ASA Applauds Florida District Court Ruling Against SEC's Failure to Disclose Off-Channel Communication Fine Calculations

WASHINGTON – The American Securities Association (ASA) today applauded a Middle District of Florida court ruling in favor of ASA's lawsuit challenging the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) refusal to produce documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) related to how the agency calculated off-channel communication administrative fines for regulated entities.

“We are pleased that a federal court in Florida agreed with the ASA about the SEC playing fast and loose with information that should have been made available to the public,” said ASA President and CEO Chris Iacovella. “The government used its vast power to disproportionately impose billions of dollars in fines on registered entities for administrative violations and then refused to disclose how those fines were calculated. This abuse of government power is an affront to the disclosure rights guaranteed to Americans by Congress, and the court's decision affirms that.”

The court put it well: “accepting duplicity, gamesmanship, neglect, insouciance, or worse from an agency of the United States and denies a party forced to undergo the agency's administrative process the benefit of orderly, disciplined, accountable, and forthcoming participation by the United States. This singular leniency is, to say the least, inexplicable, unseemly, and unfair. The evasion deployed in the circumstance is, or should be, an acute embarrassment to the United States, both to the agency and to the judiciary.... Any other litigant might be embarrassed, but in litigation the government never blushes."

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The American Securities Association (ASA) represents the retail and institutional capital markets interests of regional financial services firms who provide Main Street businesses with access to capital and advise hardworking Americans how to create and preserve wealth. ASA’s mission is to promote trust and confidence among investors, facilitate capital formation, and support efficient and competitively balanced capital markets. This mission advances financial independence, stimulates job creation, and increases prosperity. The ASA has a geographically diverse membership of almost one hundred members that spans the Heartland, Southwest, Southeast, Atlantic, and Pacific Northwest regions of the United States.