Press Releases

Today, the the House Financial Services Committee is holding a Capital Markets Subcommittee hearing, led by Subcommittee Chairman Ann Wagner (MO-02), to examine securities fraud and financial exploitation, evaluate current enforcement tools, and identify gaps that may undermine market integrity and investor confidence.

Read Subcommittee Chairman Wagner's opening remarks as prepared for delivery:

"Good morning. I want to start by thanking our witnesses for being here today to discuss this important topic. This hearing builds on the Committee’s work to protect American investors from financial fraud. 

"In 2024, investment scams accounted for nearly half of the 12 billion dollars Americans lost to financial exploitation, representing a 24 percent increase from the previous year.

"Securities fraud can take many forms – from pump-and-dump schemes where scammers use false information to pump up stock prices only to dump their shares and swindle everyday investors, to account takeovers where hackers hijack brokerage accounts and send assets to untraceable locations. 

"These scams ranked as the FBI’s fourth most frequently reported cybercrime, yet they caused the highest total financial losses to investors. Criminals are targeting our most vulnerable citizens, including seniors and adults with impairments. 

"Today is Tax Day, and now that the Working Families Tax Cut ensures that seniors have No Tax on Social Security, we need to make sure they are protected from these scams. The FBI reported that people over the age of 60 lost more money to fraud than any other demographic. But these statistics are more than just numbers. They represent real pain to families and businesses across the country. 

"Retirement funds erased, emergency savings gone, and hard-earned investments wiped away in an instant. These threats not only hurt American citizens but undermine the integrity of our capital markets as a whole. When bad actors exploit the markets for their own gain, Main Street loses trust that their investments are safe. 

"Unfortunately, new technologies have allowed scammers to proliferate fraud on a larger scale than ever before, much of which is coordinated across social media platforms and encrypted messaging apps. Criminals can now create websites that look identical to your broker-dealer’s, siphoning away money you thought was secure. 

"Artificial intelligence opens new frontiers for scams through faked voices and altered videos, with scammers masquerading as loved ones or a trusted financial advisor. On top of that, we now have overseas scam centers operating at an industrial scale far from the reach of U.S. law enforcement. 

"We’ve seen Chinese companies listed on our stock exchanges take part in ramp-and-dump schemes where scammers ramp up a stock’s price through bots and fake accounts to then dump their stock at a peak and profit at the expense of American investors. 

"This is a global problem that calls for a multi-level, intergovernmental approach. That’s why I’m glad regulators and industry stakeholders have made this a top priority, including the SEC under Chairman Atkins, which has targeted malicious foreign actors through the Commission’s Cross-Border Task Force. 

"Fighting fraud and exploitation is not a partisan issue, it’s about protecting the Main Street investors who put their trust in our capital markets. Our witnesses today bring deep experience in financial regulation, law enforcement, market mechanics, and fraud prevention. I look forward to today’s discussion."

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