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S 1551
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Liability for Aiding and Abetting Securities Violations Act of 2009

To amend section 20 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to allow for a private civil action against a person that provides substantial assistance in violation of such Act.

Introduced Jul 30, 2009

Latest action (Sep 17, 2009) Committee on the Judiciary Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 111-369.

Referred to
Crime and Drugs Subcommittee Judiciary Committee
Policy area
Finance and Financial Sector
Issues
Economy & Taxes
Legislative subjects (3)
Civil actions and liabilityFraud offenses and financial crimesSecurities

Summary

This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to allow private civil actions against persons who knowingly or recklessly provide substantial assistance to others in violating federal securities laws or SEC regulations. Anyone who provides such assistance would be held liable to the same extent as the person being aided in the securities violation. The amendment expands the existing framework that previously addressed only prosecutions by the Securities and Exchange Commission to now include private civil lawsuits by investors and other private parties.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)
5 cosponsors

Actions (4)
  1. Sep 17, 2009 Committee on the Judiciary Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 111-369. · senate
  2. Jul 30, 2009 Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. · senate
  3. Jul 30, 2009 Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S8564-8565)
  4. Jul 30, 2009 Introduced in Senate

More bills on these subjects (8)

Other bills that carry the most legislative subjects in common with this one (topical discovery — distinct from the procedural related bills above).

  • HR 7006 — Financial Services and General Government and National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2026 (shares 3 subjects)
  • S 1582 — GENIUS Act (shares 3 subjects)
  • HR 2392 — STABLE Act of 2025 (shares 3 subjects)
  • HR 191 — Inflation Reduction Act of 2025 (shares 3 subjects)
  • HR 9770 — Continuing Appropriations Act, 2027 (shares 2 subjects)
  • HR 2478 — Financial Exploitation Prevention Act of 2025 (shares 2 subjects)
  • HR 7757 — KIDS Act (shares 2 subjects)
  • HR 2481 — Romance Scam Prevention Act (shares 2 subjects)

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • HR 216 — SEC Act of 2025 · Introduced Jan 7, 2025 · Cong. 119 75%
  • S 1357 — SAFE Act · Introduced Apr 8, 2025 · Cong. 119 74%
  • S 1149 — SEC Whistleblower Reform Act of 2025 · Introduced Mar 26, 2025 · Cong. 119 73%
  • HR 3402 — To amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require certain disclosures by institutional investment managers in connection with proxy advisory firms, and for other purposes. · Introduced May 14, 2025 · Cong. 119 72%
  • HR 145 — Risk Disclosure and Investor Attestation Act · Introduced Jan 3, 2025 · Cong. 119 72%
  • HR 1309 — Protect America’s Lands Act · Introduced Feb 13, 2025 · Cong. 119 71%

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in Senate · Jul 30, 2009

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

July 30, 2009

Mr. Specter (for himself, Mr. Reed, and Mr. Kaufman) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To amend section 20 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to allow for a private civil action against a person that provides substantial assistance in violation of such Act.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Liability for Aiding and Abetting Securities Violations Act of 2009”.

SEC. 2. PRIVATE CIVIL ACTION FOR AIDING AND ABETTING.

Section 20(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78t(e)) is amended—

(1) in the subsection heading, by striking “Prosecution of” and inserting “Actions Against”;

(2) by striking “For purposes” and inserting the following:

“(1) Actions brought by commission.—For purposes”;

(3) in paragraph (1), as so designated, by inserting “or recklessly” after “knowingly”; and

(4) by adding at the end the following:

“(2) Private civil actions.—For purposes of any private civil action implied under this title, any person that knowingly or recklessly provides substantial assistance to another person in violation of this title, or of any rule or regulation issued under this title, shall be deemed to be in violation of this title to the same extent as the person to whom such assistance is provided.”. <all>

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