Overview
- The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a unanimous opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch holding that the SEC need not prove investors suffered financial loss before obtaining disgorgement.
- The Court reaffirmed that disgorgement must be tied to a defendant’s net profits rather than gross receipts and grounded the rule in traditional equitable restitution principles.
- The case arose from Ongkaruck Sripetch’s penny‑stock pump‑and‑dump schemes; Sripetch consented to civil judgment and received a related 21‑month criminal sentence.
- The decision immediately strengthens the SEC’s leverage in enforcement and settlements, a change analysts say is especially consequential in markets like crypto where tracing individual investor losses is difficult.
- The Court left open major issues for future cases, including whether disgorged funds must be returned to victims or may go to the Treasury and whether statutory disgorgement triggers a Seventh Amendment jury right—a point Justice Clarence Thomas pressed in concurrence.