Among five financial services bills passed by the House of Representatives yesterday was the "Investor Protection and Capital Markets Fairness Act" (H.R. 4344) that would substantially strengthen the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to recover the wrongful gains of securities law violators for investors, Investment News reported. The bill was introduced by Rep. Ben McAdams (D-Utah) and passed by a vote of 314-95. A recent Supreme Court decision, Kokesh v. SEC, capped the SEC's look back at five years. The bipartisan Investor Protection and Capital Markets Fairness Act would apply a 14-year statute of limitations for the SEC to seek so-called disgorgement, or the return of ill-gotten gains. The House legislation also would prevent disgorgement from being defined as "a civil fine, penalty or forfeiture." Defining it in one of those categories would limit the timeframe and monetary amount of disgorgement. Read more.
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