Some of you may have read Matt Taibbi's November 2012 story about the Securities Exchange Commission ("SEC") being a den of corruption and sex scandals. The story was about an SEC, in essence, being 'Peyton Place' and was titled:
SEC Rocked By Lurid Sex-and-Corruption Lawsuit
Taibbi stated;
Weber claims that in recent years, while the SEC Inspector General's office has been attempting to investigate the agency's seemingly-negligent responses in such matters as the Bernie Madoff case and the less-well-known (but nearly as disturbing) Stanford Financial Ponzi scandal, two of the IG [Inspector General] office's senior officials – former Inspector General David Kotz and his successor, Noelle Maloney – were sleeping together.
Weber's Allegations Had Merit
Apparently David Weber's allegations had substantial validity, as the SEC has settled by agreeing to give Mr. Weber back his SEC job and paying him $580,000 (Purportedly the 3rd largest Whistleblower settlement in federal history.
To read more about the settlement issues - see the Bloomberg story titled;
SEC Pays $580,000 Over Ex-Investigator’s Firing Claims
As the Bloomberg story stipulates;
The resolution puts a capstone on a troubled period at the SEC’s internal investigation unit. Shortly after his hiring last year, Weber reported allegations of unethical conduct by recently departed Inspector General H. David Kotz.
“We have obtained justice for Mr. Weber, but that is only the beginning,” said Hansel [Weber's attorney], who urged further investigation of the allegations Weber raised in the lawsuit. “This entire affair started when the SEC sought to silence Mr. Weber and bury the concerns he raised.”
You can see David Weber's lawsuit ( here ). It reads like a 'Peyton Place" short story.
For a fantastic read by another person who calls it like it is, please go to Larry Doyle's "SenseOnCents.com" Blog and his current review of these issues titled;
Sex, Lies, Stupidity, Oh My:
SEC Whistleblower David Weber Vindicated, Receives Huge $ettlement
Mr. Doyle lusciously states;
Weber’s titillating testimony turns its focus on other executives within the Commission, including the COO and chair Mary Schapiro. Weber’s charges of nepotism and a lack of meaningful internal controls expose the risks that the Commission presented in its daily management of operations and beyond that as well. One does not need to read very hard to understand Weber’s belief that the SEC’s COO utilized a “pay to play” practice. Additionally, in a scene fit for the classic movie Dumb and Dumber, Weber asserts that SEC representatives brought highly sensitive computer code and encryption data to monitor activity on our equity exchanges to a hacker’s conference in Las Vegas. You cannot make this stuff up, folks.
Saving some venom for Ms. Schapiro as well, Weber paints her as a “LIAR” for perjuring herself during a presentation before the House and Senate Oversight Committee regarding the SEC’s bungled attempt to move to new office quarters. Weber would not be the first to label Ms. Schapiro with the big L. Recall that Attorney Richard Greenfield did just the same in the case brought on behalf of Standard Chartered v FINRA, Mary Schapiro et al.
THANK YOU - David Weber
David Weber has turned down the SEC's to let him come back. He informed yours truly that, while the settlement issues forbid him from talking about specifics, he looks forward to his new career to champion the causes of others caught up in the tangled webs weaved by bad faith in Washington D.C.
We thank David Weber for doing a good effort for his country and applaud his temerity and tenacity to stick with, going where others fear to tread. And we also hope that there will be further investigations into the issues that Mr. Weber was reviewing; which was the cause for retaliation against him in the 1st place.
I, for one, would enjoy seeing Senate/Congressional Hearings of the SEC; which has become the "Selective Enforcement Commission". The new SEC Chairperson is Mary Jo White and every indication (including my recent interactions with her administration) seems to imply that Mary Jo is also from the dark side!