SEC v. Ares Management LLC (2020)

Settled

Checked against the primary document on October 3, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In May 2020 the SEC settled with investment adviser Ares Management, finding it failed in 2016 to enforce its policies on nonpublic information obtained through a board seat and a loan agreement with a listed portfolio company. Ares was censured and paid a $1 million penalty.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	SEC
Release number	IA-5510
Date filed	2020-05-26
Date resolved	2020-05-26
Status	settled
Asset class	equities
Venue	NYSE
Criminal parallel	No
Defendants	Ares Management LLC (entity)
Cited as charged or alleged	Advisers Act s.204A ; Advisers Act s.206 (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques

What was ordered

Civil penalty: $1m
Disgorgement: —
Prejudgment interest: —
Total relief: $1m
Alleged gain: —

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The Securities and Exchange Commission instituted and settled the proceeding on May 26, 2020 under the Investment Advisers Act.

The order concerns Ares's failure to implement and enforce written policies reasonably designed to prevent misuse of potentially material nonpublic information. It records that Ares bought the portfolio company's listed stock while its board representative and deal team held such information, but the violation found is the policies failure, not insider trading.

Ares agreed to a censure and a $1,000,000 civil penalty. The insider-trading tag was removed because the conduct charged is a compliance failure.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

Timeline

2020-05-26 Administrative proceeding instituted (cease-and-desist)

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

SEC order

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.