This month, the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced enforcement results for fiscal year 2025, noting that the Commission filed 456 enforcement actions and obtained orders for monetary relief totaling $17.9 billion. In comparison to the prior year, those numbers represent a substantial drop in the number of enforcement actions filed (22% fewer than in 2024, when the Commission filed 583 actions), but a significantly higher total amount of relief ordered than the $8.2 billion recovered in 2024.
Of the $17.9 billion in relief ordered in 2025, $10.8 billion was for disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and prejudgment interest and $7.2 billion was for civil penalties. Notably, however, approximately $14.9 billion of this relief derived from judgments obtained in the Commission’s action against Robert Allen Stanford, who was convicted of running a decades-long $8 billion Ponzi scheme. The Commission also announced that in 2025 it returned approximately $262 million to harmed investors.
The actions filed by the Enforcement Division in 2025 fall into several categories: protecting retail investors, holding individual wrongdoers accountable, combating securities fraud across borders, safeguarding markets from abusive trading, and enforcing the federal securities laws in the context of emerging technologies, including crypto assets. The Commission’s announcement also stated that the Commission’s enforcement priorities differed from those of the previous administration. “Over the past year, the Commission has …recentered its enforcement program on the Commission’s core mission by prioritizing cases that provide meaningful investor protection and strengthen market integrity,” said SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins. “We have redirected resources toward the types of misconduct that inflict the greatest harm—particularly fraud, market manipulation, and abuses of trust,” said Atkins, commenting on the Commission’s enforcement priorities . “A key part of this course correction is a renewed emphasis on holding individual wrongdoers accountable, which promotes stronger deterrence and better safeguards [for] investors.” The Commission stressed that enforcement priorities going forward will include standing up to fraud and the market participants engaged in the misconduct, addressing the fraud through appropriate remediation, and repaying investors’ losses when harmed.
The Commission received a record 53,753 whistleblower tips, complaints, and referrals (TCRs), almost 19 percent more than in the fiscal year 2024. The Commission awarded nearly $60 million to 48 individual whistleblowers, granting awards in 31 Covered Actions and received about 27,000 whistleblower tips in fiscal year 2025, up from roughly 24,980 tips in fiscal year 2024. Among the rewards was a $12 million SEC whistleblower award that went to joint whistleblowers for their “significant information and extensive ongoing assistance” and an award of more than $4.5 million awarded to joint whistleblowers for bringing misrepresentations concerning their employer’s investment project.
Whistleblowers with inside information are often the most credible sources to assist the SEC in detecting securities fraud. The SEC’s Whistleblower Program provides monetary incentives, employment protections, and confidentiality (including the ability to report anonymously through counsel) to those that report violations of federal securities laws. An SEC whistleblower may receive a reward if the Commission or a court orders more than $1 million in sanctions as a result of the whistleblower’s information. SEC whistleblower claims that have been filed with the SEC make a range of allegations, including accounting fraud, mispricing of stock, insider trading, money laundering, cryptocurrency fraud, Ponzi or pyramid schemes, theft or misuse of securities, market manipulation, and potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
If you know of possible violations of securities laws and would like to speak to an experienced whistleblower attorney, contact Phillips & Cohen for a confidential review of your case.
Phillips & Cohen is the most successful law firm representing whistleblowers, with recoveries from cases totaling over $13 billion. Phillips & Cohen clients have received 26 awards under the SEC and CFTC whistleblower reward programs created by the Dodd-Frank statute. P&C’s roster includes the former first head of the SEC Office of the Whistleblower, Sean McKessy, the former Director of the Whistleblower Office of the CFTC, Christopher Ehrman, the attorney with the most awards under these Dodd-Frank whistleblower awards programs, Erika Kelton, and numerous attorneys with decades of experience representing whistleblowers under the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Programs and other whistleblower programs.