Margaret Ryan, Director, SEC Enforcement Division;
Source: Harvard Law School
The top enforcement official at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, who abruptly resigned last week, had clashed with senior agency officials over the direction of the agency’s enforcement program, including its handling of cases involving President Donald Trump and his family, three people familiar with the matter said.
SEC Enforcement Director Margaret Ryan resigned last Monday after just over six months on the job, Reuters first reported. Her resignation email, obtained by Reuters, did not give a reason for her resignation. Reached by phone and text message, Ryan declined to comment.
Two of the people said Mr. Ryan wanted to be more aggressive in prosecuting fraud and other wrongdoing, including cases involving the president, but faced resistance from SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and other top Republican political appointees.
An SEC spokesperson said that under the Atkins administration, the agency has made enforcement decisions based on facts, law and policy, not politics. “In each case, the Commission has faithfully applied federal securities laws. Discussion and debate among attorneys and other employees is common and encouraged.”
A White House press secretary did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
One of the incidents that caused tensions involved crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, a major backer of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial business, and another involved Trump. tesla Elon Musk is a major donor to the Trump campaign and briefly served as a special assistant to the president, according to people familiar with the matter.
Reuters granted the sources anonymity to discuss confidential matters related to regulatory enforcement.
One of Mr. Sun’s lawyers, a spokeswoman for Mr. Musk’s law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, declined to comment.
“Our mission is too important.”
The previously unreported tension between Mr. Ryan and SEC executives sheds further light on how the SEC polices American companies under Atkins, who has repeatedly criticized the agency for being opaque and unpredictable in its enforcement transactions.
The SEC is also pivoting away from big corporate cases and the crypto crackdown by former Democratic leaders to focus on basic fraud and manipulation cases such as pyramid schemes and insider trading.
The SEC Chair sets the broad enforcement agenda and, along with other politically appointed commissioners, votes on disciplinary actions and penalties recommended by the enforcement staff. But under Trump’s second administration, the chair and commissioners have exercised further control, stripping enforcement officials of their authority to initiate formal investigations and requiring them to seek commissioner approval.
Mr. Ryan, a former Marine and military judge with little experience in securities law, previously clerked for conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
He was seen as an unusual choice to lead the agency’s enforcement team of more than 1,000 people and was unfamiliar with the agency’s lengthy process for reaching consensus on charges and penalties, two SEC enforcement officials said.
Nevertheless, she won the support of many career employees by helping her deal with the individuals and companies under investigation, three other people familiar with the matter said.
In an internal meeting last year, he criticized attorneys, including Brad Bondy, a partner with Paul Hastings and a former advisor to Atkins, for appearing to try to go over the heads of career staffers on enforcement issues, two people said. However, in certain circumstances, it is permissible to approach SEC executives regarding enforcement cases.
Mr. Bondi, the younger brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi, did not respond to questions from Reuters via email and text message. A spokesperson for Paul Hastings did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
In his February speech, Ryan said some of the SEC’s enforcement programs need modification, but added that the agency is committed to pursuing “high-quality” enforcement actions.
“Our mission to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets, and promote capital formation is critical,” she said at the time.
“Opinions are divided among the staff.”
Among the cases that three people familiar with the tensions said were a source of frustration for Mr. Ryan was an SEC settlement unveiled this month to resolve charges brought against Mr. Sun by the watchdog’s former Democratic leadership.
In 2023, the SEC filed charges against the crypto entrepreneur and three of his companies, alleging Sun made more than $31 million through fraudulent transactions. In an agreement negotiated by Brad Bondi and other lawyers, one of Sun’s companies paid $10 million to settle fraud charges, but the company neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s findings. The agency dismissed other related charges.
TRON founder Justin Sun speaks at the Bitcoin 2025 conference on Tuesday, May 27, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Bridget Bennett Bloomberg | Getty Images
SEC enforcement officials said it was their understanding that the Sun matter followed normal process and that Mr. Ryan ultimately supported the settlement. Ryan’s signature was not on the court document.
Separately, a March court filing revealed that the SEC is in talks to settle charges that Musk waited too long to disclose his stock of Twitter Inc., which he later bought and renamed to X, until 2022. This allowed Musk to buy more shares at artificially low prices, the paper said. The agency filed the charges a week before Trump took office in January of last year.
In a March 4 court hearing whose details were first reported by the FT, Musk’s lawyers said the meeting took place with officials above the SEC staff working on the case, according to records.
While it is common for companies to settle cases out of court, the company had a strong case against both Mr. Sun and Mr. Musk and had a good chance of winning harsher penalties in court, according to securities lawyers who have been tracking the case.
However, one SEC enforcement official said Sun’s case is complicated by changing virtual currency guidelines and pending virtual currency legislation, which could increase the risks if the SEC continues to fight the case in court.
“While there may be some disagreements between the staff and the Commissioner, and this has been the case historically, ultimately only the Commissioner, an officer of the United States, votes on enforcement matters,” an SEC spokesperson said.
