SEC

The avalanche of cases announced Friday included charges against a no-longer registered advisor and firm accused of misappropriating more than $20 million from clients.

Regulators took the wirehouses to task for not having policies directing advisors to consider clients' best interests.

The Malvern, Pennsylvania-based asset manager was dinged by the SEC, which said it made misleading statements to some retirement savers.

The case reflects the extent of industry efforts — and failures to enforce — guidelines such as customer identification programs.

Regulators have handed down more than $3 billion in penalties over employees' alleged failures to record business-related messages sent on services like WhatsApp.

Regulators accused the online brokerage of failing to accurately report trades, comply with short selling rules and maintain proper books and records, among other things.

Lawsuits before the Supreme Court and in lower federal courts across the country could further reduce enforcement powers at the IRS and the SEC this year.

Michael and David Sztrom, who settled fraud allegations with the SEC in 2022, contend the regulators' "follow on" attempt to boot them from the industry violates their constitutional rights.

The SEC should amend the regulation in order to help workers who can't afford to wait for an IPO to access the value of their equity.

Industry watchdogs stayed busy trying to root out elder fraud and off-channel communications while plaintiffs lawyers' questioned firms' sweeps policies and regulators' basic authority.