2026年5月18日 美国东部时间晚上9:44 / 两小时前更新 / 路透社 报道
这张2011年6月24日的资料照片显示，美国证券交易委员会的标识贴在华盛顿SEC总部的办公室门上。该数据库与弗吉尼亚州匡蒂科联邦调查局犯罪分析小组推出的新项目同步上线，该项目正在创建一系列行为特征组合，以帮助探员调查白领犯罪…… 获取授权许可阅读更多
华盛顿，5月18日（路透社）——美国证券交易委员会周一终止了一项长期实施的惯例，该惯例要求就不当行为指控达成和解的个人和公司不得公开反驳对其提起的诉讼。一些保守派批评人士曾表示，这项惯例侵犯了被告的言论自由权。
这项在拜登前政府时期曾被SEC否决考虑的政策变动，标志着特朗普政府下该监管机构的执法立场进一步软化。
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“批评政府的言论是美国传统的重要组成部分，”SEC主席保罗·阿特金斯在一份声明中说道。他补充道，这项变动“终结了禁止和解被告进行此类批评的政策”。
自1972年以来，SEC的监管规定要求，在和解执法行动时，不承认该机构指控的被告也不得否认这些指控，或指使他人代为否认。该机构当时表示，此举旨在避免给人留下指控可能不实的印象。
在随后的数十年里，这种既不承认也不否认的和解协议成为SEC执法事务和解的标准做法，即便在2013年前主席玛丽·乔·怀特承诺在2008年金融危机后减少机构对这类和解的依赖之后，这一做法仍得以延续。
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当时，一些主张加强华尔街监管的人士反而呼吁该机构迫使被指控的不当行为方承认责任。
在SEC此前拒绝考虑终止这项政策后，共和党委员赫斯特·皮尔斯在2024年曾表示，几乎没有证据表明否认责任会给该机构带来问题，且其他监管机构并未采用类似政策。
在周一的公告中，SEC还表示，如果被告违反了其所同意的不得否认指控的条款，该机构不会寻求重新启动此前的执法行动。
美国证券协会主席克里斯·亚科维拉对这一消息表示欢迎，他在一份声明中称，此前的政策让SEC试图“扼杀所有被迫和解而非抗争的个人的言论自由权利”。
倡导加强金融监管的组织“更好的市场”的本·希夫林表示，SEC在未先征求公众意见的情况下就通过了这项政策变动。
他在一份声明中说道：“SEC应当让公众毫无疑问地相信，其制裁措施是基于违反证券法的行为。”
由道格拉斯·吉利森、贾斯珀·沃德和达芙妮·普萨莱达基斯报道；索尼娅利·保罗编辑
我们的准则：汤森路透信托原则。
US SEC rescinds policy on denials of wrongdoing in enforcement actions
May 18, 2026 9:44 PM UTC / Updated 2 hours ago / By Reuters / Reuters
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission logo adorns an office door at the SEC headquarters in Washington, June 24, 2011. The database is emerging alongside a new program by the FBI’s criminal profiling group in Quantico, Virginia, that is creating a series of behavioral composites to help agents investigate white collar crime…. Purchase Licensing RightsRead more
WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday ended its longstanding practice requiring that people and companies who settle allegations of wrongdoing refrain from publicly refuting the case against them, a practice that some conservative critics had said violated defendants’ freedom of speech.
The change, which the SEC had rejected considering under former President Joe Biden, marks a further softening of the regulator’s enforcement posture under President Donald Trump.
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“Speech critical of the government is an important part of the American tradition,” SEC Chair Paul Atkins said in a statement. The change “ends the policy prohibiting such criticism by settling defendants,” he added.
Since 1972, SEC regulations required that, when settling enforcement actions, defendants who do not admit to the agency’s accusations also refrain from denying them or causing others to do so. The agency said at the time it wanted to prevent the impression that the allegations could be false.
In the decades since, such neither-admit-nor-deny settlements became standard practice in settling SEC enforcement matters and continued even after former Chair Mary Jo White pledged in 2013 to reduce the agency’s reliance on them in the wake of the 2008 financial crash.
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At that time, some advocates for tougher policing of Wall Street instead called on the agency to extract admissions of responsibility from alleged wrongdoers.
After the SEC declined a previous request to consider ending the policy, Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce said in 2024 there was little evidence that denials of responsibility had caused problems for the agency and that other regulators had not adopted similar policies.
In Monday’s announcement, the SEC also said it would not seek to reopen previous enforcement actions if the defendants violated the no-deny provisions to which they had agreed.
Chris Iacovella, president of the American Securities Association, welcomed the news, saying in a statement that under its previous policy the SEC had sought to “extinguish” the free speech rights of every individual who felt “forced to settle rather than fight.”
Ben Schiffrin of the organization Better Markets, which advocates for stronger enforcement of financial regulations, said the SEC had adopted the change without first seeking comment from the public.
“The SEC should want the public to have no doubt that its sanctions are based on violations of the securities laws, he said in a statement.
Reporting by Douglas Gillison, Jasper Ward and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Sonali Paul
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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