David Woodcock (the new Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement) recently delivered this speech.
Woodcock stated that his goals are “to return the enforcement program back to basics” with an “emphasis on quality over quantity.”
Whether Woodcock’s speech was relevant to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (part of the securities laws after all) is your call.
Off the rails FCPA enforcement by the SEC has been highlighted on these pages for years.
In pertinent part, Woodcock stated:
“I want to share a bit about how I intend to lead the Division.
Simply put, my role is to ensure that our staff are empowered, supported, and equipped to execute the Commission’s mission. I intend to provide hands-on leadership that allows our teams to focus on the fundamentals – the blocking and tackling if you will, with professionalism, efficiency, and fairness. In doing so, I am committed to ensuring the Division remains the global gold standard in securities law enforcement.
As a matter of first principles, my goals are aligned to those of Chairman Atkins: to return the enforcement program back to basics. That means vigorously protecting investors and safeguarding markets, while also providing transparency and certainty to those we regulate.
A quick aside, there has been considerable attention paid to the decline in the number of cases brought over the last several years. Let me be clear: this Commission has deliberately shifted toward an emphasis on quality over quantity, and I fully support that direction.
Our focus is, and will remain, on protecting investors and safeguarding markets from real harm. That means identifying and stopping fraud and manipulation in all its forms—for instance, offering frauds, accounting and disclosure fraud, insider trading, market manipulation, fraud by foreign actors targeting U.S. markets and investors, and breaches of fiduciary duties by advisers misusing client assets.
These are the types of cases contemplated when the Division was created, and these are the cases the Division intends to pursue aggressively during my tenure.”
