The power of the federal courts to issue ex parte as well as preliminary provisional relief freezing a defendant’s assets, without full consideration of the merits of the case, is one of the most potent devices available to the courts. Such relief allows a plaintiff to impose draconian sanctions against a defendant on the basis of much lesser burdens of proof and evidentiary standards than those that the plaintiff would have to meet in order to succeed at trial. The effect of an asset freeze is no less drastic when the plaintiff is the government or an agency thereof.
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") is statutorily authorized to bring actions in the federal courts whenever it suspects that violations of the federal securities laws have occurred.1 In situations involving imminent or ongoing violations of the securities laws, the SEC is entitled "upon proper showing [to] a permanent or temporary injunction or restraining order … without bond."2 Often, as part of such
