News & Analysis

SEC alternatives unit names deputy chiefs

Following the loss of Robert Kaplan, the SEC’s unit responsible for investigating private equity firms has identified two deputy heads from within its own ranks.

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Julie Riewe and Marshall Sprung have been promoted to deputy chiefs of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) unit responsible for investigating private fund managers. 

The pair will serve under Bruce Karpati, who became the sole head of the unit following the departure of his former co-chief Robert Kaplan, who earlier this month went to work for law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. 

Sprung, formerly a litigation associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, has reportedly worked in the agency’s Los Angeles office since 2003. Riewe reportedly joined the SEC in 2005, having previously acted as a litigation associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.

The unit boasts a team of 75 lawyers and industry experts who were assembled to provide the SEC greater expertise in supervising alternative asset managers. For GPs who complain that some SEC auditors don’t understand enough about how private equity is different from other types of investment advisors, the unit sought to ease those concerns.