Bruce Carton

Watching developments in the Level Global insider trading case — which fell apart after the Second Circuit’s landmark decision in Newman resulted in the conviction of its co-founder and another defendant being overturned — feels like watching a movie rewind.

The SEC’s website, SEC.gov, is one of the federal government’s busiest websites, reportedly serving up more than 562 million page views every month. Earlier this month, Accenture Federal Services announced that the SEC has awarded it a $17.9 million contract to modernize and “create an improved user experience” for users of SEC.gov. Specifically, SEC.gov will be improved with new visuals and approaches that make it more flexible and easier to navigate. It will also gain enhanced document management capabilities and social media integration.

Image: It took over five years, but we finally have a success story in the “professional whistleblower” area. The SEC has awarded more than $700,000 to an industry expert (a company outsider) who conducted a detailed analysis that led to a successful SEC enforcement action. Sean McKessy, chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, said the award “demonstrates the Commission’s commitment to awarding those who voluntarily provide independent analysis as well as independent knowledge of securities law violations to the agency.”

I always try to warn people not to get themselves thrown in prison by obstructing justice in SEC investigations. No really, I do! They just don’t listen.

A new report offers some interesting angles on the SEC’s enforcement actions against public companies since 2010. Among other things, the report shows that since FY 2010, SEC enforcement has undergone a “dramatic shift” in its choice of venue for bringing cases against public company defendants, with a significant move toward administrative proceedings.

The SEC announced today that it has settled its high-profile lawsuit against hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen, founder of SAC Capital. Under the Order resolving the case, Cohen will be prohibited from supervising funds that manage outside money until 2018.

Today, NPR’s Planet Money posted an interesting interview with former KPMG Partner Scott London about his insider trading ordeal, the famous “envelope of cash” photo, and why London ever agreed to become involved in the insider trading scheme in the first place.

Image: Former U.S. Rep. Michael G. Oxley, co-author of the landmark Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), died Jan. 1, 2016, at age 71. SOX was enacted July 30, 2002, in response to a series of massive accounting scandals involving public companies such as Enron and Worldcom. In March 2012, Oxley sat for an interview for the SEC’s Historical Society’s Oral History Project, recounting the tumultuous events leading up to its passage.

As it similarly did at the end of 2014, the SEC announced “Top 10” lists this week for the most popular search terms and news releases on the SEC website (SEC.gov) in 2015.