The Securities and Exchange Commission may need to reconsider how it coordinates investigations with the Department of Justice in light of a recent decision by a federal judge throwing out criminal securities fraud charges due to the too-cozy relationship between the SEC and DOJ.
Judge Ancer Haggerty of the U.S. District Court in Oregon wrote a blistering opinion last month that the government engaged in “grossly shocking” misconduct when federal prosecutors probing the conduct of executives of a thermal-imaging company, essentially hiding behind an SEC civil investigation of the business and using its evidence without obeying the higher standards of criminal investigations.
