After an investigation by the SEC Inspector General concerning allegations by Gary Aguirre that his supervisors in the Enforcement Division gave preferential treatment to the Chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley in an investigation, the IG concluded in a report dated September 30, 2008 that senior Enforcement officials including Director Linda Thomsen should be disciplined. […]
Bruce Carton
Posted inFrom the Archive
The Lowest-Profile High-Profile Case
To paraphrase Martin Landau’s character on Entourage, “If I told you that Deloitte had filed a lawsuit against its own vice chairman for allegedly engaging in insider trading in options with respect to 12 Deloitte clients … would that be something that would interest you?” Well, yeah. Of course it would. But until yesterday, despite […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
SEC Termination of Mannatech Probe Shows Wells Power
A recent announcement by Mannatech Inc. concerning the termination of an SEC investigation against it and certain individuals shows the power of the SEC’s “Wells process.” On September 5, 2008, Mannatech disclosed in a Form 8-K that the company, its CFO, and the Chairman of its Audit Committee had received “Wells notices” from the Staff […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Use LinkedIn “News” to Stay on Top of Securities Litigation
We’ve already covered using Twitter as a tool to learn about developments at the SEC and elsewhere in an earlier post (here), and since then I’ve created this entire list of “Twitter Feeds for Securities Counsel” (click here) that I’d like to share that will help you even further. Next up on our Web 2.0 […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
SEC’s Jonathan Sokobin on the Role and Future of the ORA
When the original Director of the SEC’s Office of Risk Assessment left the Commission in early 2007, the SEC knew it was going to be a challenge to find his replacement. The ideal person would need an unusual blend of economics, business, and securities knowledge, as well as a bit of an entrepreneurial streak to […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
The SEC’s Office of Risk Assessment: Reloaded
I thought I was finished with the SEC’s Office of Risk Assessment after writing this post about the ORA’s “Army of One,” but as Michael Corleone said in Godfather III, “Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in.” I wrote the “Army of One” piece following the Congressional testimony in early October […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
SEC Continues Crackdown Against “PIPE” Insider Trading
On October 20, 2008, the SEC announced that it had filed a settled enforcement action alleging insider trading against Brian D. Ladin, a former analyst for a hedge fund called Bonanza Master Fund Ltd. (“Bonanza”), in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Ladin engaged in insider trading […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
SEC 2008 Enforcement Results: Second Highest Number of Actions Ever
The SEC announced today that it brought 671 enforcement actions in its fiscal year 2008 (ended Sept. 30, 2008), the second-highest number of enforcement actions in agency history. It also announced that for the second year in a row, it returned more than $1 billion to harmed investors through Fair Fund distributions. Some of the […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Treasury: No Consensus on Limiting Auditor Liability
On October 6, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession issued its Final Report. The report was the product of 12 months of work by the Committee, which was headed up by former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt and former SEC Chief Accountant Donald Nicolaisen, and consisted of no fewer than 21 members. […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
“Sarbanes Oxley?” Never Heard of It
In honor of its 10th birthday, Google has recreated and made available its oldest available index for your searching amusement, from January 2001. The 2001 index contains 1,326,920,000 fully searchable web pages, and is available at http://www.google.com/search2001.html (or just click here). Be prepared to waste invest a good bit of time trying out your favorite […]