The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing today at 10 am on “The Need for Increased Fraud Enforcement in the Wake of the Economic Downturn.” Witnesses scheduled to appear include:
- John S. Pistole, Deputy Director, FBI
- The Honorable Neil M. Barofsky, Special Inspector General, Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Assets Relief Program
- Rita M. Glavin, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, DOJ
The hearing relates to the recent proposal by Senators Charles E. Schumer (pictured) and Richard Shelby introduced new spending legislation designed to beef up the enforcement and 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 specific purpose of cracking down on Wall Street fraud.
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.
A webcast of this hearing is available at 10 am: (Click here)
