On January 13, 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced new initiatives that are intended to encourage companies and individuals to cooperate in SEC enforcement investigations and proceedings through the use of techniques that typically have been associated with criminal investigations conducted by the Department of Justice.

The new tools that are being adopted by the SEC are as follows:

1) Cooperation Agreements: These are formal written agreements in which the SEC’s Division of Enforcement would agree to recommend to the commission that an individual or entity receive credit for cooperating in its investigations or related enforcement actions. Such credit only would be extended if the cooperator provided substantial assistance to the SEC. As discussed further below, a recently settled SEC enforcement action, SEC v. General Re Corporation, filed on January 20, 2010, signals the SEC’s continued emphasis on the importance of individuals and companies cooperating in investigations.