SEC enforcement hits record $8.2 billion for fiscal year 2024

The SEC’s 583 enforcement actions in fiscal year 2024 obtained a record $8.2 billion in financial remedies — the highest amount in agency history, the securities regulator said.

The financial remedies consisted of $6.1 billion in disgorgement and prejudgment interest, another agency record, and $2.1 billion in civil penalties, the second-highest amount on record, according to an SEC news release from Nov. 22.

“The Division of Enforcement is a steadfast cop on the beat, following the facts and the law wherever they lead to hold wrongdoers accountable,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in the news release. “As demonstrated by this year’s results, the division helps promote the integrity of our capital markets to benefit investors and issuers alike.”

While the SEC hit an all-time record for its financial remedies, the agency’s 583 enforcement actions in fiscal year 2024 represent a 26% decline from total enforcement actions in fiscal year 2023, when the SEC filed more than 780, the agency said.

About 56% of the fiscal year’s financial remedies is “attributable to a monetary judgment obtained following the SEC’s jury trial win against Terraform Labs and Do Kwon, who were charged with one of the largest securities frauds in U.S. history,” the news release said. In June, Terraform Labs, a now defunct cryptocurrency firm, and its co-founder Do Kwon agreed to pay more than $4.5 billion to the SEC.

Crypto advocates and insiders have often criticized Gensler for the agency’s approach to crypto during his tenure as chair, calling it a “regulation by enforcement” approach.

Gensler, who will leave the agency come Jan. 20, said in a speech Nov. 14 that his approach to crypto “didn’t actually differ much” from that of former SEC Chair Jay Clayton, who served as chair during the first Trump administration.

Clayton “had already brought some 80 actions in the crypto field” during his tenure from May 2017 to Dec. 2020, Gensler said, and “the SEC has continued that vigilance, not just under (his) leadership, but when I’ve been there.”

In the last full fiscal year, 18% of the SEC’s tips, complaints and referrals were related to crypto, though crypto markets make up of less than 1% of the U.S. capital markets, the agency said in a Nov. 21 news release announcing Gensler’s departure.

Regardless of whoever replaces Gensler, it’s likely that the SEC under a second Trump administration would take a step back from crypto enforcement, sources said.