Commissioner Luis Aguilar joined the SEC in July 2008. In his short time at the SEC, Aguilar has quickly positioned himself as the SEC Commissioner with the strongest interest in enforcement issues. In several speeches over the past eight months, Aguilar has taken strong positions advocating changes in the enforcement program and even being critical of certain SEC policies and practices. In his speech yesterday before the District of Columbia Bar (click here for the full text), Aguilar added to his growing series of speeches focusing on Enforcement issues, and offered several specific actions that he would like the SEC to take in order to “reinvigorate the SEC’s enforcement program.”
Aguilar observed that in his eight month tenure at the Commission, it has become “obvious to him that there are actions that must be undertaken to simultaneously unshackle and empower the SEC Enforcement staff.” These steps go well beyond those that have already been implemented recently, i.e., Chairman Schapiro’s dismantling of the penalty pilot program and her move to permit Commission approval of formal orders by the Duty Officer (previously discussed here).
