If you can get away with securities fraud for five years, you are home free.
The Supreme Court ruled today that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission only has five years from the commission of the alleged fraud to sue. It can’t discover an alleged fraud five years after the fact and then sue.
Click here to read more from the Associated Press.
Securities fraud is a complicated offense – whether it’s the ol’ pump and dump, insider trading, or your basic failure to disclose material facts – and perpetrators hide in that complexity. The SEC, which is understaffed and overloaded with securities fraud cases already, can count this as an additional challenge.
You can bet that somewhere out there are fraudsters breathing signs of relief.
