Senators Charles E. Schumer (pictured) and Richard Shelby introduced new spending legislation today designed to beef up the enforcement and detection of white-collar crime following the alleged $50 billion Bernard Madoff fraud. The senators propose to add $110 million to the budgets of the DOJ, the SEC and the FBI for the specific purpose of cracking down on Wall Street fraud, DealBook reports.
Under the proposed legislation, known as the Supplemental Anti-Fraud Enforcement (“SAFE”) Markets Act, the funds would be distributed as follows:
- $80 million to the FBI to hire 500 new agents in its white-collar crime division;
- $20 million to the SEC to hire 100 new enforcement officials; and
- $10 million to the DOJ for 50 new assistant U.S. attorneys.
The legislation will likely be debated by Congress during the annual appropriations hearings that start next month.
[…] the recently proposed budget increases are passed (previously discussed here), the SEC and DOJ might also be looking to hire additional forensic […]
[…] detection of white-collar crime following the alleged $50 billion Bernard Madoff fraud (previously discussed here). The senators propose to add $110 million to the budgets of the DOJ, the SEC and the FBI for the […]