"I don't think we should worry about Bernie finding out to whom we speak ... we are not telling anybody that we have found anything improper
(except for his lies to us, of course)."
That is an excerpt from an e-mail one Securities and Exchange Commission investigator wrote May 16, 2006, and part of hundreds of documents released Friday by the SEC. The pages "portray an agency at times skeptical or
dismissive of evidence that the now imprisoned mastermind of the
world's largest Ponzi scheme was up to no good,"
Reuters writes.
"At other times, it appeared the agency knew that goings-on at Bernard
L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC were improper but never followed
through on their discoveries or on the allegations of chief
whistleblower Harry Markopolos."
The release of the information follows
a September report by SEC Inspector General David Kotz, which found that the agency mishandled the investigation of now-convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff, who has himself
expressed how surprised he is that the SEC never caught him in his two decade-long swindle.
In the wake of the damning reports, the SEC has been especially vigilant,
filing charges in a number of other scandals and moving along investigations that have been underway for years. However, perhaps deservingly, the agency's failings when it comes to Madoff continue to plague it. -
Sara BehunekRead the entire Reuters report hereSee Also:
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