The SEC Bash

The SEC Historical Society — not the SEC, mind you — just threw a big bash celebrating the commission’s 75 years of sucking ass. My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.

A giant screen projected images of SEC luminaries over the diners, who savored main course selections that included port wine and orange-glazed rock Cornish game hen. Each attendee was given a hardcover, elaborately produced book commemorating the occasion with photos from the commission’s history, including Joseph P. Kennedy giving a press conference in 1934 and the all-female 1939 SEC bowling league.
The dinner was financed by donors to the Historical Society who purchased tables ranging in price from $3,500 to $7,500 and placed notices in the bound book congratulating the commission on its achievements. (“Each new day presents an opportunity to celebrate,” read the ad from Fidelity Investments. “A blue ribbon achievement? It certainly is!” gushed a full-page ad by the accounting firm Ernst & Young.)
Tickets cost $250 per person but $50 for SEC staffers or government employees.

Yes, these are same folks guy missed Bernie Madoff even when they were told exactly what was going on. Here are some more details of the SEC’s incompetence:

The internal watchdog at the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed Monday his office is investigating several employees, including one top SEC official, after receiving complaints alleging they improperly disclosed non-public information.
One pending investigation by SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz comes in response to an allegation that a top SEC official improperly disclosed non-public information to a large investment bank.
In another case, Kotz reported that his office is investigating two enforcement attorneys for possibly disclosing non-public information from an internal SEC database to a corrupt FBI agent and short seller who was later convicted of fraud, racketeering and conspiracy.
Then, in yet a third case, the inspector general said he’s looking into whether a former SEC attorney may have revealed confidential investigative information in a book he wrote. Kotz said the attorney may have provided the privileged information to a company where he worked as a lobbyist after leaving the SEC.
Separately, his office is also trying to determine if non-public information may have been disclosed to a national news outlet.
Kotz, who is leading the internal investigation into the agency’s failure to detect Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, disclosed some details about his pending investigations in his newly published semi-annual report to Congress on Monday.
In it, he said he has 19 pending investigations, one of which is tied to the Madoff failings.

Poltico notes that the dessert options included rum baba with tropical fruits and berry coulis.

Posted by on July 3rd, 2009 at 5:14 pm


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