On March 4, Acting Chair Allison Herren Lee announced the creation of a “Climate and ESG Task Force” of 22 members from across the Enforcement Division:
Consistent with increasing investor focus and reliance on climate and ESG-related disclosure and investment, the Climate and ESG Task Force will develop initiatives to proactively identify ESG-related misconduct. The task force will also coordinate the effective use of Division resources, including through the use of sophisticated data analysis to mine and assess information across registrants, to identify potential ...
Republican-appointee Commissioners Roisman and Peirce issued a statement on February 12 publicly disagreeing with Acting Chair Lee’s recent fiat discontinuing the Enforcement Division’s practice of proposing settlements that are contingent upon the Commission’s approval of waivers for collateral disqualifications arising from the settlement.
The Commission’s actions on enforcement settlements and waiver requests were separate processes until 2019, when the Commission changed its policy to allow them to be considered together. That made sense, because they ...