A key U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement tool may soon be reined in by the U.S. Supreme Court, or so it seemed after the justices heard arguments Tuesday in the case of a New Mexico investment adviser convicted of fraud over more than two decades.
Before the court was Kokesh v. SEC, which zeroes in on the SEC’s use of “disgorgement”—ordering fraudsters to cough up their ill-gotten gains. The government has raked in billions of dollars through disgorgement—$2.8 billion in 2016 alone—with a portion going to the victims.
