Admissions of Guilt to the SEC under Chair Jay Clayton

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission settles the overwhelming majority of its enforcement actions, most with consent decrees where the defendant “neither admits nor denies” wrongdoing.^[1] The SEC has publicly defended its use of “neither admit nor deny” settlements, arguing they: (1) reduce the time and resources required to litigate a case, (2) expedite recovery for defrauded investors, and (3) protect defrauded investors by reducing the risk that the SEC will lose at trial.^[2] As John Coffee recently noted, “[e]very few years, the issue is certain to be raised: Why does the SEC persist in ‘neither admit nor deny’ settlements, which allow an issuer to avoid acknowledging any misconduct?”^[3]

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