A guide, with live counts from the courts' own feeds
The SEC sued: what happens in a federal enforcement case
When the Securities and Exchange Commission decides that a person or a company has violated the federal securities laws, one of its two routes is a civil lawsuit in U.S. district court, filed by its own lawyers and captioned “Securities and Exchange Commission v.” the people and entities it names. The defendants are founders, brokers, advisers, public companies and the promoters of offerings that turned out not to exist; the readers of the docket are those defendants, the investors who put money in, the counterparties still owed something, and the reporters following the case. This page explains what the Commission can ask a court for, what the first days look like, the deadlines on both sides, and what appears on the docket after filing.
17 new civil enforcement suits brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court between September 21, 2026 and October 6, 2026, across 9 districts, counted from the district courts' own filing feeds.
Already filed? Check your case
Type the number from your papers. The check reads the real docket — the judge, the status and the latest entries — free, with no account and no PACER login.
Free lookupNo account or cardU.S. federal district courts
How the case runs
The complaint, and what the Commission asks for
The Commission may sue in district court whenever it appears that a person is violating, or is about to violate, the securities laws or its rules (15 U.S.C. § 78u(d)(1); 15 U.S.C. § 77t(b)). The complaint asks for an injunction against future violations, civil money penalties set in tiers by statute (15 U.S.C. § 78u(d)(3)), disgorgement of the money obtained by the violation (15 U.S.C. § 78u(d)(5) and (d)(7)), and, where the defendant ran a public company, an order barring them from serving as an officer or director (15 U.S.C. § 78u(d)(2)). Each count names the statute or rule said to have been broken, and the complaint is the Commission’s whole case as filed: nothing in it has been proved yet.
An asset freeze can come the same day
Where money is still moving, the complaint usually arrives with an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order freezing the defendants’ assets, and sometimes for a receiver to take over the entity, under Rule 65 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. A temporary restraining order lasts at most 14 days unless extended (Rule 65(b)(2)), so a hearing on a preliminary injunction follows within that time, and the freeze, the receiver’s first report and the orders on what the defendants may spend are the first entries most readers are watching for.
Twenty-one days to answer, or a consent judgment
Once served, a defendant has 21 days to answer or move to dismiss (Rule 12(a)(1)(A)(i)), and the Commission has 90 days from filing to complete service (Rule 4(m)). Many cases end before any of that: the defendant signs a consent to the judgment, usually without admitting or denying the allegations, and the Commission’s policy is not to let a settling defendant deny them afterwards either (17 C.F.R. § 202.5(e)). The consent and the final judgment then appear on the docket, with the penalty and disgorgement figures in them.
The time limits, and what disgorgement can reach
A claim for a civil penalty must be brought within five years of the violation (28 U.S.C. § 2462), and the Supreme Court has held that this runs from the violation, not from when the Commission discovered it (Gabelli v. SEC, 568 U.S. 442 (2013)). Since 2021 the statute itself sets the clock for disgorgement: five years for most violations and ten for those that require scienter (15 U.S.C. § 78u(d)(8)). Disgorgement is limited to the wrongdoer’s net profits and is awarded for the benefit of the investors who lost money (Liu v. SEC, 591 U.S. 71 (2020)), and that money is normally returned to them through a distribution plan the court approves later in the case.
A parallel criminal case, and the right to a jury
The same conduct is often charged by a U.S. Attorney in a separate criminal case, and when that happens the civil case is usually stayed, in whole or in part, until the criminal one ends, so a docket can go quiet for a year and then move quickly. A defendant who contests a fraud claim for civil penalties is entitled to a jury, which is why the Commission must bring such a case in a district court rather than before its own in-house judges (SEC v. Jarkesy, 603 U.S. 109 (2024)).
Know the day your docket moves
In the last 30 days 17 new civil enforcement suits brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court reached the courts’ feeds across 9 districts, the newest on October 6, 2026. Every one of them is now a docket that moves without warning, and yours is no different.
An enforcement docket is read by more people than are party to it. A defendant needs the freeze order, the receiver’s motions and the scheduling order the day they land; an investor needs the distribution plan, because the claim deadline in it is the one date that decides whether any money comes back; a counterparty needs the receiver’s report that says what the estate holds. None of them is mailed anything by the court. CaseMagic Watch reads the docket every day and emails you when a new entry appears, with the deadline that follows from it.
7 days free, $0 today, then $99/month. Cancel any time. The payment page is labelled Piloxa, our company's other product.
Read how Watch works for people without a lawyer or compare the plans.
Where they were filed
| District | New cases | Free feed |
|---|---|---|
| S.D.N.Y. | 6 | Wire |
| S.D. Fla. | 3 | Wire |
| D.D.C. | 2 | Wire |
| N.D. Cal. | 1 | Wire |
| S.D. Cal. | 1 | Wire |
| M.D. Fla. | 1 | Wire |
| N.D. Ill. | 1 | Wire |
| S.D. Miss. | 1 | Wire |
| W.D. Tex. | 1 | Wire |
A case is counted once, on the date its opening filing was made, when the defendant the court typed into the caption is one this kind of case is brought against. Districts that publish no filing feed are not counted. No names are listed here on purpose.
Each district's wire is a free Atom feed of every new civil case filed there, released 48 hours after filing, for a feed reader or a Slack channel. Every district on the wire.
Questions people ask before they start
Is an SEC lawsuit a criminal case?
No. The Commission can only bring civil cases; it has no power to charge a crime. The remedies are an injunction, money penalties, disgorgement and bars (15 U.S.C. § 78u(d)). When the same conduct is prosecuted as a crime, that is a separate case brought by the Department of Justice, with its own docket number, often in the same district.
I invested with the defendant. How do I get my money back?
Disgorgement and penalties are paid into the court or to the Commission, and when there is enough to return, a distribution plan or receiver’s claims process is set up in the case, with a deadline for investors to file a claim (Liu v. SEC, 591 U.S. 71 (2020)). That plan and its deadline are docket entries, usually months or years after filing, which is why an investor has reason to follow the docket rather than the news.
Where can I read the complaint?
The Commission posts a litigation release with the complaint for most of its district court cases on its own website, and the complaint is docket entry 1 in the case. Later filings are on PACER, and the ones someone has already bought are in the free RECAP archive, which CaseMagic shows on the case page.
How is the count on this page made?
It is the number of civil suits opened in the last 30 days in which the Securities and Exchange Commission is the plaintiff, read from the district courts’ own filing feeds and shown by district. Administrative proceedings before the Commission’s own judges are not court cases and are not counted, and neither are criminal securities cases brought by a U.S. Attorney.
CaseMagic is an independent service, not a law firm, and nothing on this page is legal advice. The rules cited are the ones in force as this page was written; check your court's local rules and any order in your own case.
Related
Every case this plaintiff filed this month · All lawsuit guides · Appealing a Social Security denial to federal court · The EEOC sued your employer: what happens in federal court · Suing USCIS or the State Department over a delay · The FTC sued: what happens in a federal enforcement case · Suing a credit bureau over a credit report error · Your product injury case was filed in an MDL: what happens now · Your social media addiction case was filed in the MDL: what happens now · Sued by Strike 3 Holdings as a “John Doe” · Filing a habeas corpus petition for someone held in immigration detention · Your FedEx overtime case was severed and re-filed: what happens now · Your marketplace account was frozen by a Schedule A lawsuit: what happens now · Suing over a denied flood insurance claim: what happens now · Suing a debt collector under the FDCPA: what happens now · Who was sued in federal court today · All federal district courts · Reading a federal case number