In a speech today at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers convention in Denver, Colorado, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro stated that the agency now has approximately 150 active hedge fund investigations and about 50 current probes involving credit default swaps. Reuters reports that Schapiro added that the SEC also has about two dozen active municipal securities investigations.
Footnoted.org reports that Ms. Schapiro stated in her remarks and in response to questions that:
- Tips come to the SEC in about 40 different ways, but there is currently no master database to track them or mine the data being received. The SEC has, however, hired a contractor to build such a system. Last year SEC received 750,000 tips, and it continues to receive about 2,000 tips per day.
- Schapiro has authorized a number of investigations over the past three months into accounting fraud, and she wants to prove to the public that accounting fraud cases are a high priority.
- In response to a question noting an article in the WSJ today on CEOs using tools such as Twitter to communicate with investors, Schapiro said that SEC “favors greater and broader disclosure but that it hasn’t come to a resolution on the new technology.”
