Securities Litigation

Last week, the D.C. Circuit held that the SEC can’t prosecute the same conduct as both willful and as negligent under the tandem sections found in most of the nation’s securities laws.  The ruling prevents the SEC from piling on an additional negligence-based offense as some sort of “lesser included offense” in enforcement actions.

The SEC brought an administrative enforcement action against the Texas-based Robare Group and its officers for inadequate disclosure of a revenue-sharing agreement with Fidelity over certain funds on Fidelity’s platform.  The firm’s ADV ...