Securities Docket

The AUSA handling the Bernard Madoff prosecution argued in court today that Madoff should have his $10 million bail revoked and be imprisoned as he awaits trial on a securities fraud charge.  Bloomberg reports that AUSA Marc Litt stated that Madoff violated conditions of bail by transferring $1 million in valuables including jewelry.
Read the Bloomberg [...]

In this Bloomberg video, former SEC attorney Ron Geffner discusses the imminent disclosure of assets by Bernard Madoff (Dec. 31 deadline), and the broader possible impact of the Madoff case on the SEC as an institution.

On December 12, 2008, U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton (E.D. Mo.) ruled that the “clawback” provision of Section 304 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 only applies where an accounting restatement actually is filed.  The court found that it is not enough that an accounting restatement should have been filed because of a company’s material [...]

On Tuesday, Dec. 23, US Bankruptcy Court Judge Burton Lifland approved a liquidation plan in the Madoff case proposed by the Securities Investor Protection Corp. The NY Post reports that the maximum  compensation victims are eligible for under the plan is $500,000 worth of securities, with no more than $100,000 of that $500,000 in the [...]

The number of federal prosecutions against securities fraud is far lower under the Bush administration, according to new data.  Indeed, the NY Times reports that this year, federal officials are on pace to bring the fewest prosecutions for securities fraud since at least 1991, according to data compiled by Syracuse University researchers.
According to the research,
there [...]

Fox Business Network tracks down David Friehling, the accountant at Friehling & Horowitz who is said to have audited Bernard Madoff’s business, in the video below. NY’s Rockland County District Attorney said last week that he had not been able to locate or speak with Friehling.
Friehling and his son do not appear to be at [...]

It is a bit unusual to see federal appellate court judges blogging about the scandal of the day, but Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner has weighed in on the Madoff case with an interesting post on his Becker-Posner Blog.
In a post on Dec. 21, Judge Posner writes that in his view, Madoff’s scheme is not [...]

The head of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation and the receiver of Bernard Madoff’s broker-dealer business states that his investigation has now revealed a type of “hybrid fraud” that goes beyond a typical Ponzi scheme.  “We do not seem to be dealing with a traditional Ponzi scheme alone,” Steve Harbeck told London’s The Observer. “This [...]

The WSJ’s Nathan Koppel discusses the surreal fall of Marc Dreier, a major litigator now in jail and accused of fraud, selling bogus paper,and impersonation to the tune of $380 million.

Rep. Paul Kanjorski, chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on capital markets, said today that the House is planning to convene an inquiry into the failure of securities regulators to uncover an alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme by Bernard Madoff after Congress returns on Jan. 6.
As discussed here in detail, SEC Chairman Cox stated [...]