By Pete Schroeder

WASHINGTON The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday it was dismissing roughly 40 pending enforcement cases after an internal review found enforcement staff had improper access to certain memoranda meant for commission officials ruling on those matters.

The SEC also said it was agreeing to lift certain types of industry bans in approximately 50 cases where individuals had sought that relief, according to agency staff.

Those decisions come after the SEC concluded a lengthy review of a matter first raised in April 2022. At that time the agency announced that a "control deficiency" in an agency database allowed enforcement staff access to materials relevant to the part of the SEC that reviews and decides on such cases.

The enforcement and in-house ruling arms of the SEC are supposed to be kept completely separate from each other regarding such matters.

An internal SEC review found that there was no evidence that the improper access had any effect on decisions made by either enforcement staff or officials reviewing those cases via the agency's, according to SEC officials.

The cases that will be dismissed involve older conduct, and will free up SEC resources to pursue more timely matters, agency staff said.

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)