I have been a fan of Matt Taibbi since his days at the “The eXile”, which was a hilarious and profane english-language publication in Russia, yet also had some excellent reporting that was followed in the foreign policy community (Putin has since kicked it out of the country, and they can now be found at exiledonline.com).

His last big article in Rolling Stone, “The Big Takeover”, absolutely killed. He is going to be due for some awards this year.

SEC Should Have Said ‘Sorry’ for Madoff, Ex-Chairman Pitt Says

Share | Email | Print | A A A

By Tom Cahill

July 2 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should have apologized for missing Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme, former chairman Harvey Pitt said.

“I would’ve liked to see the SEC say, ‘We’re really sorry,’” Pitt told reporters in London today at a briefing hosted by CQS UK LLP, the hedge-fund firm founded by Michael Hintze. “I never heard that from anyone at the SEC.”

Madoff, 71, was sentenced to 150 years in prison in New York this week for running the biggest investment fraud in U.S. history. Pitt, chairman of the SEC from 2001 to 2003, said the agency examined Madoff’s firm four times and didn’t spot his fraud due to “human failure.” The SEC may have developed a blind spot because it’s “over-lawyered” and needs more traders, managers and veterans of markets, Pitt said.

“That’s been a weakness at the SEC,” said Pitt, who was a partner at the law firm Fried, Frank, Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP before joining the agency. “Part of the problem is you can’t find fraud with just lawyers.” Pitt is the chief executive officer of Washington-based consulting firm Kalorama Partners LLC and an adviser to CQS.

Pitt said he had a plan for spot checks at investment management firms that he failed to push through before leaving the SEC. The system may have helped catch Madoff or similar frauds, he said.

“At a bare minimum, it would have made it more difficult,” Pitt said. “Unfortunately, Bernie Madoff committed his fraud very easily.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Cahill in London at tcahill@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 2, 2009 13:29 EDT

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601170&sid=a4XWUrp0e6nY

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090702/pl_politico/24441

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_bubble_machine/print#

Also did you guys see our only honest political representative is at it again in our favor.

Sen. Kaufman again zaps SEC

Kaufman: SEC Decision to Ignore Madoff Signs Latest Example of Culture in Need of Change

July 2, 2009

Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-DE) released the following statement following reports of an internal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decision to disregard suspicions surrounding Bernie Madoff’s business practices as early as 2004:

“This is just more evidence of the serious mistakes made by the SEC in recent years. From the flawed decisions to permit massive increases in leverage at banks to the repeal of the uptick rule to failures to regulate rating agencies or stop abusive short selling – this is the latest example of a culture at the SEC to treat those it’s intended to regulate as clients rather than protect investors.

The five current commissioners need to admit the mistakes in the past and act decisively to change the SEC. I’ve yet to see them reevaluate these bad decisions in an objective manner and establish clearly that a new day has arrived. The first thing the SEC can and should do is properly deal with abusive short selling by reinstating some form of the uptick rule and a pre-borrow requirement on short sales. I will continue to push the SEC to stand up for investors by adopting clear rules and enforcing them aggressively.”

http://kaufman.senate.gov/press/press_releases/release/?id=9289c780-a17a-4ddb-af18-d8cd731e1806

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/2009/07/02/why-the-sec-should-not-further-restrain-short-selling/#comment-296603

http://watchingthewatchers.org/indepth/21546/why-sec-should-not-further-restrain

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/01/AR2009070104223.html?hpid=topnews

I actually tried posting these links to the DC forum but the phpbb software wouldn’t allow a first-time poster to post anything with [img] links. Can you post these in the forum? You have enough posts in the DC forums that you should be able to.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39874373@N03/3681661266/sizes/o/

Enjoy.

SEC lawyer raised alarm about Madoff: report
Thu Jul 2, 1:48 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer warned about irregularities at Bernard Madoff’s financial management firm as far back as 2004, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing agency documents and sources familiar with the investigation.

Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot, a lawyer in the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, sent emails to a supervisor saying information provided by Madoff during her review didn’t add up and suggesting a set of questions to ask his firm, the report said.

Several of the questions directly challenged Madoff activities that turned out to be elements of his massive fraud, the newspaper said.

Madoff, 71, was sentenced to a prison term of 150 years on Monday after he pleaded guilty in March to a decades-long fraud that U.S. prosecutors said drew in as much as $65 billion.

The Washington Post reported that when Walker-Lightfoot reviewed the paper documents and electronic data supplied to the SEC by Madoff, she found it full of inconsistencies, according to documents, a former SEC official and another person knowledgeable about the 2004 investigation.

The newspaper said the SEC staffer raised concerns about Madoff but, at the time, the SEC was under pressure to look for wrongdoing in the mutual fund industry. Walker-Lightfoot was told to focus on a separate probe into mutual funds, the report said.

One of Walker-Lightfoot’s supervisors on the case was Eric Swanson, an assistant director of her department, the Post reported, citing two people familiar with the investigation.

Swanson later married Madoff’s niece, and their relationship is now under review by the SEC inspector general, who is examining the agency’s handling of the Madoff case, the Post reported.

Swanson, no longer with the agency, declined to comment, the Post said.

SEC spokesman John Nester also declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation by the agency’s inspector general, the newspaper said.

(Writing by JoAnne Allen; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Curshen’s cursin’ ….. and guilty.

Jonathan Curshen, mentioned in this news item and in DeepCapture, pleaded guilty in NY on June 24 and is to be sentenced in September. DOJ press release: http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/nyfo062409.htm

St. Kitts Honorary Consul Arrested on Fraud Charges

Mr. Jonathan R. Curshen, St. Kitts-Nevis Honorary Consul to Costa Rica who was appointed by the Douglas-led Government in 2005, was arrested in New York on September 4, 2008 during an FBI sting operation and later charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud. His partner, 50 years-old Bruce Grossman, was arrested on Sept. 5 in New Orleans and remains in jail.

[ ..................... ]

In fact, if the proper investigation was done, the Government would have known that Jonathan Curshen was charged with securities fraud in April of 2003 in an alleged “pump and dump” scheme where he was paid to hype a company via the internet, telephone and mail in violation of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws in the United States.

An article which appeared in “Deep Capture” an internet web site, alleged that an undercover team member once travelled to Costa Rica to meet Curshen and that Curshen admitted he participated in illegal naked short selling and that he threatened to kill anyone who revealed this. The article further alleged that Curshen admitted to money laundering and the use of special untraceable debit cards to pay off government officials.

Story:

http://www.pamdemocrat.org/Newspaper/Details.cfm?Nz=$7GIJ2 &Iz=$(BDL#P

These people have killed more Americans than Bin Ladden . and they use a pin…….

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH MILKEN ?,YOU MURDERING BASTARD

PLEASE GO TO JUST ONE MORE aNGELS GAME

Steal a candy bar and go to jail steal a few billion and pay a fine,and play some golf, just ask MIKE MILKEN..

The fraud that Maydoff did was laid out for the sec and the sec did nothing …HERE AGAIN IT IS BEING LAID OUT FOR THE SEC AND THEY WILL DO NOTHING,,,AMERICA GOV IS JUST CORRUPT..

JUST CHECK ALL THE NAMES ON THOSE SWISS ACCOUNTS, THAT THE SWISS WANT RELEASE AND THE GOV REFUSES TO MAKE THEM TURN OVER..i WONDER WHY, WELL I WILL TELL U ,IT IS BECAUSE THE NAMES CONSIST OF ALL OF CONGREESS AND WS FAT CATS..

ONLY IN AMERICA

Adnan was tied into Elgindy the jailed naked short who shorted the airlines on Sept. 10th, 2001. On Sept. 11, 2001, MJK Clearing brought down 100,000 retail accounts.

Not one word from the mainstream media.

From wikipedia:

“Khashoggi, along with Ramy El-Batrawi, was the principal financier behind GenesisIntermedia, Inc. (formerly NASDAQ: GENI), a publicly traded Internet company based in Southern California. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Khashoggi’s U.S.-based checking accounts were frozen and Khashoggi was unable to make a margin call with Native Nations Securities, whose CEO and largest shareholder, at the time, was Valerie Red Horse, former office manager of junk bond king Michael Milken. In turn, Native Nations and Red Horse were unable to meet their obligations on the margin loan to MJK Clearing, Inc.[2][3] Trading in the stock of GenesisIntermedia was halted in September 2001. Khashoggi’s unwillingness to pay his margin loan to Native Nations Securities, and Native Nations (and Red Horse’s) inability to pay its debts to MJK Clearing, began a series of bankruptcies that ended in the largest payout in Securities Investor Protection Corporation history.[4][5] Native Nations Securities and MJK Clearing both eventually filed for bankruptcy.[6]“

This is an important story you reference…employment at the SEC is a career step to Wall Street. Until whistle blowing is made more rewarding, or we we can find somone that cares more about truth, justice, and the american way, then they do about money, then they won’t bite the Wall Street hand that is to eventuallly feed them.

Look what Gary got for his effort. Whistle blower laws can be made much better, and if they are, more people will come forward with evidence. We need to make whistle blowing the most lucrative choice if we are goig to clean up Wall Street. It shouldn’t have to be that way, but it is.

Spread this story please.

Again, great job Mark…stay after them!!!

NOT THAT IT MATTERS AS I AM A FIRM BELIEVER THAT OUR SO CALLED LEADERS COULD GIVE A RIP ABOUT ANYONE BUT THEMSELVES.(SAVE A VERY FEW)
I SENT YOUR STORY TO MY SENATOR. JUST ANOTHER OF HUNDREDS I HAVE SENT HER AND WENT UNHEEDED.
MAYBE THIS TIME HUH…

siliconinvestor.advfn .com /subject. aspx?subjectid=23993

This includes posts where he shorted the airlines on Sept. 10th, 2000, attended the funeral of his friends, CIA agents hung upside down from a bridge in Iraq, where he traveled under a fake name and where he was finally arrested for working with a corrupt FBI agent.

I’m not trying to tie Sept. 11th or arms into this (although the two buildings that contained all the financial records were destroyed and the world’s largest arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi (Lady Di’s Dodi Fayed’s cousin) brought down 100,000 retail accounts by collapsing MJK Clearing on Sept. 11th, 2001 with Milken office manager Valerie Redhorse), but I believe that the reason this doesn’t get fixed is Milken is a part of an even bigger group that is sucking America dry.

Milken crony Adnan Khashoggi was involved in BCCI and the savings and loans collapse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Khashoggi

This doesn’t get fixed because our leaders are up to their necks in the blood money stolen from the rest of us.

http://siliconinvestor.advfn.com/subject.aspx?subjectid=23993

This includes posts where he shorted the airlines on Sept. 10th, 2000, attended the funeral of his friends, CIA agents hung upside down from a bridge in Iraq, where he traveled under a fake name and where he was finally arrested for working with a corrupt FBI agent.

I’m not trying to tie Sept. 11th or arms into this (although the two buildings that contained all the financial records were destroyed and the world’s largest arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi (Lady Di’s Dodi Fayed’s cousin) brought down 100,000 retail accounts by collapsing MJK Clearing on Sept. 11th, 2001 with Milken office manager Valerie Redhorse), but I believe that the reason this doesn’t get fixed is Milken is a part of an even bigger group that is sucking America dry.

Milken crony Adnan Khashoggi was involved in BCCI and the savings and loans collapse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Khashoggi

This doesn’t get fixed because our leaders are up to their necks in the blood money stolen from the rest of us.