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Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)


Self Description

January 2002: "The primary mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is to protect investors and maintain the integrity of the securities markets. As more and more first-time investors turn to the markets to help secure their futures, pay for homes, and send children to college, these goals are more compelling than ever." http://www.sec.gov/about/whatwedo.shtml

Third-Party Descriptions

May 2010: "Regulators cast a watchful eye Over the past 10 years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulatory bodies have focused more attention on strict enforcement of communications rules. For example, the SEC's Rule 17a-4 requires the monitoring and capture of electronic communications, and the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) Rule 2210 and 3010, also requires firms to monitor and store communications with clients. Neither agency has as yet felt compelled to specify requirements around social networking traffic, but it is implicit that they fall under the same rules as email and IM, Ritter said."

http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/social-networking-raises-legal-regulatory-issues-businesses-219

May 2010: 'The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at whether key financial firms broke securities laws when they stopped buying and selling stocks during the "flash crash" on May 6, helping fuel the historic plunge in prices.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/20/AR2010052005086.html

April 2010: "Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse, was accused of securities fraud in a civil lawsuit filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims the bank created and sold a mortgage investment that was secretly intended to fail."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/business/17goldman.html

April 2010: "The SEC's inspector general said that top officials in the agency's Fort Worth office favored pursuing as many simple cases as possible rather than taking on more challenging ones like that presented by Stanford."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/16/AR2010041604891.html

April 2010: "The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining various creative borrowing tactics used by some 20 financial companies. A Congressional panel investigating the financial crisis also plans to examine such deals at a hearing in May to focus on Lehman and Bear Stearns, according to two people knowledgeable about the panel’s plans."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/business/13lehman.html

September 2009: 'Howard Elisofan, a partner at Herrick, Feinstein LLP and a former SEC enforcement attorney, launched a legal action against the SEC on behalf of a victim, Phyllis Molchatsky, last December. He has since filed eight similar complaints. "We're arguing that the SEC was negligent on multiple occasions for many reasons over multiple years, and had they detected the fraud a long time ago, thousands of people would not have been so gravely injured," he said.'

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1920323,00.html

September 2009: "WASHINGTON — Unseasoned investigators from the Securities and Exchange Commission were alternately intimidated and enthralled by a name-dropping, yarn-spinning Bernard L. Madoff as he dodged questions about his financial house of cards, according to a scathing new report on the agency’s repeated failure to uncover the huge investment fraud."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/business/03madoff.html

July 2009: "Legislators on Capitol Hill have increased pressure on the S.E.C. to make a sweeping overhaul of stock trading regulations in the wake of the market collapse last year. Mary L. Schapiro, the chairwoman of the S.E.C., has said she is making the issue a priority. The agency said it was working with several self-regulatory organizations to expand disclosures about short-selling. For the first time, information on the volume of short sales involving an individual stock would be disclosed publicly on a daily basis."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/business/28naked.html

June 2009: "The Boston office of the Securities and Exchange Commission began the investigation around 2001. Three years later, formal charges were brought against Mr. Kwak and seven others. By the time the case went to trial, in 2007, only three defendants were left; the others had settled with the S.E.C."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/business/27nocera.html

June 2009: 'Well, the ax finally fell on Wednesday. The Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of looting client accounts of at least $6 million and using them “as his personal piggy bank.” It accused him of spending the money he took on a multimillion-dollar home, luxury cars and a share in a horse. Mr. Weitzman agreed to settle the claims without admitting or denying the accusations, though the S.E.C. is unsure about how much money his clients will get back.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/your-money/financial-planners/11money.html

June 2009: "Angelo R. Mozilo, the self-made man from the Bronx who built Countrywide Financial into the nation’s largest mortgage lender before the credit squeeze hit, has been charged with securities fraud and insider trading in a civil suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/business/05insider.html

June 2009: "The report is a clarion call for the SEC to issue formal guidance on climate-related disclosure, and it bolsters investors' long-held pleas for better corporate reporting."

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2009/tc2009063_019035.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

June 2009: "For decades investors have turned to companies' Securities & Exchange Commission filings to answer such questions. Keeping Mum"

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2009/tc2009063_019035.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

June 2009: "The outcome, though discouraging to the team, was not a complete surprise, sources said. After Cox became SEC chairman in mid-2005, he adopted practices that undermined the enforcement division's efforts to investigate cases of corporate wrongdoing and punish those involved, according to interviews with 19 current and former SEC officials."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR2009053102254.html

May 2009: "The allegation, detailed in a report reviewed by The Washington Post, is one of several that have raised questions about the internal conduct of some SEC employees at a time when the regulator is trying to counter accusations that it failed to effectively police Wall Street."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/16/AR2009051602359.html

January 2009: "Since Bernard Madoff's arrest last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has busted three new Ponzi scams, though none are as spectacular as Madoff's $50 billion whopper."

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1873639,00.html

January 2009: "Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has said oversight of the municipal bond markets is inadequate, and has urged Congress to take steps to protect both investors and taxpayers. Congress has not taken up the initiative."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/business/09insure.html

December 2008: "Legal and financial experts say that a loosening of enforcement measures, cutbacks in staffing at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a shift in resources toward terrorism at the F.B.I. have combined to make the federal government something of a paper tiger in investigating securities crimes."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/business/25fraud.html

December 2008: "The Treasury's regulations also instructed firms to disclose more compensation information to the Securities and Exchange Commission. But officials at the SEC do not think they have the authority to force companies to disclose the kind of pay information required by the bailout law, according to people familiar with the matter, though they hope companies will cooperate. John Nester, an SEC spokesman, declined to comment."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/14/AR2008121402670.html

December 2008: "At the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a federal judge appointed a receiver on Thursday evening to secure the Madoff firm’s overseas accounts and warned the firm not to move any assets until he had ruled on whether to freeze the assets."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/business/12scheme.html

June 2008: "Last week, for instance, the Securities and Exchange Commission handed down a ruling against NEXT Financial Group, fining the company $125,000 for sharing customer data with brokers it hoped to recruit as clients. Last November, e-mail solicitation company Convio was breached by hackers, revealing personal information of donors to nearly 100 charities that used the service. And in 2005, data broker Choicepoint sold more than 145,000 individuals' personal data to Nigerian scammers it believed were legitimate marketers."

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/06/21/privacy-security-marketing-tech-security-cx_ag_0623privacy.html

July 2008: "The Securities and Exchange Commission, under pressure to respond to the tumult in the financial industry, announced emergency measures on Tuesday to curb certain kinds of short-selling that aims at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as Wall Street banks."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/business/16short.html

July 2008: "The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Sunday that it and other regulators would begin examining rumor-spreading intended to manipulate securities prices."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/business/14sec.html

July 2008: 'New Jersey and San Diego had versions of skim funds, and won “excellence in accounting” awards from the Government Finance Officers Association for many years while operating them. Each ended up with far less money in its pension fund than its books showed. The Securities and Exchange Commission found that San Diego had committed securities fraud by overstating the soundness of its pension fund; it is still investigating New Jersey.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/business/11gasb.html

July 2008: "Federal officials say they are preparing to propose a series of regulatory changes to enhance American competitiveness overseas, attract foreign investment and give American investors a broader selection of foreign stocks. But critics say the changes appear to be a last-ditch push by appointees of President Bush to dilute securities rules passed after the collapse of Enron..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/05/business/05sec.html

June 2008: "The lawsuit adds to the considerable legal risks facing Bank of America as it prepares to absorb Countrywide in a takeover announced in January. Countrywide and its executives have been named as defendants in shareholder lawsuits, and the company’s practices are the subject of investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the F.B.I. and the Federal Trade Commission, which oversees loan servicing companies."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/business/25mortgage.html

June 2008: "The closely watched bill would make it illegal for prosecutors and other federal enforcement officials, including those at the Securities and Exchange Commission, to demand that a company under investigation disclose confidential legal communications or risk being indicted — a corporate death knell."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/23law.html

June 2008: "But three weeks ago, on May 19, the Securities and Exchange Commission, after nearly six years of investigating accounting at AOL, filed a civil lawsuit against eight former executives alleging financial fraud. Seven were AOL executives before the merger; the eighth was Mr. Ripp."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/business/media/09aol.html

May 2008: "The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday filed civil lawsuits against eight former America Online executives, accusing them of participating in illegal accounting practices that inflated the online giant's reported revenue by more than $1 billion."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/19/AR2008051901686.html

March 2008: 'For one, brokerage firms are required to have enough assets on hand to repay any customer obligations in the event of a bankruptcy. Moreover, under the Securities and Exchange Commission's so-called customer-protection rule, broker dealers are required to hold client assets in "segregated accounts," which means the firm cannot use those assets for their own business purposes.'

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120580155855243823.html

February 2008: "He pointed to the Internal Revenue Service, where managers may receive smaller pay raises than rank-and-file employees, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, where an arbitrator found the pay system discriminated against African American employees and employees who were 40 and older."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021303154.html

September 2007: Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and state regulators said they expected soon to propose guidelines prohibiting sales agents from using titles that imply an expertise in financial issues for older Americans, when that designation has little or no value.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/business/06adviser.html

August 2007: Private-equity firms are a relatively recent innovation on Wall Street, having come to prominence over the past two decades. Unregulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, they amass huge amounts of money from wealthy individuals, pension funds and financial institutions, and use it to buy companies, such as Chrysler and the Hilton hotel chain, two recently announced deals.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/02/AR2007080202620.html

April 2007: Now questions loom as to whether such impeccable timing reflects mere good luck or something more. The Securities The Securities & Exchange Commission Exchange Commission has intensified a probe begun last fall into allegations that executives may have taken advantage of loose reporting rules in place before the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to fudge the dates on which they exercised options. By doing so, executives may have changed stock-sale proceeds on which they owed ordinary income taxes into capital gains, which were taxed at roughly half the rate. SEC enforcement head Linda C. Thomsen has called the practice, known as exercise backdating, 'fraudulent,' though in the one case that has come to court, the jury could not reach a verdict. Tax Evasion?

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/apr2007/db20070419_773524.htm

January 2007: Over the past years, the intrepid duo of James Bandler and Charles Forelle at the Wall Street Journal have helped unearth dozens of examples of options backdating at companies large and small. Their investigations of the dishonest practice have led to the resignation of dozens of top executives and investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors. But the options scandal has never touched a more exciting company than Apple or a more thrilling executive than Jobs.

http://www.slate.com/id/2157160

November 2006: A coalition of leading Internet companies, including Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and IAC/Interactive Corp., plans today to petition the Securities and Exchange Commission to reconsider new fees that U.S. stock exchanges charge them for posting real-time stock quotes on their Web sites.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/13/AR2006111301219.html

December 2006: Rent-Way’s board made a decision within days of detecting the fraud — Mr. Morgenstern called the Securities and Exchange Commission and revealed everything. The company would turn over documents typically protected by attorney-client privilege, he said. He then invited the S.E.C. to set up an office at Rent-Way’s headquarters to conduct an on-site investigation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/business/yourmoney/10rent.html

December 2006: Congressional investigators have found that a second official at the Securities and Exchange Commission expressed serious concerns about how the agency was conducting its inquiry into a prominent hedge fund, Pequot Capital Management.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/business/05hedge.html

November 2006: a 10b5-1 plan. The Securities The Securities & Exchange Commission Exchange Commission created such prearranged trading plans in 2000 to clarify the rules under which executives can legally sell shares they've accumulated. As long as they initiate the plan at a time when they don't know of any significant nonpublic information, lay out in advance the dates or prices at which sales will be made, and don't control the trades, they are legally protected from insider trading charges.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_45/b4008051.htm

August 2006: The backdating practice has been called everything from 'innocuous' to 'corporate looting.' I think it smacks of unfairness. But it seems to have been a common practice at many companies. Some 80 firms are under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the backdating scandal that was originally uncovered by The Wall Street Journal in March. The number of firms under scrutiny seems to grow daily. And recently the IRS announced it's looking into the matter, too.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/boomerbucks/20060802a1.asp

January 2006: The Securities and Exchange Commission's proposals, which would reduce those types of surprises, are being hailed as the most sweeping overhaul of executive compensation disclosure rules since 1992. Even in Silicon Valley, where financial perks like corporate jets and shadowy retirement plans are rare, companies will be pressed to justify why they dole out heaping helpings of stock options to top executives.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/13651638.htm

January 2005: The Securities and Exchange Commission, meanwhile, has stressed its intention to hold individuals personally responsible and has followed up by demanding in some settlement agreements that executives forgo insurance reimbursement.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22701-2005Jan19.html

August 2004: Seven investment banking firms, including Arlington's Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group Inc., are set to pay a total of $3.65 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they failed to disclose payments from companies about whom they issued research reports, according to sources familiar with the deal.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30330-2004Aug24.html

January 2002: That could indicate that to some at Andersen, the lesson learned from the Waste Management case was not the lesson that the S.E.C. wanted to send — that auditors run great risks if they sign off on accounts they know to be wrong. Instead, they may have concluded that the error was in keeping the documents around for the S.E.C. to subpoena them later.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/16/business/16ACCO.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Opponent (past or present) Altera Corporation Organization Dec 11, 2006
Opponent (past or present) American Amicable Life Insurance Company Organization Aug 17, 2006
Opponent (past or present) Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities Organization Dec 11, 2008
Opponent (past or present) Biovail Corporation Organization Jun 2, 2009
Opponent (past or present) Brocade Communications Systems Organization Jun 2, 2009
Opponent (past or present) Deutsche Bank Organization Jun 2, 2009
Opponent (past or present) Ingram Micro Organization Jun 2, 2009
Cooperation (past or present) Opponent (past or present) JPMorgan Chase & Co. Organization Jun 2, 2009
Opponent (past or present) MBIA Organization Jun 2, 2009
Opponent (past or present) Mercury Interactive Organization Jun 1, 2007
Cooperation (past or present) Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) Organization Jan 12, 2009
Opponent (past or present) NEXT Financial Group Organization Oct 7, 2008
Opponent (past or present) Nucorp Energy Organization Jul 27, 2006
Opponent (past or present) Possible/Unclear Pequot Capital Management Organization Dec 7, 2006
Opponent (past or present) RenaissanceRe Holdings Organization Jun 2, 2009
Opponent (past or present) Seahawk Deep Ocean Technology Organization Aug 27, 2007
Owned by (partial or full, past or present) US Federal Government - Independent Agencies Organization May 6, 2005
Organization Executive (past or present) Paul S. Atkins Person Oct 27, 2004
Organization Executive (past or present) Barry Barbash Esq. Person
Organization Executive (past or present) Prof. Dennis R. Beresford Person Mar 31, 2004
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Richard C. Breeden Person Feb 3, 2004
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Roel Campos Person
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Commissioner Christopher Cox Esq. Person Dec 9, 2005
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Stephen M. Cutler Esq. Person Mar 4, 2004
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) William H. Donaldson Person
Research/Analysis Subject Prof. Tamar Frankel Esq. Person Jan 22, 2008
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Cynthia A. Glassman Person
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Harvey J. Goldschmid Esq. Person
Organization Executive (past or present) Professor Joseph A. Grundfest Person Jul 27, 2006
Organization Executive (past or present) Robert K. Herdman Person
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Roderick M. Hills Person
Advised by (past or present) Philip K. Howard Esq. Person Apr 4, 2007
Organization Executive (past or present) David L. Kornblau Esq. Person Oct 27, 2008
Organization Executive (past or present) H. David Kotz Person May 19, 2009
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Arthur Levitt Jr. Person Jul 27, 2006
Organization Executive (past or present) David M. Lynn Person Dec 18, 2008
Opponent (past or present) Bernard "Bernie" L. Madoff Person Dec 11, 2008
Organization Executive (past or present) William R. McLucas Person
Cooperation (past or present) Mr. William E. Morgenstern Person Dec 11, 2006
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Prof. Elizabeth A. Nowicki Esq. Person Apr 13, 2010
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Harvey L. Pitt Person
Organization Executive (past or present) Lori Richards Person May 19, 2005
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Prof. David S. Ruder Esq. Person
Organization Executive (past or present) Diego Tomás Ruiz Person Feb 15, 2008
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Organization Executive (past or present) Mary L. Schapiro Esq. Person Apr 18, 2010
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) John S.R. Person
Organization Executive (past or present) Walter J. Stachnik Person Dec 7, 2006
Opponent (past or present) R. Allen Stanford Person Apr 18, 2010
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Jeffrey Tucker Esq. Person Dec 22, 2008
Organization Executive (past or present) Lynn E. Turner Person Sep 6, 2006
Organization Executive (past or present) Patrick Von Bargen Person Jun 18, 2007
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) William H. Webster Esq. Person
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Peter A. Winn Esq.,MPhil Person Feb 15, 2009

Articles and Resources

348 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Jun 16, 2010 Negotiators in Congress to Discuss Rule for Brokers

QUOTE: On the surface, both the brokerage and the financial planning industries appear to agree that advisers of all stripes should be subject to a consistent fiduciary standard. But behind the scenes, the groups are divided on how exactly it will work, while the insurance industry has been opposed to the standard.

 New York Times
May 22, 2010 No criminal charges for executives in troubled AIG subsidiary

QUOTE: The Justice Department has closed its high-profile investigation into current and former executives of an American International Group subsidiary that was linked to the insurance giant's near collapse, sources familiar with the probe said Friday evening.

 Washington Post
May 21, 2010 SEC launches inquiry into market's 'flash crash'

QUOTE: The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at whether key financial firms broke securities laws when they stopped buying and selling stocks during the "flash crash" on May 6, helping fuel the historic plunge in prices.

 Washington Post
May 21, 2010 Suddenly, the Rating Agencies Don’t Look Untouchable

QUOTE: several major lawsuits against the rating agencies have survived the pretrial phase and might — emphasis on might — end with huge jury verdicts or expensive settlements. In addition, a newly emboldened Congress is on the verge of overhauling financial regulation and could rewrite the rules of the industry. For S.& P., Moody’s and Fitch,...

 New York Times
May 18, 2010 Clients Worried About Goldman’s Dueling Goals

QUOTE: Goldman’s bets against WaMu, wagers that took place even as it helped WaMu feed a housing frenzy that Goldman had already lost faith in, are examples of conflicting roles that trouble its critics and some former clients. While Goldman has legions of satisfied customers and maintains that it puts its clients first, it also sometimes appears to work against the interests of those same clients when opportunities to make trading profits off their financial troubles arise.

 New York Times
May 17, 2010 Senate Votes for a Clear Credit Score

QUOTE: The Senate, by a voice vote, approved a proposal by Senator Mark Udall, Democrat of Colorado, to require that credit reports include the numerical score, which by the most common measure ranges from 300 to 850.

 New York Times
May 10, 2010 Social networking raises legal, regulatory issues for businesses: Companies are finding...too valuable as sales-lead generation and marketing to block

QUOTE: many businesses are attempting to simply block all access to social networking sites for employees who would fall under regulatory scrutiny, such as broker-dealers and sales and marketing representatives, even though these employee are finding the sites invaluable.

 InfoWorld
Apr 17, 2010 SEC suspected R. Allen Stanford of Ponzi scheme 12 years earlier, report says

QUOTE: The Securities and Exchange Commission knew that Texas-based financier R. Allen Stanford was probably running a Ponzi scheme 12 years before it halted the fraud, potentially costing investors more than a billion dollars...The SEC's inspector general said that top officials in the agency's Fort Worth office favored pursuing as many simple cases as possible rather than taking on more challenging ones like that presented by Stanford.

 Washington Post
Apr 16, 2010 S.E.C. Accuses Goldman of Fraud in Housing Deal

QUOTE: Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse, was accused of securities fraud in a civil lawsuit filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims the bank created and sold a mortgage investment that was secretly intended to fail.

 New York Times
Apr 12, 2010 Lehman Channeled Risks Through ‘Alter Ego’ Firm

QUOTE: It was like a hidden passage on Wall Street, a secret channel that enabled billions of dollars to flow through Lehman Brothers. In the years before its collapse, Lehman used a small company — its “alter ego,” in the words of a former Lehman trader — to shift investments off its books.

 New York Times
Sep 03, 2009 After Its Madoff Report, Can Victims Sue the SEC?

QUOTE: Howard Elisofan, a partner at Herrick, Feinstein LLP and a former SEC enforcement attorney, launched a legal action against the SEC on behalf of a victim, Phyllis Molchatsky, last December.

 Time Magazine
Sep 02, 2009 Report Details How Madoff’s Web Ensnared S.E.C.

QUOTE: “despite numerous credible and detailed complaints,” the S.E.C. never took “the necessary, but basic, steps to determine if [Bernard L.] Madoff was operating a Ponzi scheme.”

 New York Times
Aug 18, 2009 Three Alleged Hackers Indicted in Large Identity-Theft Case

QUOTE: A federal grand jury has indicted three people on charges of hacking into the files of the credit and debit card processing giant Heartland Payment Systems last year in what the Justice Department is calling the largest identity-theft case ever prosecuted.

 Washington Post
Aug 06, 2009 Magic numbers: The SEC fines GE

QUOTE: The SEC had accused GE of bending “accounting rules beyond breaking point” in order to avoid disappointing results on four occasions in 2002 and 2003.

 Economist
Aug 05, 2009 Despite Bailouts, Business as Usual at Goldman

QUOTE: Goldman [Sachs] executives are dismissive, even defiant, when critics argue that the bank is playing a heads-we-win, tails-you-lose game with American taxpayers. And yet the questions keep coming.

 New York Times
Aug 05, 2009 Bank Balances Shift With Rule Changes: After One Tweak Improved the Books, Another Could Erase Gains and More

QUOTE: A controversial change in accounting rules earlier this year has allowed banks to claim billions of dollars in additional earnings simply by tweaking their bookkeeping, greatly enhancing the appearance that the industry is returning to health.

 Washington Post
Aug 04, 2009 Dueling Public Interests In Policing Rescued Firms: SEC Actions Could Weigh on U.S. Stakes

QUOTE: the quandary [the SEC filing suit against Regions Financial] shows the difficulty facing the nation's top Wall Street cop at a time when the economic crisis has left the U.S. government as the part-owner or controller of an unprecedented array of financial companies. Protecting investors on the one hand could mean harming taxpayer-owners on the other.

 Washington Post
Aug 03, 2009 SEC Charges Bank of America With Lying to Investors

QUOTE: The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday charged Bank of America with lying to investors about its plan to pay billions of dollars in bonuses to employees of Merrill Lynch.

 Washington Post
Jul 29, 2009 Details on presidential motorcades, safe house for First Family, leak via P2P: Lawmakers eye bill to ban P2P use on government, contractor networks

QUOTE: Tiversa is a Cranberry Township, Pa.-based provider of P2P monitoring services. In the past, it has served up dramatic examples of highly sensitive information found on file-sharing networks.

 Computerworld
Jul 27, 2009 S.E.C. Rule Curtailing Short Sales Will Stay

QUOTE: Some traders say such a policy will handicap firms by allowing competitors to study patterns gleaned from the public data to figure out proprietary trading techniques....The idea was that the rule would cut down on “failures to deliver” resulting from naked shorting — when short-sellers couldn’t deliver the shares they promised to buyers.

 New York Times

348 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]