SEC Commissioner Gallagher Explains Recent Dissenting Votes

In recent months SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher has voted against enforcement actions against Blackrock Advisors and SFX Financial Advisory Management Enterprises, the first alleging violation of various compliance policies and monitoring and the second alleging the multi-year theft of client assets by the company president. Today Gallagher explained he voted against the actions because he’s worried that the SEC is undermining its ‘only line of defense’ for protecting people from unethical investment advisers. “In both instances, the Commission’s order states that the CCO was responsible for the implementation of the firms’ policies and procedures,” Gallagher writes in a statement. “I…