DD Support Board and Research Team

[1manband]

The SEC, and other Federal Agencies, have been embroiled in a legal issue over the appointment process of their Administrative Law Judges.

Long story short, the SEC suspended all decisions made by the ALJ's for months while the issue was studied. The SEC believes they have now fixed the issue by re-appointing all their ALJ's differently (although the legal basis is being challenged and arguments were just heard by the Supreme Court. As of now, the Court seems to agree with the argument that the ALJ's need to be appointed differently, but indicated they would not require previous decisions to be overturned. Stay tuned......).

http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2018-04-23/supreme-court-wrestles-with-administrative-law-judge-case

While the process of reappointment was going on, the SEC suspended all decisions that had not yet been ratified and reopened them to the defendants to submit new documentation challenging the ALJ's decisions. Some defendants did so, but most did not. That included all pending revocations.

In these specific cases, the defendants did not submit new evidence, and therefore the prior revocations of their securities has now been ratified. BUT, that doesn't mean the final revocation will be made quickly. The SEC seems to be hedging their bets at the moment. I know of many other similar cases that were reconsidered under the same circumstances, and although their revocations have now been ratified by the ALJ after the time to reconsider expired, the revocations have not yet been made final. The shares still trade, indefinitely. They may be waiting for the SCOTUS decision before they make them final.