Replies to post #191080 on DD Support Board and Research Team

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The SEC is 'short-staffed' and it needs more help to tackle everything from crypto to China, Gensler says
PUBLISHED WED, SEP 15 2021 10:41 AM EDT
UPDATED WED, SEP 15 2021 3:44 PM EDT
Thomas Franck
@TOMWFRANCK
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KEY POINTS
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler says Wall Street's top regulator is trying to juggle an long list of challenges with a smaller staff.
Gensler said his team is spread thin investigating fraudulent China-linked companies, managing those looking to enter public markets and monitoring cryptocurrencies.
"We are short-staffed," Gensler told CNBC. "I'd like to at least get back to where we were in 2016 and I think we should probably be 5% or 10% larger than that."


Thousands of American institutions are struggling to keep business running smoothly with limited staff in the Covid-19 era.

That includes Wall Street's top regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Chairman Gary Gensler said Wednesday that the SEC is trying to juggle an unprecedented list of financial challenges with a smaller staff.

"We are short-staffed," Gensler told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "It might sound odd to say that at an agency with 4,400 remarkable, dedicated staff working remotely during this challenging pandemic. But that's 4% to 5% less than we had just five years ago."

"We've got an IPO boom, we have a SPAC boom, we have cryptocurrencies to deal with. We have the issues we talked about earlier about China," he added. "I'd like to at least get back to where we were in 2016 and I think we should probably be 5% or 10% larger than that."

Gensler, who took over as SEC chief earlier this year, testified before Senate lawmakers on Tuesday that he needs "a lot more people" to deal with some 6,000 new digital assets. He said that the regulator is trying to balance an investor's liberty to spend their own money with decades-old laws that require the SEC find fraud in a broad range of assets.

"Investors get to decide what to invest in as long as companies make full and fair disclosures. In those laws, there is a very broad definition of what is a security," he said. "Cryptocurrencies have come along, I think the laws are clear – the case law, the Supreme Court's weighed in on this multiple times – that many of these tokens do come under the securities law."


SEC regulators are parsing through reams of new cryptocurrencies and digital assets to determine which qualify as securities under U.S. law and are subject to the agency's oversight.

Gensler said his team is spread thin investigating fraudulent China-linked companies, managing those looking to enter public markets and determining whether the SEC needs to crack down on payment for order flow.

Gensler's appeals for a bigger staff – and budget – mirror more urgent pleas from the Internal Revenue Service, the division of the Treasury Department responsible for collecting federal taxes.

Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Mark Mazur told lawmakers in June that budget cuts have left the department unable to prosecute tax evasion and other fraud through regular audits.

Budget reductions at the IRS forced it to cut 33,378 full-time positions between fiscal 2010 and 2020, including a significant number of taxpayer service and enforcement personnel.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/09/15/sec-chair-gensler-says-regulator-is-short-staffed.html

[samsamsamiam]

Amazing the number of promoters that still insist some here on this very board work for CDEL. Used to be we were NITE minions. Now it’s CDEL. Crazy stuff.

[samsamsamiam]

SEC Surpasses $1 Billion in Awards to Whistleblowers with Two Awards Totaling $114 Million
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2021-177
Washington D.C., Sept. 15, 2021 —
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced awards of approximately $110 million and $4 million to two whistleblowers whose information and assistance led to successful SEC and related actions. With these awards, the SEC's whistleblower program has now paid more than $1 billion in awards to 207 whistleblowers, including over $500 million in fiscal year 2021 alone. The $110 million award stands as the second-highest award in the program's history, following the over $114 million whistleblower award the SEC issued in October 2020.

"Today's announcement underscores the important role that whistleblowers play in helping the SEC detect, investigate, and prosecute potential violations of the securities laws," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. "The assistance that whistleblowers provide is crucial to the SEC's ability to enforce the rules of the road for our capital markets."

"The whistleblower program has been instrumental to the success of numerous enforcement actions since it was instituted a decade ago," said SEC Director of Division of Enforcement Gurbir S. Grewal. "We hope that today's announcement encourages whistleblowers to continue to come forward with credible information about potential violations of the securities laws."

The first whistleblower's $110 million award consists of an approximately $40 million award in connection with an SEC case and an approximately $70 million award arising out of related actions by another agency. The first whistleblower provided significant independent analysis that substantially advanced the SEC's and the other agency's investigations. The second whistleblower voluntarily provided original information that led to the successful enforcement action, but this information was provided to the SEC after the staff had opened an investigation and undertaken significant investigative steps, and was much more limited as compared to the information and assistance provided by the first whistleblower.

"Whistleblowers can play an extraordinary role in helping the SEC ferret out wrongdoing," said Emily Pasquinelli, Acting Chief of the SEC's Office of the Whistleblower. "Whistleblowers may provide critical information based on their own independent analysis that facilitates the SEC's investigation and the successful resolution of the enforcement action."

The SEC has awarded approximately $1 billion to 207 individuals since issuing its first award in 2012. All payments are made out of an investor protection fund established by Congress that is financed entirely through monetary sanctions paid to the SEC by securities law violators. No money has been taken or withheld from harmed investors to pay whistleblower awards. Whistleblowers may be eligible for an award when they voluntarily provide the SEC with original, timely, and credible information that leads to a successful enforcement action. Whistleblower awards can range from 10-30% of the money collected when the monetary sanctions exceed $1 million.

As set forth in the Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC protects the confidentiality of whistleblowers and does not disclose any information that could reveal a whistleblower's identity.

For more information about the whistleblower program and how to report a tip, visit www.sec.gov/whistleblower.