Ronald J. Colombo Comments on Securities and Exchange Commission’s Year-End Statistics, Says Agency Ignores “Tougher Cases”
Critics Say Low Hanging Fruit Key To SEC's Record Year
By Evan Weinberger
November 23, 2011
Law 360
EXCERPT:
Some say the agency is ignoring many of the potentially complex and vital issues growing out of the financial crisis to score more wins, which reflects better on the reformed agency.
“It seems as if the dial is tilted toward the small potatoes,” said Ronald Colombo, a professor at Hofstra University School of Law. “They're not taking on the tougher cases that are completely morally and ethically justified.”
But it is not for lack of targets, with financial institutions from rating agencies to hedge funds to mortgage originators to major investment banks implicated in one form or another to the crisis.
The SEC has not brought a case against rating agencies, for example, despite widespread criticism that their business model of being paid to rate mortgage-backed securities by the companies issuing those securities was one of the causes of the financial crisis, Colombo said.
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