In 2013, Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor, announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission would adopt a strategy once championed by Rudolph W. Giuliani in New York: “Broken windows,” the idea that addressing relatively small issues like vandalized panes of glass can deter larger misdeeds down the road.

So over the next few years, the SEC pursued dozens of cases for small, technical transgressions with the goal of scaring off bigger infractions.

Now, data shows that during the first months of the Trump administration, the agency may be scaling back those efforts.

SEC penalties fell 15.5 percent to $3.5 billion this fiscal year compared to 2016, according to data compiled by Georgetown University law professor Urska Velikonja. The SEC filed 62 enforcement actions against public companies and their subsidiaries in fiscal 2017, a 33 percent decline from the previous year, according to another study by the New York University Pollack Center for Law & Business and Cornerstone Research.

The reports may reflect little more than a pause as leadership transitioned from White to Jay Clayton, who took over in May. The decline also coincides with a slowdown in government hiring.


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