Kudos to William McGrath of law firm Porter Wright, who as far as I can tell is the only person on the planet to notice that on June 13, 2011, the SEC made a significant change to its rules concerning witness immunity orders. On that date, the SEC announced that it was amending its rules to delegate authority to the Director of the Division of Enforcement to issue witness immunity orders to compel individuals to give testimony or provide other information.
As McGrath explains, prior to January 2010, when a witness in an SEC investigation asserted a Fifth Amendment right not to testify, "the Enforcement Staff would typically advise the witness that they did not have the authority to compel his or her testimony by granting him or her immunity from prosecution." In January 2010, however, the SEC amended its rules to allow the Enforcement Director to submit witness immunity requests to the Department of Justice to compel testimony or the production of other information by witnesses.
On Monday, the SEC extended the Enforcement Director's authority further so that he may not only submit witness immunity requests to the Department of Justice, but also issue his own orders compelling testimony or the production of other information. The SEC added that it was adopting this amendment for a period of 18 months, after which it will evaluate whether to extend the delegation of authority.
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