Strengthening Fraud Protection Provisions for SEC Enforcement Act of 2019

IB Union Calendar No. 321 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 3701 [Report No. 116–399] To establish a statute of limitations for certain actions of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JULY 11, 2019 Mr. GONZALEZ of Texas introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services FEBRUARY 21, 2020 Additional sponsor: Mr. CLEAVER FEBRUARY 21, 2020 Reported with an amendment; committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed [Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] [For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on July 11, 2019] VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:19 Feb 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H3701.RH H3701 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 3701 RH A BILL To establish a statute of limitations for certain actions of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and for other purposes. VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:19 Feb 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H3701.RH H3701 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 3701 RH Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Strengthening Fraud 4 Protection Provisions for SEC Enforcement Act of 2019’’ 5 SEC. 2. STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR COMMISSION AC- 6 TIONS. 7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 21 of the Securities Ex- 8 change Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78u) is amended by adding 9 at the end the following: 10 ‘‘(j) STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.— 11 ‘‘(1) CIVIL MONETARY PENALTIES.— 12 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—An action or pro- 13 ceeding brought or instituted by the Commission 14 under any provision of the securities laws for a 15 civil monetary penalty may be brought not later 16 than 10 years after the alleged violation. 17 ‘‘(B) EXCLUSION.—The period of limita- 18 tions in subparagraph (A) does not run during 19 any time when an alleged violator is absent from 20 the United States or has no reasonably ascer- 21 tainable place of abode or work within the 22 United States. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:19 Feb 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H3701.RH H3701 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 3701 RH ‘‘(2) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this sub- 1 section, the term ‘civil monetary penalty’ means relief 2 sought by the Commission under— 3 ‘‘(A) subsection (d)(3), section 10A(d), sec- 4 tion 21A(a), section 21B(a), or subsection (b), 5 (c)(1)(B), or (c)(2)(B) of section 32 (15 U.S.C. 6 78j-1(d), 78u–2(a), 78ff(b), 78ff(c)(1)(B), or 7 78ff(c)(2)(B)); 8 ‘‘(B) section 8A(g)(2) or section 20(d)(2) of 9 the Securities Act of 1933 (15 U.S.C. 77h- 10 1(g)(2), 77t(d)(2)); 11 ‘‘(C) section 9(d)(1) or 42(e)(1) of the In- 12 vestment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a– 13 9(d)(1), 80a–41(e)(1)); 14 ‘‘(D) section 203(i)(1) or 209(e)(1) of the 15 Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80b– 16 3(i)(1), 80b–9(e)(1)); or 17 ‘‘(E) section 304(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley 18 Act of 2002 (15 U.S.C. 7243(a)).’’. 19 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 21A(d) of the 20 Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78u–1(d)) is 21 amended by striking paragraph (5). 22 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:19 Feb 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H3701.RH H3701 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:19 Feb 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H3701.RH H3701 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS Union Calendar No. 321 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 3701 [Report No. 116–399] A BILL To establish a statute of limitations for certain ac- tions of the Securities and Exchange Commis- sion, and for other purposes. FEBRUARY 21, 2020 Reported with an amendment; committed to the Com- mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:19 Feb 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\H3701.RH H3701 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS