This file contains 2,158 enforcement actions initiated by the Securities and Exchange Commission from May 18, 2015, to Sept. 30, 2018 — a period covering the final 88 weeks of the Obama administration and the first 88 weeks of the Trump administration.
See: The story and the full methodology;
The file contains the following fields:
id: A unique identification for cases
case_id: A code that corresponds to the case announcement on the S.E.C. Web site
url: A url for the case filing that will lead to either a litigation release for civil cases, an administrative filing or a press release. Note that the S.E.C. sometimes announces multiple cases with one filing.
defendant: The primary defendant in the case, though there are often more named in the actual complaint.
date_filed: The date the action was launched, which is not always the same as the date it was announced.
admin: Flags whether the case was filed when Barack Obama was president or when Donald J. Trump was in office.
fy: The S.E.C. fiscal year runs from October through September.
case_type: Whether the S.E.C went to civil court, or brought the action as an administrative proceding.
category: Cases categorized as they are by the S.E.C. in annual enforcement reports.
fs: Denotes whether a case was simultaneously filed and settled. Many big cases are handled this way and it allows for filtering out contested cases.
pending: Cases are marked pending if at least one defendant has not had charges resolved.
is_a_bank: This field designates if one or more defendants in a case are registered as a bank. See full methodology for more on this.
is_public: This field shows whether one or more defendants in a case is a U.S.-traded public company. Penny-stock firms and others with less than $300 million market capitalization are excluded.
large_cap: This shows whether one or more defendants is a "Large Cap" company, with a market capitalization of at least $10 billion.
amount: This is the amount of disgorgement, interest and penalty ordered paid as a result of the S.E.C. action. It excludes money ordered but waived by the S.E.C. due to related actions in criminal cases, lawsuits and international investigations.
full_amount: This is the total of all money ordered paid as a result of the S.E.C. action. This is the figure commonly used by the agency.
The data was compiled by Robert Gebeloff, Sylvia Carnham O'Regan, Gilda DiCarli and Daniela Porat. Please contact Mr. Gebeloff with questions and comments.