The SEC needs a major overhaul. For years, they have spent millions quietly investigation improprieties by Banksters and other financial players. I had thought that over the years they would have compiled a virtual mountain of evidence that might be used to free America from the thralls of Bankster bondage. I thought wrong. The SEC has become a revolving-door cesspool of rampant corruption.
A powerful Senate investigative committee has met with and collected evidence from a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement lawyer who is alleging the agency illegally destroyed thousands of records of inquiries into potential Wall Street wrongdoing.
Staff members of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations have held discussions with SEC official Darcy Flynn and his lawyer, ex-SEC official Gary Aguirre, a person familiar with the matter said.
A panel spokesman declined to comment on whether there is an ongoing investigation. The Senate panel has a broad mandate to investigate government and private-sector abuses.
Flynn, a 13-year veteran of the SEC, and Aguirre claim the SEC trashed roughly 9,000 files since 1993 containing documents on inquiries into potential securities-law violations, including at several major Wall Street banks. They allege the files were destroyed routinely as a matter of SEC policy that violated federal rules, and that senior SEC officials lied about the document destruction to federal archives officials.
Aguirre raised the possibility that SEC officials could face criminal liability for allegedly trashing the documents and lying about their destruction in a letter to Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) released this week. So far, however, it appears the matter has not been referred to the Justice Department… [emphasis added]
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Keith Olbermann adds detail with Matt Taibbi on Countdown.
As this has been routine for so long, it demonstrates that both parties’ presidents have appointed facilitators, not regulators, to the SEC. Obama has made some better choices, but has been unable to get them past Republican filibuzzards in the Senate.
As a side note, this does point out the problem with term limitations. Solon of Athens (638 – 558 BC) was the first in recorded history to impose term limitations to fight corruption. He failed, although politicians stopped selling out for campaign cash, because they started selling out for future employment instead. That is what is happening at the SEC, and it is what would happen in the legislature, were term limits to be imposed. We need 100% public financing for federal elections.
At the SEC, we need multi-year bans to prevent SEC employment after securities industry employment and vice-versa.
8 Responses to “Those Pesky SEC Records”
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On this one, I’m going to have to disagree with Matt. Arthur Leavitt and Harvey Pitt were 2 of the best SEC regulators that we’ve ever had. Arthur was even a contributor to Huff Po during his tenure – they went after companies hard and obtained many convictions. It was only under the Bush appointee, Cox that all this crap started happening. I was in Public Accounting at the time, and we regularly cheered them on for for their tough records. Ernon was the fault of Arthur Andersen not doing the work and taking kickbacks – there would be no way the SEC would know about that. But they investigated that thoroughly and many people went to jail for it.
PS – I’m a big fan of both, can you tell?
Thanks for the report.
Lisa, I’ll bow to your expertise. While the citation made it appear that the deletions cover years of investigations, you make it clear that the Republicans deleted records from before their time.
I can’t figure why the DOJ is not investigating after all this time.
Duh! Because those on the Senate committee have dirty hands too???
Can’t the president order an investigation?
He can there needs to be evidence to investigate.
To investigate DOJ needs evidence of wrongdoing referred from the regulatory agencies like the SEC.