoming change in Administrations), it is nevertheless interesting to note that the Acting Chair of the SEC has made some notable recent statements relevant to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
For instance, as highlighted in this prior post Roisman has objected to various aspects of several corporate FCPA enforcement actions.
As highlighted in this prior post, Roisman, along with Commissioner Hester Peirce, recently hit an internal controls homerun in voting against an SEC enforcement action. Among other things, Roisman (and Peirce) correctly noted that the FCPA does not require “internal controls,” but “internal accounting controls.” (emphasis in original). The Commissioners further expressed concern that the SEC was “uprooting the core concept of ‘internal accounting controls’ from the language, statutory context, and history of [the FCPA].” (emphasis in original).
Most recently, as highlighted in this prior post, Roisman stated that anti-corruption policy is not within the SEC’s area of expertise nor further the SEC’s mission.
