by Bill Singer
Bill Singer Admits SEC Had Hard-on For Bad Guys
February 2, 2010
When I'm wrong, I'm wrong. And when I'm wrong, I think it is incumbent upon me to apologize -- no matter how humiliating it is.
As many of you know, for some twenty or so years I have been among the nation's leading critics of Wall Street's regulators. I have consistently chided the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the NASD, and now FINRA for inept and incompetent regulation. I have pointed a finger (and wagged it) at the SEC for a number of atrocious regulatory lapses. Pointedly, I have charged the SEC with failing to timely detect the Madoff fraud, the Stanford Financial scam, and any number of recent high-profile con games and con artists.
Past and present SEC staffers took exception to my barbs. Those regulators complain that they were on top of many of the shocking financial frauds now filling the day's headlines. To use the somewhat coarse language in which that defense has been raised (and I sincerely apologize for the vulgar language), it's been said that some folks at the SEC always had a "hard-on" for Bernie Madoff, for Sir Allen Stanford, for Raj Rajaratnam, and for any number of alleged scamsters, fraudsters, and their ilk.
Based upon a recent news story, I appear to owe a genuine apology to some at the SEC whom I may have offended. Indeed, it now appears that some at the SEC had the proverbial "hard-on" for Wall Street's bad guys. I can no longer deny the truth as presented in this stunning article.
Mea Culpa,
Bill Singer