Big penalties, admissions fuel record SEC enforcement year

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) collected more than $6.4 billion in enforcement penalties, fees, and interest in fiscal year 2022—the largest amount in the agency’s history and a massive increase over a transition year in 2021.

Civil penalties alone in FY2022, which ended Sept. 30, totaled almost $4.2 billion—also a record, the SEC said in its report accompanying Tuesday’s announcement. Disgorgement, at $2.2 billion, decreased by 6 percent year-over-year.

In FY2021, the agency netted more than $3.8 billion total in penalties, interest, and disgorgement. That year saw the appointment of a new chair in Gary Gensler, who named Gurbir Grewal to lead enforcement efforts in June 2021.