As lawmakers continue to debate whether scammed investors should be able to sue those who help fraudsters pull off their schemes—outside counsel, investment bankers, accountants and the like—a new government report provides extensive analysis on the potential costs and benefits of amending federal securities laws to allow such lawsuits.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...