Letter to the Editor
I have watched C-SPAN's coverage of congressional testimony by Harry Markopolus. Harry, for years, was blowing the whistle on the $50 billion Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.
Regrettably, the responsible(?) regulatory agency to whom he was appealing, the Securities and Exchange Commission, ignored his thoroughly documented submissions and pleadings. The red flags that he was flying were many, and would be easily recognized by even a casual observer -- that is, a causal observer who was interested and awake.
During questioning, Harry was asked his opinion of a regulatory entity that is supposed to oversee and police the activities of a segment of the financial services industry: broker/dealers. This one is called the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a nongovernmental organization run by the broker/dealers (think: fox watching the hen house), empowered by Congress to do so. Its powers include arbitrating disputes between customers and their broker/dealer members, since aggrieved customers are not usually permitted access to the courts.
Supposedly, Congress oversees FINRA activities. Now, Harry was asked to compare the SEC and FINRA. His answer was short and pithy: The SEC is incompetent; FINRA is corrupt. This was particularly interesting to me since I have been the victim of FINRA misbehavior. I was aware that President Obama had appointed one Mary Shaprio to be the new head of the SEC, replacing the clueless Christopher Cox. I also knew that Mary Shapiro's previous job was head of FINRA, where she was paid approximately $3 million per year, plus another $5 million to $25 million reward for her FINRA exit.
So we have here the chief of a corrupt regulatory body, being appointed to clean house at an incompetent regulatory body. She was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. It seems that sleeping is a popular activity in Washington, D.C. -- both at the SEC and in Congress.
Robert Gilbert, Aiken, S.C.