The U.S. Supreme Court will on Tuesday join the legal battle over how much leeway the government should have to conduct investigations and impose civil penalties. Tuesday's case involves whether the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission waited too long to bring a civil action accusing mutual fund manager Marc Gabelli and his colleague, Bruce Alpert, of letting a client engage in so-called "market timing" without disclosing it to investors. Gabelli and Alpert, chief operating officer of Gabelli Funds LLC, argued the five-year statute of limitations starts to tick down when the alleged wrongful act is committed. The SEC said it begins only when the agency is reasonably able to detect fraud. A victory for the SEC could give the regulator and others, including the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, more firepower in civil cases. This might be helpful in particularly complex investigations that require more time, including
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