15 U.S.C. 78u(d)(3):
(A) Authority of commission.-Whenever it shall appear to the Commission that any person has violated any provision of this chapter, the rules or regulations thereunder, or a cease-and-desist order entered by the Commission pursuant to section 78u–3 of this title, other than by committing a violation subject to a penalty pursuant to section 78u–1 of this title, the Commission may bring an action in a United States district court to seek, and the court shall have jurisdiction to impose, upon a proper showing, a civil penalty to be paid by the person who committed such violation.
B. ... (ii) Second tier.-Notwithstanding clause (i), the amount of penalty for each such violation shall not exceed the greater of (I) $50,000 for a natural person or $250,000 for any other person, or (II) the gross amount of pecuniary gain to such defendant as a result of the violation, if the violation described in subparagraph (A) involved fraud, deceit, manipulation, or deliberate or reckless disregard of a regulatory requirement.
(iii) Third tier.-Notwithstanding clauses (i) and (ii), the amount of penalty for each such violation shall not exceed the greater of (I) $100,000 for a natural person or $500,000 for any other person, or (II) the gross amount of pecuniary gain to such defendant as a result of the violation, if-
(aa) the violation described in subparagraph (A) involved fraud, deceit, manipulation, or deliberate or reckless disregard of a regulatory requirement; and
(bb) such violation directly or indirectly resulted in substantial losses or created a significant risk of substantial losses to other persons.
is the issue. (A) establishes authority, (B) limits that authority. So the defendant can be nailed to the wall for violations, but what if there weren't substantial losses and no created significant risk of substantial losses to other persons? Just from the statutory text that both establishes the committee's authority and delimits it. (And if SCOTUS undercuts prior awards, that will create a judicial mess.)
Then there are the precedents which could seriously change the current interpretation but I'm not going to wander through them because life is short and cats are demanding food. (Plus, I can't find some of the references in the table of authorities. 15 U.S.C. 78u(d)(3), sure. But 15 U.S.C. 78u(d)(5) & (7) elude me, and
https://uscode.house.gov/ .)
All the rest is the "legislation" as made by reporters and commentators and how we interpret that news-source "legislation". If you don't know what the law says then saying how the interpretation of the law is good or bad is basically personal-values and outcome based. In a democracy of 340 million people, no written law = thousdands or millions of federal mini- and private-democracies.
= new reply since forum marked as read
