On June 5, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in Kokesh v. SEC. In Kokesh, the SEC took the position that disgorgement was not a penalty and therefore not subject to the statute of limitations in 28 U.S.C. § 2462. The Court held that disgorgement remedies are indeed “penalties” and therefore  subject to the five-year statute of limitations in § 2462. In its PHH briefing, the CFPB argued that “[its] administrative proceedings are subject only to the statute of limitations set forth in 28 U.S.C. § 2462.” Thus, the Supreme Court’s reasoning in Kokesh would also apply squarely to the disgorgement remedies available to the CFPB.

The opening paragraph of the Kokesh opinion says it all.

“A 5-year statute of limitations applies to any ‘action, suit or proceeding for the enforcement of any civil fine, penalty, or forfeiture, pecuniary or otherwise.’ 28 U.S.C. § 2462. This case presents the question of whether § 2462 applies to claims for disgorgement imposed as a sanction for violating a federal securities law. The Court holds that it does. Disgorgement in the securities-enforcement context is a ‘penalty’ within the meaning of § 2462, and so disgorgement actions must be commenced within the five years of the date the claim accrues.”

The Court rested its decision on the principle that “[s]uch limits are ‘vital to the welfare of society’ and rest on the principle that ‘even wrongdoers are entitled to assume that their sins may be forgotten.'” The CFPB has argued that, except for the statute of limitations in § 2462, no statute of limitations applies to claims it brings through administrative enforcement actions. This argument was brought to the fore by the PHH case, which we have blogged about extensively. The CFPB lost on that issue in the PHH case before a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit. The panel’s decision was vacated when the D.C. Circuit decided to re-hear the case en banc. We are still waiting to see what the en banc court will do.