Andrew Geist

Partner

Andrew J. Geist is a partner in O’Melveny’s New York office.  He has extensive experience with securities enforcement, regulatory, and compliance matters, having served for twelve years with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  

Prior to joining the firm, Andy was Senior Associate Regional Director for Enforcement in the SEC's Northeast Regional Office. While at the Commission, Andy led enforcement actions in a wide range of areas including financial fraud, insider trading, manipulation, fraudulent offerings, Internet fraud, improper broker-dealer sales practices, municipal securities fraud, net capital violations, margin lending violations, failures to supervise reasonably, and improper professional conduct by lawyers and accountants.

Andy directed some of the more important and complicated investigations and enforcement actions brought by the Commission, including:

The first enforcement action taken against a national stock exchange, in which the Commission found that the exchange failed to surveil for violations of rules prohibiting floor brokers from trading on the floor of the exchange.

The first two cases involving Ponzi schemes in which over one billion dollars was owing to investors when the Commission halted the defendants" fraudulent activities.

Actions charging the senior management and sales personnel of public companies with engaging in financial fraud by, among other things, improperly recognizing revenue.

A series of enforcement actions charging a notorious "boiler-room" broker-dealer, its management and sales personnel, and others with defrauding investors by, among other things, manipulating securities, charging undisclosed excessive mark-ups, and using high pressure sales tactics.

One of the first Commission enforcement actions involving bribes and kickbacks in the municipal securities industry.

Actions charging a variety of fraudulent conduct committed over the Internet, including: (1) an international fraud involving the sale of fictitious securities and (2) a scheme to artificially inflate a stock by issuing press releases that falsely claimed the discovery of a cure for the virus that causes AIDS.

Numerous insider trading cases, including: (1) actions against persons who purchased securities of companies that were targeted for merger or acquisition and (2) a series of actions against those who purchased securities of companies favorably mentioned in not-yet-public editions of BusinessWeek magazine.

At the Commission, Andy worked closely with federal, state, and local prosecutors and regulators. He has provided training to business people, law enforcement agents, attorneys, and law students. Andy also trained and gave technical assistance to securities regulators from countries in Asia and Europe.  

In 1995, Andy was the sole recipient of the Stanley Sporkin Award, which is awarded by the Chairman of the SEC in recognition of outstanding contributions to the SEC's Enforcement program. Andy also served as legal counsel to SEC Commissioner Mary L. Schapiro.