Gah! Granted that many people are highly qualified, experienced enough and brainy enough to do fabulous things while still in their twenties. Though I wasn't one of them.
After just missing slightly being in another DEPRESSION, and learning how poor the SEC was at catching fraud, why is the new SEC Enforcement Division being handed to a 29-year old?
Adam Storch will certainly be facing some rough questions from a lot of us. Especially people like Matt Taibbi and others reporting on the Goldman links.
He apparently backed Bill Clinton. So that's good. Sorry, but I cannot link to that site, yet you can find it here at Clusterstock.
His resume at LinkedIn includes:
Vice President at Goldman Sachs Nov 2004 — Oct 2009 (5 years)
Senior Analyst at Deloitte and Touche 2 1/2 years
Summer Intern at Neuberger Berman 3 months
He was educated at SUNY Buffalo with degrees in accounting and finance, and studied at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.
WHY SOMEONE FROM GOLDMAN? Haven't we had it up to here with Goldman?
According to the Atlantic, Storch began his new job on the 13th of October and apparently has tech background and has worked in fraud detection.
...Storch, reached by telephone at the SEC, declined to comment.
I'm not sure what's scarier, that this guy worked at an investment bank that many believe has questionable ethics and too cozy a Washington connection, or that he's just 29. His "great deal of background" must be those seven long years since college ended.
I don't mean to be too judgmental. I mean, this guy could be a fraud detection prodigy.
Why didn't they hire someone like Harry Markopolos, the whistleblower on Madoff whom they ignored (mostly). Experience in knowing what to look for abounds in people like him. Why not make use of it? Are they afraid of giving Mr. Markopolos inside knowledge?
Bloomberg.
"Adam’s skill in technology systems, workflow process, and project management will greatly benefit the division," SEC enforcement chief Robert Khuzami said in the statement. "He will help to make us more efficient and nimble and permit us to put more of our investigators on the front lines."
snip....(as part of) the unit’s biggest overhaul in three decades.
They will be investigating frauds like Madoff's which of course they miss even though one expert handed it to them as if "on a silver platter."
UPDATE with MARKPOLOS quote from Congressional testimony because I love this guy:
House testimony
"The SEC is also captive to the industry it regulates and it is afraid of bringing big cases against the largest most powerful firms," said Harry Markopolos, an independent financial fraud investigator. "Clearly the SEC was afraid of Mr. Madoff."
Markopolos began contacting the SEC at the beginning of the decade to warn that Madoff was a fraud. He sent detailed memos, listing dozens of red flags, laying out a road map of instructions for SEC investigators to follow, even listing contacts and phone numbers of Wall Street experts whom he said would confirm his findings. But, Markopolos' whistle-blowing effort got nowhere.
"I gift wrapped and delivered the largest Ponzi scheme in history to them and some how they couldn't be bothered to conduct a thorough and proper investigation because they were too busy on matters of higher priority...."
UPDATE II:
Not that anyone will read this belated update, but for what it's worth, please read comments. Idon't feel well soI'mnot going to make insertions up here in the diary. Apparently I don't know enough about corporate roles to have written this. That was one part of it. The other part, having to do with the power of Goldman in government, stands, though I've not done a good job of explaining it here, and thankfully it's been done well by others, including Frank Richtoday. And there's this I will add for the fun of it.
Goldman's bonuses of $23 billion.
By most analyst estimates, the annual bonus pool will swell to more than $23 billion. In its second quarter, Goldman disclosed it had put aside $11.4 billion for the first half of the year.
To put that $23 billion bonus pool number in perspective, it is the most Goldman Sachs has accumulated for bonuses in its history — twice as much as in 2008. And it is doing so while memories are still fresh that just a year ago taxpayers had to step in when Wall Street, and even Goldman, were facing a run on the bank.