Bill Singer Comments on Second Circuit's Stay of Judge Rakoff's Denial of SEC v. Citigroup Settlement

The SEC Couldn't Stop Madoff or Stanford But Jams Up Judge Rakoff Over Citigroup Settlement

[S]eriously - the SEC has somehow earned the right to arbitrarily decide for the American people and the investor community whether a settlement (to which the SEC is not only a party but also the prime drafter) is fair enough?  If you folks had the track record to back up such a prerogative, that would be one thing.  But looking at your abysmal string of malfeasance and nonfeasance over more than a decade, maybe you should have taken advantage of  Judge Rakoff's opportunity for some much-need introspection.

We now find ourselves in an Alice-In-Wonderland world where the Circuit Court seems to agree that Rakoff should not be required to merely rubber stamp the SEC's settlement but, on the other hand, the judge should defer to the SEC's assessment that the settlement is fair.  A fine enough proposition but one that seems made in a vacuum of recent history.  The SEC's has run off these cookie-cutter settlements without admission of liability for decades.  It is a bankrupt approach to regulation that partially contributed to the onset of the Great Recession and seems likely to saddle our society with a future filled with more impotent responses. If this regulatory policy is fair and effective, then why has it only left a swath of devastation in its historic path? 

• Citigroup
• Rakoff
• Bill Singer
• Second Circuit
• SEC
• Citigroup
• BrokeAndBroker