Adam Aderton and A. Kristina Littman are Partners, and Erik Holmvik is an Associate, at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. This post is based on their Willkie memorandum.
The 2024 fiscal year (“FY24”) for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) concluded with a deluge of year-end actions. Over the past year, we saw increased use of enforcement sweeps, significant changes in administrative law doctrine, and a continued willingness by the SEC to advance novel theories, often in litigated actions. In this alert, we analyze these key themes from FY24 and summarize several notable actions from August and September, including:
- An Exchange Act settlement indicating tolerance of trading BTC and ETH;
- An enforcement action against a former FTX auditor;
- A director charged for undisclosed conflicts of interest;
- The first custody rule action against a crypto-focused investment adviser;
- An action against a prominent asset manager arising from longstanding disclosure failures;
- An action arising from an adviser’s obtaining MNPI through an ad hoc creditors committee;
- An enforcement action against the operator of a crypto lending product; and
- The approval of a PCAOB rule amendment lowering scienter thresholds for associated person liability.
