The FCPA’s books and records and internal control provisions require issuers (generally FCPA speak for publicly-traded companies) to: (i) “make and keep books, records, and accounts, which, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the issuer;” and (ii) devise and maintain a system of internal accounting controls sufficient to provide reasonable assurances that (among other things) transactions are executed in accordance with management’s general or specific authorization, transactions are recorded as necessary to maintain accountability of assets, and access to assets is permitted only in accordance with management’s general or specific authorization.
The SEC enforces these provisions against issuers – often in expansive ways.
The SEC, of course, is not an issuer, but every so often it is interesting to spend a few moments in “hypothetical land.” (See this prior post). What if the SEC were an issuer?
Relevant to this question, last week the SEC announced – using the bland headline “Commission Statement Relating to Certain Administrative Adjudications” – in pertinent part as follows:
