David Peavler has been on the job as the new regional director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth office for only 10 days, but people need to know about one major change from his predecessor:
“I’m not as funny and I am not a Twitter person,” he said, referring to former director Shamoil Shipchandler’s use of social media and humor to inform the public about various regulatory matters.
Peavler, who served as associate director of enforcement of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office prior to becoming the general counsel of HD Vest Financial two years ago, has taken over an office that has been hit hard by federal budget restrictions and staff reductions.
“I’ve been reacquainting myself with the office and the agency,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “I’m getting to know the assistant directors and getting their thoughts. The morale in the office is strong.”
Peavler said the “resource constraints” are the “most significant change” since he left the SEC in 2017.
The Fort Worth Regional Office has about 100 lawyers, accountants and other professionals charged with policing hundreds of publicly-traded companies –including three of the 10 largest corporations in the U.S. – and more than 1,000 financial brokers, dealers, investors and advisors in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas with more than $2 trillion in assets under management.
But the office is down about 15 lawyers in its enforcement division, which investigates and prosecutes securities violations, oil and gas fraud schemes and other illegal financial activity.
The staff reductions, he said, means that leadership must be “thoughtful on the cases they take on” and ask “is this case a good use of our resources.”
Peavler, who is a nationally recognized expert on corporate accounting and financial fraud cases, said the good news is that the Fort Worth office does have the green light to hire two experienced lawyers for staff attorney positions in the enforcement division.
“We received about 175 applicants, which shows that we’re able to attract people from an experienced, capable pool of candidates,” he said.
Born and raised in Texas, Peavler, who is 52, received a degree in accounting at Baylor University and his law degree at the University of Texas. He joined the litigation practice of Locke Lord where he represented accounting firms in securities class action lawsuits.
In 2000, the SEC hired Peavler to be a lawyer in its enforcement division – a position he held for a little more than a year. He moved to the corporate legal department at ConocoPhillips in 2001 and then Peavler rejoined the SEC’s Fort Worth office as assistant director in November 2002.
The SEC promoted him in 2011 to associate regional director over enforcement – a position he held until he became the general counsel of HD Vest Financial.
During his previous 15 years at the SEC, Peavler led several high-profile investigations and prosecutions, including the Seaboard Corporation case, where the SEC first established its corporate cooperation guidance.
Other major cases led by Peavler included:
- The SEC’s enforcement action against Royal Dutch Shell, which resulted in Shell paying a $120 million penalty for overstating its reserves by 4.5 billion barrels;
- The SEC’s prosecution of Millennium Bank for its involvement in a $100 million international Ponzi scheme case; and
- The $46.8 million judgment against Life Partners for securities violations over information company leaders should have disclosed to investors.
Peavler also led the 2015 investigation and enforcement action against Houston-based KBR in what was the first case against a U.S. company for violating provisions of the whistleblower protections clauses in the Dodd-Frank Act.