SEC Enforcement Division Director Gurbir S. Grewal will leave the agency later this month. Divisional deputy director Sanjay Wadhwa will step in to serve as acting director of enforcement.
Chairman Appointed Gary Gensler Grewal as chief enforcement officer in June 2021 (he was too named as one of WealthManagement.com Ten to watch in 2022). During his tenure, the enforcement division has authorized more than 2,400 “enforcement cases,” resulting in more than $20 billion in disgorgement and penalties. Grewal is leaving the SEC to join a private practice, according to Reuters.
In a statement announcing his departure, which will take place on October 11, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said the commission was “extremely fortunate” that Grewal chose to join the agency.
“Every day, he has thought about how best to protect investors and help market participants comply with our time-tested securities laws,” Gensler said. “He has led a division that has acted without fear or favor, following the facts and the law wherever they lead.”
Grewal defended staff in the enforcement division, saying they had done everything to protect investors despite facing “many challenges over the last three years”.
“Their expertise, professionalism and dedication are truly unparalleled and it has been the privilege of a lifetime to call them colleagues,” he said.
Grewal was Gensler's second choice for the position after his first choice, Alex Ohresigned days after taking the job when a federal judge questioned her conduct in a case in her private practice career.
Prior to joining the commission, Grewal served as New Jersey's Attorney General, a position he has held since 2018. He also served as the Bergen County District Attorney and was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in New Jersey (where was head of the Economic Crimes Unit), as well as an Assistant US Attorney in the Eastern District of New York.
The commission highlighted Grewal's leadership in bringing more than 100 actions “addressing widespread noncompliance” in the crypto space. Under Grewal, the SEC also brought its first enforcement actions regarding for best interest violations of the Regulation and the first charges related to the updated marketing rule in August AND September 2023.
Under Grewal, the commission prioritized record-keeping requirements, particularly regarding off-channel communications such as text messages and WhatsApp.
In September 2022, the commission fined some of the biggest firms in the industry more than 1.1 billion dollars to settle allegations of “widespread and prolonged failures” by firms overseeing representatives' business communications on WhatsApp and other off-channel platforms (defendants included Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and UBS).
The division has brought numerous actions related to these years; last Augustmore than two dozen firms (including Raymond James and LPL) agreed to pay more than $392 million in fines to settle similar charges.
Grewal's acting replacement, Sanjay Wadhwa, joined the enforcement division as a staff attorney in 2003. Sam Waldon will take over from Wadhwa as acting deputy director for the division; he is currently the Chief Counsel of the Enforcement Division.