The Securities & Exchange Commission remains quite busy. In fiscal 2011 the agency brought a record 735 enforcement actions. But those looking to see the next Jeff Skilling or Richard Scrushy frog-marched in front of television cameras will be sorely disappointed. Only 89 of those actions targeted fraudulent or misleading accounting and disclosures by public companies, the fewest, by far, in a decade.
So what happened? Call it the Bernie Madoff effect. Embarrassed that it missed the Ponzi King’s $65 billion scheme, the SEC reorganized its enforcement division, eliminating an accounting-fraud task force and adding new units to pursue crooked investment advisors and asset managers, market manipulations and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act…
via Is The SEC’s Ponzi Crusade Enabling Companies To Cook The Books, Enron-Style? – Forbes