Report: No Bias Found in SEC Hearings So Far

In June 2015, the SEC responded to an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal (May 6, 2015, "SEC Wins With In-House Judges") that reported on the SEC's 90% success rate from October 2010 through March 2015 in contested administrative proceedings (as compared to a 69% success rate against defendants in federal court during the same period).

The article noted that Judge Cameron Elliot, in particular, "has found all of the 28 defendants who came before him in contested cases liable on at least some of the charges the SEC enforcement arm had brought against them," and included an allegation of bias from former ALJ Lillian McEwen. Judge McEwen told the WSJ that during her time as an ALJ, the SEC's chief ALJ Brenda Murray "questioned my loyalty to...