SEC Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal To Depart, Sanjay Wadhwa Named Acting Director

According to Blockworks, Gurbir Grewal, the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) director of the division of enforcement, will leave the agency this month. Sanjay Wadhwa, the current deputy director, will assume the role of acting director starting October 11, the SEC announced on Wednesday. Grewal, who has been with the SEC since July 2021, expressed pride in the division's accomplishments during his tenure. “From recalibrating penalties and remedies to confronting emerging risks to holding issuers, insiders, and gatekeepers accountable, I am incredibly proud of all that we’ve accomplished as a division during my tenure,” Grewal said in a statement. He also thanked SEC Chair Gary Gensler for his support and commitment to investor protection and a robust enforcement program. Grewal joined the SEC shortly after Gensler was sworn in as chair in April 2021. During Grewal’s tenure, cryptocurrency-related enforcement actions were a significant focus. The SEC issued 35 crypto enforcement actions in 2022 and 40 in 2023. The division of enforcement nearly doubled its crypto assets and cyber unit in May 2022, increasing the team’s total to 50 members. As of September 6, 2024, the agency had initiated 18 crypto enforcement actions since the beginning of the year. SEC Chair Gensler praised Grewal’s dedication to investor protection and adherence to securities laws. “Every day, [Grewal] has thought about how to best protect investors and help ensure market participants comply with our time-tested securities laws,” Gensler said. “He has led a division that has acted without fear or favor, following the facts and the law wherever they may lead. I greatly enjoyed working with him and wish him well.” Sanjay Wadhwa, who will step in as acting director, began his career at the SEC in 2003 as a staff attorney in the New York office’s enforcement division. He later served as the senior associate director of the New York enforcement division for eight years before becoming the deputy director for the entire division. A representative from the SEC declined to comment on the transition.