Anthony S. Kelly, Co-Chief of Asset Management Unit, to Leave SEC After 18 Years of Service

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Anthony S. Kelly, Co-Chief of the Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit, will be leaving the agency this month after more than 18 years of service.

The Asset Management Unit is the Division’s largest specialized unit and focuses on misconduct by investment advisers and service providers to mutual funds, ETFs, retail client accounts, hedge funds, and private equity funds. As co-head of the unit for the past two-and-a-half years, Mr. Kelly led a nationwide staff of attorneys, industry experts, and other professionals responsible for conducting investigations across the asset management industry. Co-Chief C. Dabney O’Riordan will continue to lead the unit following Mr. Kelly’s departure. 

“Anthony has shown himself to be a consummate leader and mentor within the Division,” said Stephanie Avakian, Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “Through his thoughtfulness and fairness on matters within the fund industry, he exemplifies the best of the Division.  We will truly miss him.”

“As Co-Chief of the Division’s Asset Management Unit, Anthony has spearheaded significant initiatives that protected investors and impacted the behavior of asset managers and investment advisers,” said Steven Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

Mr. Kelly said, “It has been such an honor to serve as Co-Chief of the Asset Management Unit and work alongside so many smart, energetic, and talented colleagues who are dedicated to protecting investors across the asset management industry. I am extremely proud of all that the unit has accomplished. My time at the SEC and in the Division of Enforcement has been incredibly rewarding thanks to the many wonderful people I have met along the way.” 

During his tenure as co-chief, Mr. Kelly oversaw investigations and enforcement actions covering a broad range of asset management-related and investor protection issues, including conflicts of interest, fund valuation, fund distribution and 12b-1 fees, disclosure, performance advertising, fund governance and the 15(c) process, trading away and best execution, trade allocation, cross trading and principal transactions, investment adviser and broker-dealer registration, whistleblower retaliation, and custody, compliance, and supervision controls. 

Mr. Kelly played a leading role in the unit’s pursuit of fee and expense issues in the private fund industry and supervised the unit’s investigations arising from the Distribution-in-Guise Initiative, which sought to protect investors from bearing the costs when mutual fund advisers improperly used fund assets to pay for distribution-related services rather than making the payments from the firms’ assets. He also coordinated with senior leadership in other SEC divisions and offices on priorities, emerging risks, and rulemakings.  

Mr. Kelly joined the SEC in July 2000 and has served in various roles, including compliance examiner in the broker-dealer group of SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations while attending law school and Special Counsel in the Division of Trading and Markets. Mr. Kelly joined the Division of Enforcement in 2004 following graduation from law school, and joined the Asset Management Unit at its inception in 2010. Mr. Kelly was promoted to Assistant Director in the Asset Management Unit in August 2012, and to Co-Chief in March 2016. He received his undergraduate degree from George Washington University and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.