page_title: Matter Under Inquiry
hierarchical_section_title: Matter Under Inquiry
caption_attribution_description: https://www.sec.gov/news/studies/2009/oig-509/exhibit-0525.pdf US Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of Inspector General, OIG-509 report, on w:Bernard Madoff case
context_page_description: A Matter Under Inquiry is a term used by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to describe preliminary investigations it makes into alleged financial fraud in the companies that it is responsible for regulating. MUIs may lead to more serious formal investigations, or they may be closed and no further action taken.
  The procedures and rules for when and how to open and close MUIs are described in the agency's Enforcement Manual, as well as other SEC memorandum In the 2000s era, any MUI that was not cancelled, automatically became an 'informal investigation' after a certain period of time. The American Spectator published an article in 2006 by Peter Wallison criticizing this practice, and arguing that it was too difficult for SEC employees to close investigations that it deemed unwarranted.
  MUIs are tracked in the SEC's computerized Case Activity Tracking System. Some information related to MUIs may also exist or have existed in the past in other SEC computer systems, such as the Super Tracking and Reporting System "STARS", the Name Relationship Search Index, and the "Hub".
context_section_description: A Matter Under Inquiry (MUI, pronounced "muey", sometimes called Matter Under Investigation) is a term used by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to describe preliminary investigations it makes into alleged financial fraud in the companies that it is responsible for regulating. MUIs may lead to more serious formal investigations, or they may be closed and no further action taken.
  The procedures and rules for when and how to open and close MUIs are described in the agency's Enforcement Manual (which was first published in 2008), as well as other SEC memorandum  In the 2000s (decade) era, any MUI that was not cancelled, automatically became an 'informal investigation' after a certain period of time. The American Spectator published an article in 2006 by Peter Wallison criticizing this practice, and arguing that it was too difficult for SEC employees to close investigations that it deemed unwarranted.
  MUIs are tracked in the SEC's computerized Case Activity Tracking System (CATS). Some information related to MUIs may also exist or have existed in the past in other SEC computer systems, such as the Super Tracking and Reporting System "STARS", the Name Relationship Search Index (NRSI), and the "Hub".
caption: Form used to close a MUI. This particular example  closed an investigation regarding Bernard Madoff, marking it "inappropriate for enforcement action"
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