Until recently, the SEC was reluctant to hit companies with big fines for wrongdoing because the penalties hurt shareholders whose stock prices had already been hammered by scandal. But the Sarbanes-Oxley Act now lets the SEC use the fine funds to repay stockholders. For example, accounting frauds cost WorldCom (now MCI Inc.) $750 million and Adelphia $715 million in fines. Recent pressure from Congress has encouraged the SEC to try to create some objective measures for fines so there can be continuity from case to case. The SEC has been trying to define which behaviors should get which punishments.

The SEC wants a series of objective measures so there can be continuity from case to case. Many believe a good starting point is whether a company benefited from its wrongdoing, in which case fines would be higher. Commissioners also debated how much credit a company should get for cooperating with the SEC, in which case fines would be lower. Some individuals argue that any signposts will be better than today's unmarked landscape.