The Securities and Exchange Commission announced its enforcement results for fiscal year 2025, which ended on September 30, 2025. During that period, the Commission filed 456 enforcement actions—including 303 standalone cases and 69 follow-on administrative proceedings—obtaining monetary relief totaling $17.9 billion, including disgorgement and civil penalties. Of the standalone actions, approximately two-thirds involved charges against individual wrongdoers, representing a 27 percent year-over-year increase. The Commission also barred 119 individuals from serving as officers and directors of public companies.
The enforcement results reflect a deliberate strategic pivot by the current Commission leadership away from what it characterized as prior misdirected enforcement priorities. Speaking of the transition, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins stated: "Over the past year, the Commission has put a stop to regulation by enforcement and recentered its enforcement program on the Commission's core mission by prioritizing cases that provide meaningful investor protection and strengthen market integrity." The Chairman further noted the agency "redirected resources toward the types of misconduct that inflict the greatest harm—particularly fraud, market manipulation, and abuses of trust—and away from approaches that prioritized volume and record-setting penalties over true investor protection."
The press release detailed significant adjustments to prior enforcement approaches, particularly regarding off-channel communications and crypto asset cases. According to the release, since fiscal year 2022, the prior Commission brought 95 actions and $2.3 billion in penalties against firms for book-and-record violations related to off-channel communications. The current Commission views these actions as having "identifi[ed] no direct investor harm from those violations, [and produced] no investor benefit or protection." With respect to crypto enforcement, the Commission dismissed seven enforcement actions brought by the prior Commission in phases throughout early 2025, including cases against Coinbase, Binance Holdings Limited, and Consensys Software Inc.
After excluding certain amounts—including disgorgement deemed satisfied by parallel court orders and judgments against Robert Allen Stanford—the monetary relief obtained in fiscal year 2025 totaled $1.4 billion in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and $1.3 billion in civil penalties. The Commission returned approximately $262 million to harmed investors and awarded approximately $60 million to 48 individual whistleblowers. The agency also received a record 53,753 tips, complaints, and referrals in fiscal year 2025, nearly 19 percent more than the prior fiscal year.
The press release highlighted several notable enforcement actions targeting retail investors and fraud schemes. Among the actions filed were charges against Paramount Management Group, LLC and its founder Daryl F. Heller concerning a Ponzi scheme that allegedly defrauded approximately 2,700 investors of $400 million; First Liberty Building & Loan, LLC regarding a scheme defrauding 300 investors of more than $140 million; and allegations against Nightingale Properties, LLC founder Elchonon Schwartz concerning the raising of $60 million from approximately 700 retail investors.
The enforcement results also included litigation victories at trial and on summary judgment. In September 2025, a jury found Steven M. Gallagher liable for securities fraud and manipulative trading in SEC v. Gallagher, involving a scheme to manipulate stocks through Twitter that generated illicit profits exceeding $2.6 million. In June 2025, a jury found Thomas F. Casey liable in SEC v. Minuskin for inducing over 200 people to invest more than $10 million in a fraudulent offering targeting retirees. Summary judgment was granted against Matthew Brown in SEC v. Brown and recidivist Marshall Melton in SEC v. Melton.
Going forward, the Commission stated that enforcement priorities will be linked to its core mandate of standing up to fraud, addressing fraudulent and manipulative conduct through appropriate remediation, and repaying investors' losses when harmed. SEC Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda said he "fully support[s] the move away from using enforcement as a tool for policymaking, and the return to the Commission's historical norms," emphasizing that the agency will remain focused on coherent policymaking and wielding enforcement authority "guided by investor protection above all."