Last week a new ghost surfaced. This time it is a referral to the Department of Justice of a former SEC general counsel regarding possible criminal violations of the ethics statutes…. What happened in this latest scandal will ultimately be sorted out by the Department of Justice. What is important is the future of the agency. How many times should Congress accept a claim that its all in the past? Is the investing public suppose to believe that this time the agency is going to finally get it right?Unfortunately repeated debacles and persistent ghosts undermine the assurances given to Congress and the public. More importantly, it also means the culture which spawned these repeated scandals and created those ghosts is wrong. It means the tone at the top which spawned that culture is wrong.
Read more: Tone at the Top, Culture and the SEC — SEC Actions
