As of May 21, the U.S. SEC’s “no-deny” settlement policy is dead. For the past 50 years, the agency has required settling defendants to sign an agreement stating that they neither admit nor deny the SEC’s allegations. And beyond that, the standard settlement prohibits, under threat of court action, the defendants from ever denying the allegations publicly. According to an SEC notice to be published in the May 21 Federal Register, the agency has reconsidered the issue and is now rescinding the no-deny rule.

In a move aimed at incentivizing companies to go and stay public, the U.S. SEC proposed two rulemakings May 19 as a foundation to the agency’s Make IPOs Great Again agenda.

The U.S. SEC filed a settlement April 29 that it reached with Anthony Cataldo regarding allegations that the former chairman and CEO of a clinical-stage biopharma company misappropriated about $3.2 million from the company and then concealed the misconduct from the company’s auditors.