Disgorgement in Insider Trading Cases: FY2005-FY2015

17 Pages Posted: 18 Apr 2018

See all articles by Verity Winship

Verity Winship

University of Illinois College of Law

Date Written: April 11, 2018

Abstract

For about 50 years – at least since Texas Gulf Sulphur – the SEC has ordered defendants to disgorge their profits from transactions that violated the securities laws. Despite disgorgement’s long history, in its 2017 opinion in Kokesh v. SEC, the US Supreme Court put two aspects of the remedy on the table. It applied a five-year statute of limitations to disgorgement. It also reopened old questions about agencies’ power to seek remedies not specified in statute. This article provides data to inform these debates over the agency’s use of disgorgement and the effects of Kokesh. It reports the results of an empirical study of ten years of the remedies ordered by the SEC in insider trading actions, with particular emphasis on the agency’s reliance on disgorgement. It finds widespread reliance on disgorgement, but also identifies aspects of its use that may limit Kokesh’s effects in this area.

Keywords: SEC,securities,insider trading,disgorgement,penalties,Kokesh,Texas Gulf Sulphur,Supreme Court,enforcement

JEL Classification: K1, K22, K42

Suggested Citation

Winship, Verity, Disgorgement in Insider Trading Cases: FY2005-FY2015 (April 11, 2018). SMU Law Review, Texas Gulf Sulphur 50th Anniversary Special Issue (2018 Forthcoming), University of Illinois College of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 18-16, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3160841

Verity Winship (Contact Author)

University of Illinois College of Law ( email )

504 E. Pennsylvania Avenue
Champaign, IL 61820
United States
217-244-8161 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://law.illinois.edu/faculty-research/faculty-profiles/verity-winship/

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