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The SEC is a civil agency and can not jail anyone for anything, they can only levy penalties. Justice has to take over the case for an offender to go to prison

• ebbv 9y ago
  Do you think they will? Do you think Holmes and the others at Theranos responsible for the fraud will get any jail time? Maybe that's coming but it doesn't seem like it, and that's the point of my comment. I didn't say "The SEC sucks", I said the system sucks.
• FireBeyond 9y ago
  Is there any kind of requirement (or general process) that says that Justice typically defers until the SEC has issues findings and sanctions before beginning (or stepping up) criminal proceedings?
• Boxxed 9y ago
  How does that make the above statement any less ridiculous? Isn't that exactly what he or she is pointing out? That the system is explicitly preventing these people from serving jailtime?
  • mikeyouse 9y ago
    No. The system doesn't do any such thing. Since the SEC only deals with civil penalties, they can act quickly and without the certainty required for criminal convinctions. They can also refer cases to the Justice Department, who can (and do) levy criminal charges. Just because the SEC is the only body to publicly announce a resolution doesn't mean that Holmes or Theranos are off the hook criminally. The Obama DOJ initiated a criminal investigation in 2016 that is apparently still active and could absolutely result in jail time: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/19/business/theranos-sec-justice-department-investigation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/19/business/theranos-sec-jus...