SEC v. MDC Partners Inc. (2017)

Settled

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 3, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled an action with MDC Partners Inc. over undisclosed perquisites paid to its former chairman and chief executive and over non-GAAP disclosure violations. The release records a civil penalty of $1,500,000.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$1.5m

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$1.5m

Alleged gain

—

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

the Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on January 18, 2017 as release 3-17795. The respondent named is MDC Partners Inc. (1 entity). The Commission found two sets of violations: for several years the company did not disclose substantial compensation paid to its former chairman and chief executive in perquisites and personal benefits, which he later agreed to repay (about $10.6 million in bonuses and $11.3 million in perquisites and expenses), and it breached the rules on non-GAAP financial measures. It consented to a cease-and-desist order and a $1.5 million civil penalty.

The case is about executive-compensation and earnings-measure disclosure; no one is found to have traded on confidential information, so this library no longer tags it as insider trading. No other technique fits, so it carries no technique tag.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

Timeline

1. 2017-01-18 Administrative proceeding instituted (cease-and-desist)

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• SEC order

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.