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HomeMary Schapiro and Mark McGwire
Posted by Larry Doyle on January 15th, 2010 10:22 AM |
“I’m not here to talk about the past.”
Mark McGwire, the steroid abusing home run hitting phoney, may have issued a massive mea culpa this week, but his career will forever be defined by his March 2005 Congressional obfuscation.
In my strong opinion, Mary Schapiro is the financial industry’s equivalent of Mark McGwire. How so? In McGwire’s 2005 testimony, he very much wanted to position himself as a positive influence for future developments regarding the use and abuse of steroids in baseball. Fast forward to January 14, 2010 and we witness Mary Schapiro very much trying to assume the same positive position in her testimony and answers to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. In Schapiro’s opening statement, Testimony Concerning the Financial Crisis, she states as much:
To assist the Commission in its efforts, my testimony will outline many of the lessons we have learned in our role as a securities and market regulator, how we are working to address them, and where additional efforts are needed. I look forward to working with the FCIC to identify the many causes of this crisis.
Oh, how kind. (more…)
Let’s Introduce the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to FINRA
Posted by Larry Doyle on January 14th, 2010 11:10 AM |
This morning the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is questioning FDIC Head Sheila Bair, SEC Chair Mary Schapiro, Attorney General Eric Holder, and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer. We continue to hear from Bair, Schapiro, Holder, and Breuer about what changes are and will be occurring in the financial regulatory future more than we hear about what occurred in the past. A few questions about the regulatory past have not truly drilled down and they’ve been easily parried by Schapiro, primarily, but also by Bair and Holder.
The most egregious shortcoming in this morning’s questioning, though, is the fact that I have yet to hear anybody on the Commission question Ms. Schapiro about her role and responsibilities at FINRA, the Wall Street self-regulatory organization.
Schapiro continually references what is currently going on at the SEC. Current activities and future developments of the SEC are not the charge of this Commission. (more…)
Will America Learn This Thursday if Mary Schapiro is a Liar?
Posted by Larry Doyle on January 12th, 2010 12:20 PM |
Head of SEC, Mary Schapiro
January 14, 2010 at 4pm
U.S. Distict Court for the Southern District of N.Y.
Presiding Justice, Jed Rakoff
Will America learn this Thursday afternoon if SEC Chair Mary Schapiro did in fact lie verbally and in a proxy statement regarding the merger of the NASD with NYSE Regulation to form FINRA?
As I highlighted in my commentary yesterday, “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Should Investigate…”, I believe FINRA and Mary Schapiro are truly the embodiment of the Wall Street-Washington cabal that stifles the truth, transparency, and integrity America so badly deserves.
For more details on this case and the upcoming hearing, I submit the following press release that came out this morning:
MAJOR NEWS ORGANIZATIONS ASK WALL STREET SELF-REGULATOR TO COME CLEAN ON ALLEGED WRONGDOING AND URGE FEDERAL JUDGE TO UNSEAL KEY REDACTED FINANCIAL INFORMATION IN BROKERS’LAWSUIT AGAINST FINRA.Mary Schapiro and other NASD Managers Allegedly Lied to and Shortchanged NASD Member Broker-Dealers in 2006 Merger with NYSE and otherwise Violated Their Fiduciary Responsibilities. (more…)
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Should Investigate…
Posted by Larry Doyle on January 11th, 2010 9:28 AM |
Will America ever truly learn what happened on Wall Street that brought our markets, our economy, and our country to its knees?
We should not expect the incestuous Wall Street-Washington partners to implicate themselves and thoroughly expose their shortcomings. A full 16 months since the failure of Lehman Bros. and how much have we truly learned? What change has really occurred? Who has been fired in Washington? Who has been indicted on Wall Street? Will the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, charged with investigating the factors which facilitated our economic disaster, truly be effective?
The truth may hurt but if the hard questions are not asked, the failings are not exposed, and those responsible are not held to account, then the lessons will not be learned, and the experience will likely repeat itself.
Will the commission pretend to investigate, but ultimately wilt under the pressure of the incestuous pillars of power? Will the commission rise above the fray, hold people and institutions to account, and make our country proud? Will the commission use its power to subpoena, if need be?
Whom should the commission pursue? What agencies and institutions should the commission target? If I were on the commission, I would recommend pursuing the following targets: (more…)
Will Ignorance Defense Continue to Screw Auction-Rate Securities Investors?
Posted by Larry Doyle on December 18th, 2009 8:03 AM |
Auction-rate securities investors remain at a decided disadvantage when it comes to pursuing legal claims. Misrepresentation by those distributing the auction-rate securities does not seem sufficient to warrant a claim, let alone retribution. The fact that investors are having difficulties bringing suit against Wall Street firms which distributed auction-rate securities should be further reason for investors to be cautious in engaging brokers and financial planners. Why? The fact that selected cases of auction-rate securities distribution have been designated as having occurred in a fraudulent fashion would seem to have established a significant precedent. The fact that the precedent has not been established is mind boggling.
$149 BILLION in auction-rate securities held by thousands of investors remain frozen. Where’s the justice?
Bloomberg provides a recent review of these developments in writing, Auction-Rate Investors Get Redo After Loss of First Fraud Suits:
Auction-rate securities investors who sued banks including Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG to recoup billions of dollars in losses went 0 for 5 as their first cases were thrown out. Now some are gearing up for a rematch over part of the $149 billion in securities that remain outstanding. (more…)
FINRA Defense: Exhaustion and Immunity
Posted by Larry Doyle on December 2nd, 2009 9:24 AM |
Let’s revisit the case of Standard Investment Chartered v. FINRA. While I have written extensively on a host of issues related to FINRA, I believe the issues embedded in this specific case drive to the very core of our financial regulatory system. For those unaware of this case, a recent memorandum (link provided at end of this commentary) filed on behalf of the plaintiff highlights:
At the core of the case is the FINRA Defendants’ issuance of a proxy statement on December 14, 2006 (the “Proxy Statement”), which contained out-and-out material falsehoods and omitted essential facts bearing on the Transaction and on a proposed “Special Member Payment” that was to be made upon its completion. The most important false representation was that federal tax authorities limited a payment to NASD Members to $35,000. Second Amended Complaint (“SAC” or the “Complaint”) ¶ 13. The FINRA Defendants magnified the falsehood that the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) limited NASD Member payments to $35,000 in many different forms, over and over, as if saying it enough times and wishing it to be true would somehow make it come true.
A claim of out-and-out material falsehoods against defendants, including then FINRA head and current SEC chief Mary Schapiro, is where the rubber meets the road. How have the defendants responded? Are they willing to embrace the virtues of transparency and integrity so badly needed to restore investor confidence? No, I don’t think so.
The defendants have filed a motion to dismiss this complaint. On what grounds do the defendants make their motion? The memorandum highlights: (more…)
Washington Examiner: “A Fox Is Guarding the Henhouse at the SEC”
Posted by Larry Doyle on November 24th, 2009 9:26 AM |
Add the Washington Examiner to the increasing number of media outlets picking up on the stench emanating from the incestuous Wall Street-Washington relationship encompassing our nation’s financial regulatory oversight. How so? The Examiner‘s Marta Mossburg writes today, A Fox Is Guarding the Henhouse at the SEC. Who is this fox? None other than Mary Schapiro, current head of the SEC and former head of the Wall Street self-regulatory organization FINRA. Mossburg highlights:
Not everyone opposes giving government sweeping new powers like those being considered over health care and the finance industry. But everyone should care that those in power are competent, apply the law fairly and hold themselves to the highest ethical standards.
As regular readers of Sense on Cents are aware, I picked up the scent on this trail last January and have doggedly tracked it for the last ten months. I am heartened that other interested ‘hunters’ are also now putting out their ‘dogs’ in pursuit of exposing truth within our financial regulatory system so that our nation can embrace the badly needed virtues of transparency and integrity in the process.
Aside from Sense on Cents and now the Washington Examiner, who else is on this trail and tracking the scent? Barrons, Bloomberg, and The New York Times. (more…)
Will 2010 Bring Real Financial Regulatory Reform?
Posted by Larry Doyle on January 4th, 2010 12:04 PM |
Will the change in the calendar bring about change in the prospects for real financial regulatory reform? Will Wall Street and Washington recycle the streamers and party hats used for New Year’s Eve celebrations and declare that the market is up so all is well? If the general media allows the charlatans in Washington and their consorts on Wall Street to frame the regulatory reform debate, America should expect little to no change on this front. In the process, a tremendous opportunity will have been squandered and real risks for our collective future will remain.
The haggling over regulatory turf continues again with Ben Bernanke’s declaration yesterday that our housing crisis resulted not from excessively easy monetary policy but rather lax regulatory oversight of mortgage lending. Whose domain is that to regulate? Oh right, that is the charge of the Federal Reserve. The joke on the American public continues, given that Bernanke is not called on the carpet for that sort of grandstanding. (more…)
Tags: 2010, Ben Bernanke, Ben Bernanke comments January 3, Bernanke comments january 3 2010, Bernanke on lax oversight, Charlatans in Washington, Eliot Spitzer, Eliot Spitzer in The New Republic, end Finra, financial regulation, financial regulatory reform 2010, regulating financial markets, risks, self-regulation on Wall Street, Wall Street regulation, Walll Street SRO FINRA
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