SEC’s FY 2023 Enforcement Actions Yield $5 Billion in Fines from Wall Street and Crypto Giants

cryptonews.com:

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that its enforcement actions in fiscal year 2023 resulted in nearly $5 billion in fines and reimbursements to investors. 

In a Tuesday  press release , the agency said it has targeted Wall Street brokerages as well as major players in the cryptocurrency industry with legal action, filing a total of 784 enforcement actions during the year, marking a 3% increase compared to the previous year.

According to the SEC, the total penalties obtained between October 2022 and September 2023 were the second-highest amount recorded. 

“The investing public benefits from the Division of Enforcement’s work as a cop on the beat,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a comment.

“Last fiscal year’s results demonstrate yet again the Division’s effectiveness—working alongside colleagues throughout the agency—in following the facts and the law wherever they lead to hold wrongdoers accountable.”

In fiscal year 2023, the SEC launched multiple enforcement actions against some of the biggest players in the industry. 

For one, the agency initiated a civil case  against Sam Bankman-Fried , co-founder of FTX. 

However, the Department of Justice’s criminal charges against Bankman-Fried have taken precedence over the SEC’s action.

In addition to the case against Bankman-Fried, the SEC filed lawsuits against other major crypto players, including  Binance, its CEO Changpeng Zhao , and  Coinbase .

All three entities have denied any wrongdoing and have requested the dismissal of the regulator’s cases.

Although crypto-related actions garnered attention due to their high-profile nature, they constituted only a fraction of the SEC’s enforcement division’s workload. 

Throughout 2023, the