SEC v. The Bank of New York Mellon (2018)

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 December 2018 the Securities and Exchange Commission settled an administrative order with The Bank of New York Mellon, finding negligent fraud in its handling of pre-released American Depositary Receipts. The order requires a civil penalty of $20,558,323, disgorgement of $29,369,032 and prejudgment interest of $4,260,200.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	SEC
Release number	33-10586
Date filed	2018-12-17
Date resolved	2018-12-17
Status	settled
Asset class	equities
Criminal parallel	No
Defendants	The Bank of New York Mellon (entity)
Cited as charged or alleged	Securities Act s.17(a) (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques

What was ordered

Civil penalty: $20.6m
Disgorgement: $29.4m
Prejudgment interest: $4.3m
Total relief: $54.2m
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 December 17, 2018 as release 33-10586. The respondents named are The Bank of New York Mellon (0 individuals, 1 entity).

The order finds that the firm obtained or supplied pre-released ADRs for parties that did not own the underlying foreign shares, in breach of Securities Act Section 17(a)(3). Some requests came from parties seeking ADRs to support short sales, but the charge is the ADR pre-release practice, not selling short without a locate.

This library does not tag the matter to a manipulation technique. The charge is Securities Act Section 17(a)(3) over ADR pre-release, not a Regulation SHO delivery or locate violation by the respondent.

The relief recorded in our data is a civil penalty of $20,558,323, disgorgement of $29,369,032 and prejudgment interest of $4,260,200. Penalty and disgorgement are distinct: disgorgement returns the gain, while the penalty is punitive. We store them separately so that aggregate figures across the library are not double-counted.

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

2018-12-17 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.