Anti-crypto SEC Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal steps down

Gurbir S. Grewal, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Enforcement Director, is officially stepping down on October 11.

After three years of running the SEC’s enforcement arm, he’s out. Taking over his position, at least temporarily, is his right-hand man, Sanjay Wadhwa.

Wadhwa’s been with the SEC for over 20 years and has a history of going hard after insider trading and market manipulation.

He was involved in taking down Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon Management founder, and others connected to the largest hedge funds on Wall Street.

He also led the charge on cracking down on abusive American depositary receipts (ADR) practices, which ended up in penalties north of $430 million.

Sam Waldon, the Chief Counsel of the Enforcement Division, will slide into Wadhwa’s current role as Acting Deputy Director. 

Grewal’s anti-crypto crusade

There’s a lot to unpack about Gurbir Grewal’s time at the SEC, because honestly, he’s been anything but a friend to crypto.

Grewal came into the SEC with a mission: regulate, regulate, regulate!

His focus was on going after bad actors, recalibrating penalties, and making sure nobody thought they could get away with skirting their rules.

Under him, the SEC tackled more than 2,400 enforcement cases, hitting companies with over $20 billion in disgorgements and penalties.

Grewal was responsible for over 100 enforcement actions targeting crypto platforms. One of the most talked-about cases under him was Ripple.

The SEC went after them in 2020 for selling unregistered securities. They originally wanted to fine Ripple $2 billion. That didn’t happen.

The court ruled for Ripple to pay a much smaller $125 million penalty instead. But Grewal filed an appeal, arguing that the district court ruling on Ripple flew in the face of decades of precedent.

They’re still fighting that battle to this day.

Insider trading, market manipulation, and beyond

It wasn’t all about crypto for Grewal though. He had a laser focus on insider trading and market manipulation too.

His division brought a series of cases against insiders who abused their positions by trading on non-public information, and mishandled block trades.

Gatekeepers—think auditors, lawyers, and compliance officers—also got cracked at. One of the biggest cases involved a massive fraud by an audit firm that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings.

Before his time at the SEC, Grewal was the Attorney General of New Jersey from 2018 to 2021. He also served as the Bergen County Prosecutor, New Jersey’s most populous county.

Before that, he worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in New Jersey and New York, where he focused on economic crimes and securities fraud.

Grewal’s exit may be welcomed by most in the crypto community, but the fight is far from over.