Regulatory Enforcement

It’s official: As expected the Securities and Exchange Commission has tapped former Federal Prosecutor Robert Khuzami as its new Director of the Division of Enforcement. Khuzami, 52, replaces Linda Chatman Thomsen, who resigned earlier this month to return to the private sector. The appointment comes as the SEC faces sharp criticism for its oversight failures […]

As the broader debate on financial services regulatory reform rages on, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has put in its two cents’ worth on how to overhaul the Securities and Exchange Commission. A report released by the Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness details 23 recommendations for revamping the SEC. Seven of the recommendations relate […]

On February 24, 2009, at 2:00 pm EST, Securities Docket will host a webcast entitled, “Liability of Professionals in the Financial Crisis” featuring two of the top lawyers in the securities litigation field. Stuart Grant of Grant & Eisenhofer P.A. and Michael Young of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP will addresses critical questions now arising […]

The Council of Institutional Investors and the CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity have teamed up to form a working group aimed at giving investors a seat at the table in the debate over how to fix the U.S. regulatory system. The independent panel will focus on investor considerations. Dubbed the Investors’ Working Group, […]

The New York Stock Exchange is reporting a record number of insider-trading cases from 2008, but who is committing the alleged infractions is what’s raising eyebrows. New York Stock Exchange Regulation referred 146 cases of suspected insider trading to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2008, surpassing 2007’s numbers (another record year) by five cases. […]

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you have heard the people’s case against the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement. It now rests in your hands to decide whether this is a guilty party. In a span of less than one year, the public’s assessment of the Enforcement Division—particularly by certain members of Congress […]

Just days after the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new chairman announced moves to shake things up in the agency’s enforcement division, the SEC announced the departure of director Linda Chatman Thomsen. An SEC press release said Thomsen plans to return to the private sector. While no offical announcement has been made about her replacement, press […]

In her first two weeks on the job, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new chairman wasted no time making changes aimed at bolstering the agency’s enforcement and called for a “serious self-evaluation” of the way it operates. As promised, Mary Schapiro, in her first speech as SEC chairman, announced the end of the Commission’s two-year […]

The whistleblower credited with repeatedly tipping off the Securities and Exchange Commission over the last nine years about the alleged multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme involving Bernard Madoff publicly blasted the agency as “over-lawyered” and captive to the industry it regulates. Harry Markopolos, the whistleblower who provided the SEC with findings of his own nine-year investigation […]

A new study of corporate legal departments confirms what most general counsels already know: 2009 is going to be a rough year. Forty percent of legal departments expect a decrease in their overall operating budget for 2009, compared to only 8 percent last year. At the same time, however, litigation activity is rising—particularly for the […]