Eight SEC employees disciplined over failures in Madoff fraud case

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which failed to stop Bernard Madoff’s long-running investment fraud despite repeated warnings, has disciplined eight agency employees over their handling of the matter but did not fire anyone.

The SEC’s head of human resources and a law firm hired to advise the agency had recommended that SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro fire one person, whom the SEC described as a manager in the office that inspects investment firms.

But the chairman decided not to fire the employee, because doing so “would harm the agency’s work,” SEC spokesman John Nester said.

The disclosure that no one was terminated comes at a time when street protesters and other critics who blame Wall Street for the country’s economic plight are questioning whether the government is serious about holding powerful wrongdoers accountable. This week, a federal judge excoriated the SEC for letting firms such as Citigroup settle fraud charges without admitting or denying wrongdoing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/seven-sec-employees-disciplined-on-failure-to-stop-madoff-fraud/2011/11/10/gIQA3kYYCN_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboNE_b

[Philosopher King]

1. Business as usual... Government workers are rarely held accountable for their acts of malfeasance or

anything else for that matter. Only 1 out 5,000 federal workers is fired for poor performance each year. It's 3%, or 150 per 5,000 employees in the private sector.

Non-performing federal workers cost US taxpayers billions each year and they expose the public to dangers like the ones facilitated by the Securities and Exchange Commission/