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 Mar. 11.

The S.E.C. Under Fire

DealBook | Peter Henning | Mar 11, 2011

The Securities and Exchange Commission is being scrutinized over both its handling of a former general counsel with a financial interest in a Bernard L. Madoff fund and its filing against a potential witness in the insider trading prosecution of Raj Rajaratnam. The questions being asked could undermine the agency's credibility as an effective regulator of the securities markets.

OSC should think twice about accepting SEC-style deals

Globe and Mail | David Milstead | Mar 10, 2011

Ontario Securities Commission chairman Howard Wetston says he wants more U.S.-style enforcement out of his regulators. At first blush, it sounds like a fine idea. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has admirable regulatory vigour by Canadian standards. But one of Mr. Wetston's specific suggestions is a greater use of settlements in which the defendants need not admit any of the allegations against them. The SEC's language in nearly all settlements is that defendants “neither admit nor deny” the charges, a mushy “out” clause that can cause more problems than it solves.

Second Circuit Addresses Materiality Standard Under Federal Securities Law

Harvard Law School Forum on Corp. Gov. and Fin. Reg. | Brad S. Karp | Mar 8, 2011

In particular, the Court held that where, as in Blackstone, the issuer has multiple segments, if a misstatement is significant to “a particularly important segment of a registrant's business” it may be material even if it is “quantitatively small compared to a registrant's firm-wide financial results.”

Curious Accusations in S.E.C.'s Insider Trading Case

DealBook | Andrew Ross Sorkin | Mar 8, 2011

Given the seriousness of the claims — insider trading by an executive who had reached the upper echelons of corporate America — why not bring criminal charges against Mr. Gupta? Well, that's where the facts of the case get a little mushy, and they are starting to raise some questions among lawyers about the S.E.C.'s motivations.

Irving Picard, The Man With the Thankless Job of Pursuing Billions Lost in Madoff Fraud (WSJ)

WSJ | Michael Rothfeld | Mar 7, 2011

Devoutly anonymous, Irving Picard, the 69-year-old career bankruptcy attorney unraveling history's biggest Ponzi scheme, has nonetheless assumed a larger-than-life profile. He has attacked institutions from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to the New York Mets, and angered some victims of Bernard Madoff in pursuit of the billions lost in the fraud.

After Morrison, Recoveries for Non-U.S. Investors under the Dutch Collective Settlements Act?

The D&O Diary | Kevin LaCroix | Mar 7, 2011

A recent announcement involving prior Dutch settlements underscores that efforts to obtain recoveries outside the U.S. on behalf of non-U.S. investors have actually been underway for some time. The settlements show how parallel (or at least sequential) proceedings can resolve the claims of both U.S. and non-U.S. investors, respectively. These procedures, which have been used before in the same way, may afford a means by which all investors – including even non-U.S. investors – potentially may obtain recoveries, notwithstanding the constraints of Morrison.

Topics