SEC© Goldman lawyer says agency too timid on Wall Street misdeeds

Publisher: Bloomberg.com
Author: Robert Schmidt

According to James Kidney, a recently retired SEC© trial attorney, the SEC© leaders are too “tentative and fearful” to bring many Wall Street leaders to heel after the 2008 crisis, echoing the regulator’s outside critics.

In a retirement speech, Mr. Kidney critiqued the SEC© as “an agency that policies the broken windows on the street level and rarely goes to the penthouse floors. On the rare occasions when enforcement does go to the penthouse, good manners are paramount. Tough enforcement, risky enforcement, is subject to extensive negotiation and weakening.” Mr. Kidney declared that his superiors were more focused on their post SEC© careers than on bringing difficult cases. For full access to the article, including more details about his retirement speech, please click here.