S.E.C. v. Bonan Huang, No. 15-269, 2015 WL 5611644 (E.D. Pa. Sept. 23, 2015)

Key Insight: Court denied ?Plaintiffs? motion to compel Defendant s to disclose their secret personal passcodes for smartphones owned by their former employer who, as a matter of policy, required their employees to keep their personal passcodes secret from everyone? upon concluding that ?[s]ince the passcodes to Defendants? work-issued smartphones are not corporate records, the act of producing their personal passcodes is testimonial in nature and Defendants properly invoke their fifth Amendment privilege? and that the ?foregone conclusion doctrine? did not apply ?as the SEC Cannot show with ?reasonable particularity? the existence or location of the documents it seeks?

Electronic Data Involved: Passcodes or passwords to smartphones