OREANDA-NEWS. July 30, 2015. The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Daniel M. Hawke, chief of the Division of Enforcement’s Market Abuse Unit and former Director of the Philadelphia Regional Office, is leaving the agency after 16 years of service.  He will step down in August to return to the private sector.

Mr. Hawke has headed the Market Abuse Unit since its inception in January 2010.  The unit, comprised of more than 60 attorneys and industry specialists in eight SEC offices, focuses on hard-to-detect insider trading activity, market structure violations, market manipulation, and other trading abuses.  Deputy Unit Chiefs Robert Cohen and Joseph Sansone will serve as co-acting Unit Chiefs following Mr. Hawke’s departure.

“For the past 16 years, Dan has tirelessly served the Commission’s Enforcement Division and demonstrated the highest dedication to our mission,” said SEC Chair Mary Jo White.  “His exemplary leadership in multiple senior roles has served the agency well and the investing public is safer for his service.”

“Dan is known for his strategic vision and built the Market Abuse Unit into a trailblazer in the investigation of market structure violations and complex insider trading schemes,” said Andrew Ceresney, Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division.  “As an important member of our leadership team, he brought significant and innovative actions based on misconduct in the deepest and darkest corners of the market.”

Mr. Hawke said, “It has been a great privilege to serve the public as a member of the Division of Enforcement and to have helped create and then lead the Market Abuse Unit.  I am proud to have worked alongside an extraordinary group of professionals, past and present, whose quest for excellence, relentless investigative efforts and exemplary integrity built the unit into what it is today.”

Under Mr. Hawke’s direction, the Market Abuse Unit used technology and quantitative analysis to detect insider trading and conduct groundbreaking “trader-based” investigations.  He also led the establishment of the unit’s Analysis and Detection Center to identify and evaluate potential violations of the federal securities laws.  SEC enforcement actions brought during Mr. Hawke’s tenure include:

Mr. Hawke began his SEC career in 1999 as a staff attorney in the Division of Enforcement in Washington, D.C, and was promoted to branch chief in 2002.  In March 2005, he was appointed as Associate Director for Enforcement in the Philadelphia office and became Regional Director in April 2006.  He received the SEC’s Stanley Sporkin Award in 2008 and the Ellen Ross Award in 2001.  Before joining the SEC, Mr. Hawke spent ten years in private practice in Washington, D.C.