SEC Repays 1% of Funds to Investors

Since 2002, defrauded investors have received only about 1% of the billions of dollars collected for them by securities regulators, congressional auditors have found.

Congress’ Government Accountability Office, in a report released Monday, said the Securities and Exchange Commission has taken in more than $4.8 billion in civil fines and restitution in settlements with companies and individuals during that period. However, the SEC has distributed to the entitled shareholders only about $60 million from three of the 75 cases in question, the report found.

Under the landmark anti-fraud law enacted in response to the corporate scandals of 2002, the money is mandated to go to the Federal Account for Investor Restitution, known as the Fair Fund. The agency does not earn interest from the fund.

“I am deeply troubled by the difficulties the [SEC] has encountered in expeditiously returning these funds to American investors,” said Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-Pa.), who released the report with Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). “While the Fair Fund may never be a substitute for private litigation, the SEC needs to find ways to turn the Fair Fund into a more effective mechanism for returning funds to wronged investors, given the limitations of the law and the difficulties of identifying those injured by securities fraud.”

The report found that the SEC has faced difficulties in identifying injured investors and returning money to them, especially in cases involving fraud by public companies. It is generally easier to identify harmed investors in cases involving brokerage firms, the auditors noted.

SEC Enforcement Director Linda Chatman Thomsen told the accountability office auditors in a letter that the agency was developing a system to better monitor and manage the money to be distributed to investors.

The SEC agrees with the auditors’ findings and “we are working diligently to strengthen our program,” Thomsen wrote in the Aug. 19 letter.