Eric Werner, a 23-year veteran of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has been named the associate regional director for enforcement in the agency’s Fort Worth Regional Office.
Werner has played a significant role in more than 100 SEC investigations and prosecutions, including the ongoing case against Breitling Energy CEO and self-proclaimed “Frack Master” Christopher Faulkner and the pending cryptocurrency fraud case against AriseBank.
Regional Director Shamoil Shipchandler said Werner has “extraordinary experience” and will oversee a team of about 70 lawyers, accountants and staff in the SEC Fort Worth office, which handles securities enforcement for Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas.
“Eric’s is a remarkable story of starting with the SEC as an intern in 1995, serving at our headquarters in the Fort Worth Regional Office, and then rising to lead the enforcement program,” Shipchandler told The Texas Lawbook. “For almost any kind of case the SEC may bring, Eric has probably handled one just like it.”
Werner replaces Jessica Magee, who left the SEC in February to be the new general counsel at Beneficient Company Group, a Dallas financial services company.
After graduating from law school at Washington University, Werner joined the SEC in 1995 as an investigative staff attorney in Washington, D.C., where he later served in the division’s Office of Chief Counsel.
In 2004, the SEC relocated Werner to Fort Worth, where he was promoted to branch chief and promoted again in 2010 to assistant regional director.