On May 2, 2018 the Securities and Exchange Commission announced the launch of an additional online search feature that is designed to enable investors to research whether the person trying to sell them investments has a judgment or order entered against them in an enforcement action. The purpose of this tool is “to assist the public in making informed investment decisions and avoiding financial fraud”.
SALI, or SEC Action Lookup for Individuals, can help “identify registered and unregistered individuals who have been parties to past SEC enforcement actions and against whom federal courts have entered judgments or the SEC has issued orders”.
One major difference from other useful tools such as FINRA’s BrokerCheck and the IAPD is that the results are not limited to registered investment professionals. Instead, SALI allows the public to identify individuals who have settled, defaulted, or contested an enforcement action brought by the SEC, provided that a final judgment or order was entered against them in a federal court or an administrative proceeding.
For now, SALI search results include parties from SEC actions filed between October 1, 2014 and March 31, 2018. The SEC will update the search feature periodically to add parties from newly-filed actions and actions filed prior to October 1, 2014.
To read more see the full SEC Press Release.
