Dan O’Connor Speaks to Ignites on SEC Enforcement Issues

Litigation & enforcement partner Dan O’Connor was quoted in two recent articles in Ignites on SEC enforcement. 

Dan, co-lead of the firm’s securities and futures enforcement practice and former senior trial counsel at the SEC, commented in a June 8 article on the Supreme Court’s June 4 decision in Sripetch v. SEC, in which the justices unanimously ruled that the agency could pursue disgorgement without needing to show that investors lost money as a result of the violations. Dan noted that “the SEC has always felt empowered historically" to seek disgorgement, adding that the gap between what the SEC collects and what it returns to investors is a recurring issue for the agency.

In a June 9 article, Dan weighed in on the SEC’s nearly $2 million settlement with a registered investment advisor and its former chief executive. Dan commented on whether the three conflicts of interest the RIA failed to disclose met the materiality threshold, adding that the conduct occupies "an unusual space between a conventional personal trading/code of ethics matter and a more traditional market manipulation period.”

Ignites is an FT Specialist publication that covers news and analysis on mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), variable annuities, retirement plans, and 529 plans.