Corporate and white-collar defendants wondering what the cost of settling a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action is these days should take note—it isn't cheap.

That's according to the latest research by NERA Economic Consulting, which shows that the median value of SEC settlements for both companies and individuals in 2009 could match or outpace 2008 levels.

Through the first half of the year, the SEC settled with 335 defendants, compared with 330 during the same period last year, NERA reports. The Commission settled with 160 defendants in the second quarter of 2009, compared to 175 in the previous quarter and 174 in the second quarter of 2008.

Two of the three largest settlements in the quarter, American Skandia Investment Services ($68 million) and UK-based hedge fund advisor Headstart Advisers Ltd. ($17 million) related to market-timing allegations. Other allegations among the 10 largest settlements in the second quarter were insider trading, public company mis-statements, microcap fraud, investment manager fraud, and bribery of foreign officials, according to the second-quarter update on SEC settlement trends.

Sixty-two percent of company settlements and 57 percent of individual settlements involved monetary payments, authors Jan Larsen and Elaine Buckberg note.

Among companies whose settlement included a monetary payment, the average settlement was $6.6 million, a decrease from the $12.8 million average in the first quarter. However, the average through the first half of 2009 was $10.1 million, driven largely by two huge settlements early in the year. That's an increase over the full-year average of $8.4 million in 2008.

The median company settlement was $1.6 million during the second quarter, off slightly from $1.7 million in the first quarter. However, if the 2009 median remains at $1.6 million through the rest of the year, the report notes that it will be the highest median value in any year since the passage of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Post-SOX, the highest median company settlement was $1.5 million in both 2005 and 2006, according to NERA's 2008 settlement data. Last year's median company settlement was $1.3 million.

The average company settlement declined more sharply in the second quarter of 2009, largely due to the two settlements of over $100 million in the first quarter: the $200-million UBS settlement and the $177-million Halliburton settlement. The largest settlement in the second quarter was $68 million (American Skandia Investment Services).

The average settlement with individual defendants was $1.6 million in the second quarter, an increase from $0.7 million in the first quarter, while the median settlement for individuals was $0.2 million in the second quarter, compared to $0.1 million in the first quarter. The median individual settlement for all of 2008 was $0.1 million, as it has been in every year since SOX.

In 2008, the SEC settled with 672 defendants in all-515 individuals and 157 companies—the second lowest in any full year since the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, according to previous NERA research.

Meanwhile, the authors note that, though the outcome of plans to seek expanded SEC enforcement powers and proposed regulatory reforms that may affect the agency's powers remain to be seen, the new regulatory landscape "will doubtlessly affect future SEC enforcement actions and their resolutions."

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