Today at 2:30 pm ET, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment will hold an important hearing on “Strengthening the SEC’s Vital Enforcement Responsibilities.” The hearing comes just one day after the release of an extraordinary Report to Congressional Requesters by the Government Accountability Office (that bears the unextraordinary title of “Greater Attention Needed to Enhance Communication and Utilization of Resources in the Division of Enforcement,” and is available here).
The GAO report shines a brutally bright light on the inner workings of the Enforcement Division and many of the problems it has faced, past and present. Indeed, you could call it a hatchet job if it weren’t for the fact that the facts appears to have come directly from the Enforcement staff and management themselves, and even certain SEC Commissioners. Maybe a “confession” is a better way to describe it.
