[Photo: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg News]

SEC Enforcement Director Andrew Ceresney will be leaving the Agency by year’s end. Upon Mr. Ceresney’s departure, Stephanie Avakian, Deputy Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, will become the Acting Director. 

During his nearly 4 years as head of the agency’s largest division, Mr. Ceresney implemented approaches that strengthened the Division’s investigative and litigation practices and enhanced its effectiveness and impact. Under his leadership, the Enforcement Division brought significant cases across the entire spectrum of the securities industry, achieving record numbers of enforcement actions and monetary remedies.   

• The SEC filed more than 2,850 enforcement actions and obtained judgments and orders totaling more than $13.8 billion in monetary sanctions. 
• The SEC charged over 3,300 companies and over 2,700 individuals, including many CEOs, CFOs, and other senior corporate officers. 
• The Division’s actions under his leadership involved every priority area, including:

>  Issuer Reporting and Disclosure and Gatekeepers      

>  Market Structure and Complex Manipulation Schemes

>  Insider and Abusive Trading

>  Investment Advisers and Investment Companies    

>  Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

>  Complex Financial Instruments

>  Public Finance Abuses

>  Microcap Fraud and Pyramid

Prior to joining the SEC in April 2013, Mr. Ceresney served as a litigation partner in the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, where he was co-chair of its White Collar Group.  Prior to that, he served as Deputy Chief Appellate Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he also served as a member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force and the Major Crimes Unit.   Mr. Ceresney served as a law clerk to the Honorable Dennis Jacobs, formerly Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and to the Honorable Michael Mukasey, formerly Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.  Mr. Ceresney is a graduate of Columbia College and Yale Law.

Stephanie Avakian joined the SEC in June 2014 from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, where she was a partner in the firm’s New York office and a vice chair of the firm’s securities practice.  She previously worked in the SEC Enforcement Division as a branch chief in the New York Regional Office, and later served as a counsel to SEC Commissioner Paul Carey.  Ms. Avakian obtained her bachelor’s degree from the College of New Jersey, and her law degree from Temple Law.