The abrupt departure of the SEC’s enforcement chief is stirring speculation about who will serve as its next top cop, adding to scrutiny over plunging enforcement numbers and cases dropped against crypto defendants tied to President Donald Trump. The Securities and Exchange Commission is confronting the latest gap in its ranks after Margaret Ryan stepped down as enforcement director on March 16, less than seven months into the job. Her short tenure overlapped with an exodus of employees out of the enforcement division — an 18% cut through voluntary buyouts and other departures in fiscal 2025, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. But Ryan’s appointment last year was of a piece with the SEC’s broader enforcement posture under SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, signaling a break from orthodoxy that many regulated businesses have welcomed, according to Jonathan Shapiro, a partner at Goodwin who specializes in securities fraud enforcement. “This is an administration that’s been defined by out of the box choices,” he said. “If you can get comfortable with the notion that we need to change the revolving door of insiders who have been running enforcement for decades, another outsider could be excellent.”
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