Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement director Gurbir Grewal is leaving the agency Oct. 11, and will be replaced, on an acting basis, with the division’s deputy director, Sanjay Wadhwa.
Chief Counsel Sam Waldon will serve as acting deputy director.
A spokesperson wouldn’t comment on the reason for Grewal’s departure.
“We have been incredibly fortunate that such an accomplished public servant, Gurbir Grewal, came to the SEC to lead the Division of Enforcement for the last three years,” Chair Gary Gensler said Wednesday.
“Every day, he has thought about how to best protect investors and help ensure market participants comply with our time-tested securities laws,” Gensler added. “He has led a Division that has acted without fear or favor, following the facts and the law wherever they may lead. I greatly enjoyed working with him and wish him well.”
Grewal joined the SEC in 2021 following 3½ years as New Jersey attorney general. Prior to that, he was Bergen County prosecutor, serving the state’s most populous county.
During Grewal’s time at the SEC, the commission authorized more than 2,400 enforcement matters. Such matters led to orders for more than $20 billion in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties; more than 340 industry bars against individuals; more than $1 billion in awards to whistleblowers; and the return of billions of dollars to hurt investors.
According to the SEC, Grewal prioritized restoring investor trust and confidence in markets by ushering in a culture of compliance among market participants. Under his leadership, the division addressed emerging risk areas and held insiders accountable for securities law violations, the agency said.
More than 100 of the enforcement actions Grewal recommended addressed noncompliance in the crypto space, including against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who is now serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison, and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who just ended his four-month prison stint.
“While we have faced and overcome many challenges over the last three plus years, there has been one constant throughout: the public servants of the Enforcement Division stand ready to do everything they can to protect investors and market integrity. Their expertise, professionalism, and dedication are, indeed, unparalleled, and it has been the privilege of a lifetime to have been able to call them colleagues,” Grewal said in a statement. “From recalibrating penalties and remedies to confronting emerging risks to holding issuers, insiders, and gatekeepers accountable, I am incredibly proud of all that we’ve accomplished as a Division during my tenure.”
Wadhwa, meanwhile, has been with the SEC for more than two decades. He worked alongside Grewal as the enforcement division’s deputy director since August 2021. Before that, he was the senior associate director of the division of enforcement in the New York regional office, where he was instrumental in a number of critical investigations, including the office’s focus on rooting out institutional insider trading.
Wadhwa successfully led enforcement actions against hedge fund advisers, including Galleon Management and SAC Capital, and industry figures such as Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam, Goldman Sachs board member Rajat Gupta and SAC Capital founder Steven Cohen.
