The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Tue, 05 May 2026 11:32:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png SEC Settlement Trends – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 SEC Settlement Trends https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/07/15/sec-settlement-trends/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sec-settlement-trends https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/07/15/sec-settlement-trends/#comments Sun, 15 Jul 2012 14:32:43 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/?p=30634?d=20150113141542EST Posted by Elaine Buckberg, NERA Economic Consulting, on Sunday, July 15, 2012
Editor's Note:

Elaine Buckberg is Senior Vice President at NERA Economic Consulting. This post is based on a NERA publication by Ms. Buckberg and James A. Overdahl; the full publication (including charts and footnotes) is available here.

Trends in the Number of Settlements

The SEC’s promise to hold more individuals accountable was realized in 1H12 in a 20% jump in the number of SEC settlements with individuals. The SEC settled 286 cases with individuals in the first half of this year, putting it on pace for 572 settlements in FY12, which would be the most since 2005. This marks a shift from the end of fiscal 2011, when we reported that the SEC’s promise to hold more individuals accountable was borne out in the value, but not in the number, of settlements with individuals.

Total SEC settlements are also up, but the increase is entirely explained by the rise in settlements with individuals. The SEC settled with 379 defendants in 1H12, putting it on pace for 758 settlements in FY12. This would constitute a 13% increase from the SEC’s 670 settlements in 2011 and would constitute the most annual settlements since 2005. The pace of settlements with companies is down slightly, with 93 settlements, consistent with an annual pace of 186, as compared with 196 in FY11.

The increase in individual settlements is driven primarily by allegations relating to insider trading. The increase from 63 insider trading settlements in FY11 to an annualized number of 120 projected for FY12 accounts for over half of the observed increase in settlements in 2012. The SEC also increased its settlement activity with individuals in matters relating to Ponzi schemes. Settlements with individuals relating to public company misstatements rose to an annualized pace of 78 settlements, up from a low of 60 in 2011, but still well below the 91 settlements in 2010.

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