The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will seek more admissions of wrongdoing from defendants as a condition of settling enforcement cases, the agency’s chairman said. SEC Chairman Mary Jo White said the change in policy would probably apply to cases in which investors were significantly harmed and the alleged fraud was egregious. The former federal prosecutor said last month she was reviewing the practice of settling cases without requiring defendants to admit misconduct. “We are going to in certain cases be seeking admissions going forward,” White said yesterday at a Wall Street Journal CFO Network event in Washington. “To some degree, it can turn on how much harm has been done to investors, how egregious is the fraud. So I think you will see going forward some change in that space.” More on Bloomberg here.
