Siris v. SEC

After petitioner settled a suit in which the Commission filed a civil complaint against him for committing various securities law violations, petitioner agreed in a consent judgment that he would not contest the allegations of the civil complaint in any related administrative proceeding before the Commission. The Commission then commenced a follow-on proceeding against petitioner to determine whether a remedial sanction was in the public interest and ordered that petitioner be permanently barred from the securities industry and from participating in any offering of penny stock. Petitioner sought vacatur of the Commission's order pursuant to Blinder, Robinson & Co. v. SEC. In Blinder, the court emphasized that, in a follow-on sanctions proceeding, the Commission must abide by a "clear distinction" between the district court's determination of a petitioner's liability under the securities laws and evidence about the circumstances surrounding his misconduct. The court concluded that the Commission considered the relevant record, including petitioner's evidence of the circumstances surrounding his misconduct that did not, in effect, seek to challenge the allegations of the complaint. Accordingly, the court deferred to the Commission's choice of sanction and denied the petition for review. View "Siris v. SEC" on Justia Law