Obama’s SEC Pick Wary of Zealous Wall Street Prosecutions

[Purveyor]

By Dave Michaels - Feb 27, 2013
As Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor during the 1990s, Mary Jo White could have sought the corporate equivalent of the death penalty: indicting Prudential Securities Inc. for fraudulently marketing $8 billion in ruinous energy partnerships to small investors.

Instead, Prudential’s attorneys pressed White, who had earned notice as an aggressive litigator in terrorism and organized crime cases, to consider something less punitive. She ultimately accepted, agreeing to a $330 million fine and placing Prudential on probation, allowing it to avoid criminal charges.

“We persuaded them there was an unacceptably high risk that charging Prudential Securities would lead to significant losses for the innocent shareholders,” said Scott Muller, a New York defense attorney who represented Prudential. “What she avoided was inappropriate collateral damage.”

How White handled the Prudential case belies her notoriety as a brass-knuckle prosecutor -- a reputation stoked by President Barack Obama last month when he nominated her to be chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

MORE...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-27/obama-s-sec-pick-wary-of-zealous-wall-street-prosecutions.html

[woo me with science]

1. What a shock.

Obama Puts Fox In Charge of Henhouse at SEC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022275024

[Scuba]

2. Yes, we've clearly been prosecuting too many Wall Street crimes. Yeah, that's it.

[DotGone]

3. charging Prudential Securities would lead to significant losses for the innocent shareholders

So how about going after the fuckers that worked there and putting them in the slammer and seizing their ill gotten gains? Oh, I forgot that the rich & connected live by different rules than the rest of us peons. When things are going well, they deserve those million $ bonuses. When shit hits the fan, it's not their fault and they had nothing to do with it.

[Bake]

8. The shareholders could have filed a derivative class action suit to recover their losses

From the board's D&O liaibility insurer.

Prudential should have been prosecuted. Its directors and officers should have been prosecuted. They hid behind the "innocent shareholders" to avoid prison time.

White forgot what her job was. Conveniently. And now she's running the SEC. So we can expect more of the same.

Thanks, Mr. President.



Bake

[MotherPetrie]

4. By their appointees shall ye know them

[bullwinkle428]

5. Elizabeth Warren's job gets harder every day.

[Enrique]

6. i heard she was Wall Street's worst nightmare

I heard she was the new sheriff in town. Nathaniel Downes told me.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=280068

Obama Puts Wall Street’s Worst Nightmare In Charge Of SEC
2013/01/24
By Nathaniel Downes

(...)

That she is now being put back into a position of authority should have the bankers concerned. There is a new sheriff in town, and she will have a clean corporate culture in the US, one way or another.

[Bake]

9. Wall Street's worst nightmare?

That's what they WANT you to think. She was representing/defending them as a $1,000 an hour lawyer after she left the prosecutor's office. So no, I don't think she's their worst nightmare. She's just another corporate bought-and-paid-for w***e.

Nice choice, Mr. President.

Bake

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. Sooo...by that logic if the Mafia had enough "innocent shareholders" it could avoid prosecution.

"Right here in this heart and home and fountain-head of law this great factory where are forged those rules that create good order and compel virtue and honesty in the other communities of the land, rascality achieves its highest perfection." Mark Twain

[jsr]

10. Yeah. Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent.

We have too many Wall Street banksters in jail already.