Post-Madoff SEC Bites Goldman Sachs

Having let the Madoff scandal unfold virtually under its nose, the SEC sounded an alert with the announcement of its lawsuit charging Goldman Sachs with fraud. "The message: The SEC is back on the job," Greg Gordon writes for McClatchy. "The release is very judgmental about the conduct, almost scolding," says a law professor, contrasting the tone with the Bush-era SEC's style. "And those releases get done at the highest level."

A newly created investigative unit has jurisdiction over cases like the deal in which Goldman allegedly bet against its own clients, and thanks to the economic downturn, the SEC's investigators are loaded for bear. "Really competent qualified corporate lawyers have been laid off from the Wall Street firms, and the government has money to pay these lawyers," observes another professor.
(More Securities and Exchange Commission stories.)