SEC Enforcement Report Contains Some Zingers
Traditionally, the SEC Enforcement Division releases its fiscal year (ends on September 30th) enforcement report in the Fall.
Yesterday, the SEC released its enforcement report for FY 2025 and it contains some zingers.
The SEC’s release begins: “Central to an effective enforcement program is determining which cases to bring and responsibly stewarding Commission resources. Regrettably, such resources have been misapplied in prior years to pursue media headlines and run up numbers, and in turn, led to misguided expectations on what constitutes effective enforcement.”
A Focus On SEC Individual Actions
This previous post highlighted various facts and figures from 2025 SEC FCPA enforcement actions against issuers (there was none) as well as historical figures.
This post focuses on SEC FCPA individual actions – both in 2025 and historically.
There were no SEC individual FCPA enforcement actions against individuals in 2025.
However, as highlighted below, 2025 was hardly unique as there was just 2 individual SEC FCPA enforcement against individuals in 2024 and this was preceded by a 4 year gap in SEC individual FCPA enforcement actions.
SEC FCPA Enforcement – 2025 Year In Review
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, it’s not just about the DOJ.
Granted, as a civil enforcement agency the SEC’s sticks are less sharp than the DOJ’s, but the SEC also claims a meaningful piece of the FCPA enforcement pie (query whether it should – but that is a subject for another day – for instance as discussed in “The Story of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act” the SEC wanted no part in enforcing the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions and in recent years an SEC Commissioner stated that anti-corruption policy is not within the SEC’s area of expertise nor further to the SEC’s mission – see here).
This post highlights various facts and figures relevant to SEC corporate FCPA enforcement in 2025.
In short, there are none as there was no corporate FCPA enforcement by the SEC in 2025.
Nevertheless, this post provides some context as well as certain historical data.
SEC Chair Atkins On The Decline In Public Companies
Some people and groups seemingly want more Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement regardless of enforcement theory, resolution vehicle used, or other relevant data points.
For instance, the SEC (compared to the DOJ) has rather limited jurisdiction to enforce the FCPA.
The SEC only has jurisdiction over “issuers” and associated persons (FCPA speak for publicly traded companies or those with reporting obligations to the SEC).
The number of “issuers” has significantly declined in recent years.
In this recent speech, SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated that one of his top priorities as SEC Chair “is to make being a public company an attractive proposition for more firms.”
Gaps In SEC FCPA Enforcement
Much of the discussion this year in the FCPA space has focused on President Trump’s February Executive Order “pausing” DOJ FCPA enforcement.
The “pause” lasted 118 days (during which various aspects of FCPA – and related – enforcement did occur) and ended in June.
Since then, the DOJ has brought a corporate FCPA enforcement action as well as an individual FCPA enforcement action.
The SEC of course has FCPA enforcement powers as well (as to issuers and associated persons). but there has not been any FCPA enforcement actions by the SEC since late December 2024 – a gap of approximately 8 months.