Data show drop in SEC criminal case referrals

[Robbien]

Source: Newsday

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the arm of the federal government that oversees Wall Street and is on the hot seat over Bernard Madoff's suspected $50-billion Ponzi scheme, has been referring fewer cases criminal cases to federal prosecutors, according to Department of Justice data compiled by a nonprofit group.

From fiscal 2004 to 2007, the SEC has referred more than 70 percent fewer cases to U.S. attorney's offices for prosecution nationwide, of which 81 percent were in Manhattan, where numerous investment houses are located, the data showed. The figures were compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. . .

"There is no question the cop hasn't been on the beat," said J. Boyd Page, an attorney in Atlanta who represents investors in lawsuits over financial fraud.

. . .

James Cohen, professor of Fordham University School of Law, said the SEC and federal prosecutors appear to be moving cautiously since the Enron case in charging companies with fraud and white collar crimes.

"Because entities in certain circumstances, if they are convicted, they go under," said Cohen


Read more: http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/monday/news/ny-bzsec225974469dec22,0,6889187.story

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Perhaps if the companies are committing fraud in such massive amounts which cause them to go under after prosecution, then those companies should probably not be a going concern.

It would be a help if the guy at the head of the SEC didn't hate SEC regulations so much.

[Lasher]

1. Don't throw me in jail for cooking meth!

I wouldn't be able to make my house payments and then where would I cook meth?

[Overseas]

2. Sounds like the SEC chief was dong "a heck of a job"

like a good Bush Republican. Reduce enforcement and increase public mistrust of government, then it can be dismantled.

[AndyTiedye]

3. Enron Went Bust Because Its Officers Were Robbing It Blind

A little more oversight might have saved the company.

The accounting firm that helped them do it just "went out of business" and came back under another name with the same cast of characters.

[Raster]

5. To be fair: Arthur Anderson was an 80,000 person firm. The group in Anderson responsible for

the Enron debacle as a relatively small group within a very large firm.

However, I maintain we have not seen near enough prosecution of financial criminals for their crimes.

[Raster]

4. I work in the financial industry and file with the SEC on a daily basis.

The cheney*/bush* misadministration has deliberately stripped the SEC of badly needed auditors, examiners and attorneys. The last eight years have been a free ride for the corporatocracy. There has been little oversight and damned near zero securities laws enforcement. Outgoing Chairman Cox has been yet another bush* lapdog, concerned with maintaining the business/corporate status quo. Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme should have been caught YEARS AGO, and if we would have had an SEC intent on protecting the public interest a maintaining fair and equitable financial markets they would have done so. But they did not. More than one person had to look the other way. The same goes for the credit fiasco. The three major credit rating agencies have been breaking the laws and abusing the public interest FOR YEARS. This also should have been discovered AND RIGHTED by the SEC. And again, nothing was done until the resultant damage from criminal action was so far-reaching, it had damned near toppled the credit markets.
There is something rotten and fetid at the SEC, and it's not the thousands of men and women trying to do their job. It is a cancer at the very top of the SEC and Congress and the Executive Branch.

[pattmarty]

6. SURPRISE???????????????????

[depakid]

7. Doesn't take a Sherlock Holmes to see that criminality is rife throughout that agency

Whether the incoming Obama administration is willing to root it out and hold people accountable (so that it doesn't happen again) remains to be seen.

[tabasco]

8. Thank God they got Martha Stewart!!

Bush donors get a get-out-of-jail-free card.