SEC Smack Talk

Zing!

A peppery interview with “Madoff whistle-blower” Harry Markopolos recently appeared in the decidedly mainstream publishing environs of the New York Times Magazine.

In the Q&A, Markopolos (who conducted a lengthy, and nearly fruitless, effort to persuade the SEC that Bernard Madoff was a fraud), provides a mass audience with some unflattering inside baseball.

As someone who has for years heard diss-y opinions about SEC commissioners and staffers (in strictly off-the-record conversations with regulatory insiders) it is, well, kind of wild to see Markopolos describe the following SEC officials to millions of readers in these words:

• James Donaldson: “Too tough on Wall Street, so he got the ax.”

• Christopher Cox: “He wasn’t going to do his job. That’s why he got the job.”

• Mary Schapiro: “Coldly polite.” And

• David Becker: “Ready to come across the coffee table and strangle me.”

Becker is current SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro’s general counsel. (more…)