In SEC v. Strauss, 2009 WL 3459204 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 28, 2009), U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Pitman denied the defendant's application to compel the SEC to grant him remote access to Deloitte and Touche's electronic database.

This case is an enforcement action brought by the SEC against three senior officers of American Home Mortgage Investment Corporation for accounting fraud.  All defendants reached settlement with the exception of Stephen Hozie.  The SEC had obtained remote access to a Deloitte electronic database containing audits and quarterly reviews of American Home.  The SEC paid a monthly subscription fee and an additional one-time fee per database user.

Hozie sought access to the database through the SEC.  The SEC argued the database belonged to Deloitte and was not under the SEC's control.  The court rejected the SEC's argument noting that the SEC had a contractual right to review documents contained in the database and therefore had some level of control.  Nonetheless, the court denied Hozie's request holding that the database was equally available to him if he chose to pay the monthly subscription fees.  The court found that a "shared access" arrangement would create significant unnecessary burdens for the SEC.