Post by sandi66 on Feb 9, 2009 0:26:12 GMT -5
A Monumental Week, Cheers All for Harry Markopolos
Posted by: bburrell 2/7/2009 7:49 PM
A Monumental Week, Cheers for Markopolos!
This was an extraordinary week for those of us who have relentlessly pursued the elimination of the venality in our systems. Fraud Examiner Harry Markopolos of Boston delivered a stunning blow to the SEC and FINRA, which will prompt investigations, changes and even the elimination of these two un-flushed toilets.
Hopefully, the innocents in these organizations will be spared to move forward with a successor regulatory enterprise or more, certainly a grace they have never extended to those they have destroyed along with their employees and investors. I am happy to let that happen, but I will not extend myself one iota to facilitate the survival of said purported innocents.
Markopolos gave 375 pages of testimony that literally decimated the SEC and FINRA, the latter which he generously described as a RICO activity. Uniformly, he indicted these bodies for arrogance, conflicts of interest, stupidity, incompetence, and much more in their handling of the Madoff case, and their general conduct, which he submitted complaints on over 100 times over 9 years.
Markopolos said his analysis led him to the conclusion Madoff was running a fraud in less than 4 hours of work, now confirmed by Madoff’s own plea. Worse, he said the SEC turned not just a blind but insulting eye to his work, now available to all. His general demeanor as a witness and his clear personal integrity clicked with everyone, including the Congressmen and Congresswoman of the House Committee on Financial Services. They actually invited him to come up on their dias level to help them question the SEC witnesses that were to follow him.
His written testimony submitted to the Committee before he testified was even more stunning if possible. Then, the SEC proceeded to thumb their noses at the very people they report to, refusing to testify based on some twisted form of executive immunity, which not even SEC employees have with their own IG.
The Congress people on the Committee were stunned to the point of demonstrated anger, vented so well by Congressman Ackerman, D-NY, to the SEC witnesses, including Director of Enforcement Linda Thomsen, and the SEC General Counsel. He decimated the entire SEC witness bench, frequently raising his voice. I would later hear that the Committee members and their staff were furious, incensed at the SEC behavior.
The job search to replace Ms. Thomsen has already begun.
Now let the Senate Banking Committee have their chunk of them.
No one has shocked the Congress more in Modern History, first with the sheer cold-blooded detail of Agency miss-conduct by Markopolos, then by the sheer chutzpah of the SEC’s officials. The SEC and FINRA must be shut down, and their functions spread out among agencies that might have the integrity to actually do their jobs.
In this time of unprecedented crisis, we needed our Government to step up and act like they were really concerned about us. They have demonstrated the same “Me First” mentality that they and many others have laid at the foot of our banking and corporate enterprises, and in particular, Wall Street. Let them face those they have raped with counterfeiting. Congressional harangues will look mild by comparison.
Certainly our legal system was done no service by the conduct of these lawyers of the regulators. Again, with the legal system effectively broken, are we being asked to trust these jerks with our future? They should be stripped of everything and thrown offshore to be stateless aliens.
There is an old rag that, when you are up to your ass in alligators, it is hard to remember your job was to drain the swamp. Likewise, the SEC now faces an angered and incensed citizenry and their representatives, and just because they forgot their job was to protect the INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR. They didn’t just forget who they were to serve, they told them to go to Hell. Let God forgive them.
www.thesanitycheck.com/Blogs/BudBurrellsBlog/tabid/84/EntryID/752/Default.aspx
Posted by: bburrell 2/7/2009 7:49 PM
A Monumental Week, Cheers for Markopolos!
This was an extraordinary week for those of us who have relentlessly pursued the elimination of the venality in our systems. Fraud Examiner Harry Markopolos of Boston delivered a stunning blow to the SEC and FINRA, which will prompt investigations, changes and even the elimination of these two un-flushed toilets.
Hopefully, the innocents in these organizations will be spared to move forward with a successor regulatory enterprise or more, certainly a grace they have never extended to those they have destroyed along with their employees and investors. I am happy to let that happen, but I will not extend myself one iota to facilitate the survival of said purported innocents.
Markopolos gave 375 pages of testimony that literally decimated the SEC and FINRA, the latter which he generously described as a RICO activity. Uniformly, he indicted these bodies for arrogance, conflicts of interest, stupidity, incompetence, and much more in their handling of the Madoff case, and their general conduct, which he submitted complaints on over 100 times over 9 years.
Markopolos said his analysis led him to the conclusion Madoff was running a fraud in less than 4 hours of work, now confirmed by Madoff’s own plea. Worse, he said the SEC turned not just a blind but insulting eye to his work, now available to all. His general demeanor as a witness and his clear personal integrity clicked with everyone, including the Congressmen and Congresswoman of the House Committee on Financial Services. They actually invited him to come up on their dias level to help them question the SEC witnesses that were to follow him.
His written testimony submitted to the Committee before he testified was even more stunning if possible. Then, the SEC proceeded to thumb their noses at the very people they report to, refusing to testify based on some twisted form of executive immunity, which not even SEC employees have with their own IG.
The Congress people on the Committee were stunned to the point of demonstrated anger, vented so well by Congressman Ackerman, D-NY, to the SEC witnesses, including Director of Enforcement Linda Thomsen, and the SEC General Counsel. He decimated the entire SEC witness bench, frequently raising his voice. I would later hear that the Committee members and their staff were furious, incensed at the SEC behavior.
The job search to replace Ms. Thomsen has already begun.
Now let the Senate Banking Committee have their chunk of them.
No one has shocked the Congress more in Modern History, first with the sheer cold-blooded detail of Agency miss-conduct by Markopolos, then by the sheer chutzpah of the SEC’s officials. The SEC and FINRA must be shut down, and their functions spread out among agencies that might have the integrity to actually do their jobs.
In this time of unprecedented crisis, we needed our Government to step up and act like they were really concerned about us. They have demonstrated the same “Me First” mentality that they and many others have laid at the foot of our banking and corporate enterprises, and in particular, Wall Street. Let them face those they have raped with counterfeiting. Congressional harangues will look mild by comparison.
Certainly our legal system was done no service by the conduct of these lawyers of the regulators. Again, with the legal system effectively broken, are we being asked to trust these jerks with our future? They should be stripped of everything and thrown offshore to be stateless aliens.
There is an old rag that, when you are up to your ass in alligators, it is hard to remember your job was to drain the swamp. Likewise, the SEC now faces an angered and incensed citizenry and their representatives, and just because they forgot their job was to protect the INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR. They didn’t just forget who they were to serve, they told them to go to Hell. Let God forgive them.
www.thesanitycheck.com/Blogs/BudBurrellsBlog/tabid/84/EntryID/752/Default.aspx