On May 13, 2026, in Remarks at the MFA Legal & Compliance 2026 Conference, newly appointed Enforcement Division Director David Woodcock discussed his approach to leading the Division. Early in his remarks Director Woodcock stated:
“Simply put, my role is to ensure that our staff are empowered, supported, and equipped to execute the Commission’s mission. I intend to provide hands-on leadership that allows our teams to focus on the fundamentals – the blocking and tackling if you will, with professionalism, efficiency, and fairness.”
He then discussed his overall enforcement philosophy:
“As a matter of first principles, my goals are aligned to those of Chairman Atkins: to return the enforcement program back to basics. That means vigorously protecting investors and safeguarding markets, while also providing transparency and certainty to those we regulate.”
In the next section of his remarks, he discussed several types of fraud and manipulation:
- Offering frauds,
- Accounting and disclosure fraud,
- Insider trading,
- Market manipulation,
- Fraud by foreign actors targeting U.S. markets and investors, and
- Breaches of fiduciary duties by advisers misusing client assets.
In a deeper discussion of accounting and disclosure fraud, he outlined these recent actions with a focus on the individuals involved in each case:
“We are also prioritizing financial reporting matters that are important to ensure good corporate accounting and disclosures. For example in early 2026, we brought actions against a large agricultural processing and commodities trading company and three former executives for allegedly inflating the performance of a key business segment touted as an important growth driver. In another matter, we settled with a manufacturing company that we alleged violated the internal accounting controls and books and records provisions related to false entries in its inventory system and adjustments it made after reversing the improper income from those entries. In addition, we settled with two of the company’s executives for allegedly causing the violations. And in a third case, we settled with a public company and charged three of its former executives with allegedly making repeated false and misleading statements in public filings and financial statements to conceal unfavorable information about the company’s management and operations.”
As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome!