Gary Gensler is Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This post is based on his recent remarks. The views expressed in this post are those of Chair Gensler, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Securities and Exchange Commission or its staff.
I am pleased to join you at the 2023 Securities Enforcement Forum. As is customary, I’d like to note that my views are my own as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and I am not speaking on behalf of my fellow Commissioners or the SEC staff.
When I spoke with you two years ago, I shared what the SEC’s first chair, Joseph Kennedy, said in his first speech: “The Commission will make war without quarter on any who sell securities by fraud or misrepresentation.”[1]
In a subsequent speech, just four months later, Kennedy emphasized: “We are not prosecutors of honest business, nor defenders of crookedness. We are partners of honest business and prosecutors of dishonesty. We shall not prejudge, but we shall investigate.”[2]
These words remain just as true today.
I am appearing here today in front of an audience of lawyers, accountants, and compliance officials. While you serve your clients, you also have a responsibility to the law and to the public.
William O. Douglas—before serving as the SEC’s third chair and a Supreme Court Justice—once said to an audience of lawyers: “Service to the client has been the slogan of our profession. And it has been observed so religiously that service to the public has...
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