Duka v. SEC Redux - SEC Holds Home Court Advantage for Another Round

April 23, 2015  |  The Insider: White Collar Defense and Securities Enforcement

Defendants widely view the SEC’s administrative courts as an unfavorable venue to square off against the SEC’s own enforcement staff. Accordingly, as the SEC has recently channeled enforcement proceedings away from the federal courts to its “home” courts, a number of defendants have brought federal court challenges attacking the administrative proceedings on a variety of grounds. Many such challenges have failed to reach the merits, as courts have accepted SEC arguments against the courts’ jurisdiction to interfere with an ongoing agency proceeding and found that defendants are limited to the ordinary post-hearing appellate process to obtain review. In a decision filed last week in Duka v. SEC, Southern District of New York Judge Richard N. Berman ruled that one such challenge seeking to stop an SEC administrative hearing cleared these preliminary hurdles, but ultimately did not make it across the finish line. [...]

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