What Is a Wells Notice, and What Is the Significance of Receiving One? - Transcript

Notice from the SEC is an opportunity for someone who has been investigated to learn what the charges are that will be filed against them and to confront those charges and try to convince the SEC not to bring those charges most lawyers will tell you don’t file a Wells notice and that’s because if you do wind up in a litigated proceeding with the SEC and you say something in your wells notice opposition statement that is incorrect they may try to use it against you at the hearing in the matter however I say it’s a case-by-case basis for you to file a Wells notice we have successfully filed wealth notices where the SEC has decided not to pursue our clients I never say one size fits all to clients and I think you should be aware whenever a lawyer is telling you one size fits all you need to look at whether you have definitive evidence to oppose the potential charges or a situation where the litigation will be so messy for the SEC that they don’t want to pursue it the wells notice is really an opportunity for you to do two things one is convince them not to to pursue you or two to convince them to settle with you you can point out how stringent some of the standards are and you’re going to hold the SEC to those standards and that they don’t have the evidence they need Wells notices should proceed on a case-by-case basis.