2007 SEC Performance & Accountability Report Released

The SEC has released its 2007 Performance and Accountability Report, as well as its 2007 Selected SEC and Market Data.  Both documents provide a wealth of information about the SEC's activities during the past fiscal year and its assessment of its performance.  Among many other things, it reports a total of 656 enforcement actions in FY '07, involving a total of 1449 respondents or defendants and that it has obtained orders requiring securities violators to disgorge illegal profits of about $1.1 billion and another approximately $507 million in penalties.  It also reports a total of approximately $13.8 billion in disgorgements and penalties in SEC enforcement actions from FY '03 through FY '07, more than 75% of which have been collected.  It reports a lower volume of high penalty financial fraud cases in fiscal 07. In SEC-related criminal cases, prosecutors filed indictments, informations or contempts in 144 cases.