INCREASING ATTENTION ON FRAUD

President Obama’s FY2016 proposed budget for the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) would allow the agency to hire 93 additional staffers in its Enforcement division. According to Andrew Ceresney, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, the Commission is particularly interested in rooting out accounting fraud. At hearings in front of the House Financial Services Committee, Ceresney said the Financial Reporting and Audit Task Force, which was created in 2013, “is one of several initiatives across the Division designed to increase focus on financial reporting and auditing issues…These efforts are starting to produce results, as FY 2014 saw a 40% increase in financial reporting and auditing filed actions and investigations.”