RM Warren questions Paul Atkins, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair, at Oversight Hearing

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So the SEC is supposed to be the cop on the beat, enforce our securities laws, but Chair Atkins, you've been rolling back investor protections just at a record flip. Meanwhile, there are just as many corporate crooks as ever, who knows, maybe more. Those are the crooks who are cooking the books, defrauding investors, engaging in insider trading. But under your watch, the SEC doesn't seem interested in enforcing our laws against corporate crime. So I'm looking at the data here, and over the past year, the SEC has brought fewer new enforcement actions than at any point in the last decade. Do I have that right? I'm not sure what data you're looking at, because we actually haven't released our data yet, but I would disagree with you. I'm looking at public data securities offerings, for example, down 10.64% in 2025 from 2024. Investment advisors, enforcements, down 23.71%. Issuer reporting, auditing, and accounting, down 32.65%. Broker dealer, down 29.51%. Do you have any reason to believe those data wrongs all come from publicly reported data? Again, I'm not sure what you're looking at, but we will release our numbers. Let's look at individual cases, then. The SEC has dropped one case after another, even for convicted fraudsters who broke the law. So there's Devin Archer, the guy who sold $60 million in worthless bonds to pension holders. You turned him loose. Carlos Watson, who raked in tens of millions of dollars by lying to investors about his company's financial performance. You turned him loose. And Trevor Milton, who drew in hundreds of millions of dollars by defrauding investors in his company. You turned him loose after he donated $1.8 million to a Trump campaign fund. Three different ways to cheat investors, but there's one thing that all three have in common. Mr. Atkins did each of these corporate executives who defrauded American investors first get clemency from President Trump, and then, as the cherry on top of the whipped cream, got all the SEC charges and investigations against them dropped. Well, each one of those cases had particular aspects to them. Well, I'm sure they had particular aspects, but the part I raised is, did they all get clemency from President Trump, and then the SEC backed off and stopped all of its independent investigations and charges? Is that accurate? Well, there is always the issue. If the President has pardoned someone or given clemency, then it becomes very difficult to push for a case. You still have civil actions against them. We do, but it becomes very- But you dropped them all. Is that right? I just want to make sure. We withdrew. Look, yes, you withdrew. These fraudsters stole millions of dollars from their investors. They were convicted of crimes. But after Trump granted them clemency, SEC fell in line and dropped its pending cases against them too. It's part of a broader pattern. Just look at the crypto companies that donated a whopping $85 million to President Trump's inauguration. They may have scammed investors and consumers, but once Trump was sworn in, the SEC started dropping these cases like hot potatoes. Kraken donated a million dollars, case dismissed. Coinbase, a million dollars, case dismissed. Gemini donates a million dollars, case dismissed. Binance, a UAE company, gave the Trump family's stable coin a huge boost in a $2 billion deal, case against finance, dismissed. As a recent independent investigation found, and I'm going to quote it, the SEC no longer actively pursues any cases against firms with known Trump ties. The agency backtracked in investigating every firm that has relationships with the Trump family's crypto business or has donated to Mr. Trump's political causes. Chair Atkins, help me out here. Prove the outside investigators wrong. List the cases the SEC is still actively pursuing against crypto companies that have made big donations to Donald Trump or Trump businesses. Your premise, again, I think is wrong. I'm not sure what that is. Name the cases that you are actively pursuing against people or against these giant crypto companies that have made huge contributions to Donald Trump. Are there any? Can you name one? I don't know. I'll pan. I can't say which ones have cases. The ones that we've dropped were on just one. You know, I just have to say here, when these swindlers crash our economy and pull down retirees' pension funds, it's going to be hard-working Americans who pay the price. Billionaires over families. That's the Trump family.