Reining in Regulatory Expansion
ICAN is pushing back against the SEC’s efforts to expand its regulatory jurisdiction and authority, working to establish and reinforce clear, reasonable boundaries that provide certainty and stability for market participants.
In an era of rapid financial innovation, a key focus for ICAN is actively challenging SEC efforts to expand the definition of terms like "dealer," "security," and "broker," efforts that threaten the innovation helping to drive the modern American economy. At the same time, ICAN is manning the legal walls the United States Supreme Court has already established to restrain the SEC, directly challenging attempts by the SEC to flout those Supreme Court limitations. It is a grinding war of attrition, but one that is crucial to halting the insidious bureaucratic momentum of a regulatory agency with a seemingly limitless reach, and it requires an organization that is focused full-time on SEC action.
Our Work
Litigation
SEC v Rose
The SEC is in federal court asking a judge to enforce a nearly $450,000 order against a retired Texas grandfather — while leaving out the constitutional violations it has committed, the Supreme Court rulings it has ignored, and the fact that it's already been garnishing his Social Security. ICAN filed an opposition to set the record straight.
Lucia v SEC
Ray Lucia's story serves as a stark reminder of what's at stake when regulatory agencies can destroy careers using unconstitutional processes. His 13-year ordeal illustrates the coercive nature of SEC administrative proceedings, which the Supreme Court has now repeatedly criticized—thanks in large part to Ray’s willingness to fight, which paved the way for others to do the same. ICAN is proud to be representing Raymond Lucia in his motion to lift a “forever bar” imposed against him by the SEC.
PulseChain- SEC v Schueler
In an unprecedented expansion of its enforcement approach, the SEC named three software programs—a blockchain token, a blockchain network, and a protocol—as defendants, prompting ICAN to file an amicus brief that successfully challenged the agency's attempt to wage war against software and secured a significant victory for the PulseChain community.
SEC v Barry et al.
Three sales agents have spent almost ten years over a registration violation -all because the SEC is trying to erode a past ruling that life settlement products are not securities under Howey, highlighting how the agency forum-shops rejected legal theories to different courts until finding a judge who will rule in its favor.
