On November 18, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) released its Enforcement Results for fiscal year (“FY”) 2021, which spans from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021. The Commission published its results in an abbreviated press-release format with an accompanying addendum, foregoing the more formal annual report format it used in prior years. Gurbir S. Grewal, who was appointed Director of the Commission’s Division of Enforcement (the “Division”) in July 2021, emphasized a commitment to innovation. Grewal stated the Division brought “a number of critically important and first-of-their-kind enforcement actions,” and accomplished “record-breaking achievements” for its whistleblower program. This blog post will review some of the key takeaways, as well as offer predictions for enforcement trends in FY 2022.

Enforcement Statistics

The report revealed mixed numerical trends. Although the Division brought fewer total enforcement actions, it nevertheless collected a sizeable amount of money in penalties and generously rewarded whistleblowers. In FY 2021, the Commission filed 434 new enforcement actions of 697 total enforcement actions. New enforcement actions increased by 7% from FY 2020, but the total number of enforcement actions decreased by 3%. In fact, the addendum indicates that FY 2021 brought about the lowest number of total enforcement actions in the past five years. Additionally, while judgments and orders for disgorgements decreased by...

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