The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published its enforcement results for fiscal 2026, which ended Sept. 30, reporting 348 actions and USD 1.095 billion in ordered monetary relief. The total comprised USD 752 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and USD 343 million in civil penalties. Of the disgorgement ordered, USD 235 million was deemed satisfied through court orders in separate non-SEC actions, leaving USD 860 million after those offsets. Approximately USD 731 million was returned to more than 250,000 harmed investors. The review also details organizational and procedural changes implemented during the year.
Individual accountability featured in two-thirds of the 235 standalone enforcement actions, which included charges against at least one individual. Retail investor cases addressed Ponzi schemes, offering fraud and misconduct involving shares of private companies before their initial public offerings, including alleged asset misappropriation and undisclosed fees. Market integrity enforcement included 13 trading suspensions involving suspected manipulation of securities issued by companies based in Asia. Cooperation and remediation influenced charging and penalty decisions, with several settlements imposing no civil penalties. By contrast, Western Asset Management received a USD 100 million penalty for failing to take reasonable steps to detect and prevent a cherry-picking scheme despite known differences in trading and allocation practices.
During fiscal 2026, the Division of Enforcement established a Retail Fraud Working Group, whose efforts generated more than a dozen investigations, and a Financial Reporting and Accounting Unit concentrating expertise in accounting fraud and auditor misconduct. A new Office of Super Intelligence and Analytics brought anomaly detection, document review and blockchain analysis into investigative workflows. Updates to the Enforcement Manual standardized the Wells process, allowed simultaneous consideration of settlement recommendations and related waiver requests, and explained how cooperation affects civil penalties. The SEC also rescinded the rule requiring defendants or respondents entering settlements that impose sanctions to agree not to publicly deny the allegations. Annual reviews of the manual are planned.