Bruce Carton

In mid-October, I noted here that Sir Hector Sants, Barclays’ head of compliance and regulatory relations, had decided to take a three month leave of absence after being diagnosed as suffering from “exhaustion and stress.” Sants was expected to return to his position with Barclays in early 2014, but the firm announced today that Sants has instead elected to […]

Since at least the early days of the financial crisis and probably longer, a small number of loud voices have been chirping about the supposed evils of the “revolving door” as it relates to the SEC. The revolving door refers to SEC officials leaving the agency to go work in lucrative positions in private law […]

The SEC announced today that LeeAnn Ghazil Gaunt has been named the new chief of the Enforcement Division’s Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit. Gaunt has worked in the SEC’s Boston Regional Office for 13 years, including 10 in supervisory roles, and has worked in the Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit since its inception in 2010. The Municipal […]

Move over Preet Bharara, now it is SEC Chair Mary Jo White’s turn to receive a 10,000-word profile in a mainstream magazine. The November 11, 2013 issue of The New Yorker magazine includes a must-read article on Chair White (“Street Cop”) by Nicholas Lemann that provides some fascinating background and insights on the SEC’s new […]

Two days before today’s highly-anticipated IPO of Twitter, the House Committee on Ethics sent out an interesting letter to House members reminding them of an important law that Congress passed in April 2012. In a letter dated November 5, 2013, the Committee noted that under the “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge” Act (STOCK Act), which is […]

This afternoon, Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced a settlement of his office’s criminal insider trading case against SAC Capital Advisors LP. According to Bharara, the $1.8 billion in total penalties that will be paid by SAC is believed to be the largest financial penalty in history for insider trading.  […]

Throughout the week over at Securities Docket I highlight the most interesting columns and blog posts from around the web on the subjects of SEC enforcement and securities litigation. Here is a digest of my picks for the week ending November 1, 2013. Madness of JPMorgan’s $13bn settlement Jacob Frenkel, Financial Times op-ed In ancient times, when gladiators did […]

Back in 2009, it struck me that although he had only held his post for eight months, SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar was the commissioner who seemed to consistently demonstrate the greatest interest in enforcement issues through his speeches and public statements. I dubbed him, therefore, the “Enforcement Commissioner.” Commissioner Aguilar testified in his renomination hearing […]

“Come at the king, you best not miss.” — Omar Little, The Wire The SEC knew when it brought its case against Mark Cuban that he was an extremely high-profile defendant. The upside in bringing such a case included the vast media coverage that accompanied it, and the potential deterrence value that a victory would bring. […]