Even as the Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up its investigations of Wall Street, the agency has repeatedly allowed the biggest firms to avoid punishments.

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S.E.C. Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks

In an effort to regain public trust, the Senate voted Monday to take up a bill that would prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks and other securities on the basis of confidential information they receive as lawmakers.

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Democratic Senators to Push ‘Buffett Rule’

The federal government resorted to a favorite accounting maneuver Tuesday to stay under its debt limit, suspending the issuance of securities in a retirement savings program for federal and postal employees. Read full article > >

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Treasury’s Thrift Savings Plan maneuver aims to keep government under debt cap

Companies and other defendants found guilty in criminal proceedings will no longer be able to settle parallel SEC actions with a provision that says the defendant neither admits nor denies wrongdoing, the SEC said Friday. The change leaves intact the Securities and Exchange Commmission’s general policy of letting defendants in its civil or administrative enforcement actions settle without admitting or denying wrongdoing . Read full article > >

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SEC changes settlement rules for companies found guilty of crimes

A federal judge who has accused the Securities and Exchange Commission of negotiating weak settlements in Wall Street cases on Thursday accused the agency of misleading a federal appeals court. U.S. District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff said the SEC also withheld from him important information that he needed to do his job. Read full article > >

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Federal judge accuses SEC of misleading court

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday that it will challenge a federal judge’s rejection of the agency’s $285 million fraud settlement with Citigroup. The agency is asking an appeals court to overturn the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff in Manhattan. In rejecting the deal, Rakoff argued that the penalty amounted to mere pocket change for Citigroup and that he had no basis to assess whether it was appropriate because the firm neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. Read full article > >

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SEC to appeal federal judge’s rejection of Citigroup deal

A North Bethesda man ran a Ponzi scheme that cheated investors in the Washington area, including charities, out of millions of dollars, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday. Garfield M. Taylor told investors that they could earn annual returns of about 20 percent with little or no risk, and he showed one prospective client, a Baptist church, a fake letter of recommendation from the Charles Schwab brokerage firm, the SEC alleged. Read full article > >

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Millions lost in local Ponzi scheme

Citigroup was in a bind. Two years ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission was considering charging the firm’s former chief financial officer with misleading investors by understating Citigroup’s exposure to subprime mortgages. To help defuse the situation, Citigroup added to its legal team a criminal defense lawyer named Mark Pomerantz, who had some special qualifications. As Pomerantz later told the SEC’s inspector general, he had supervised SEC enforcement director Robert Khuzami when the two worked for the Justice Department, and he had helped get Khuzami a promotion. Read full article > >

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Under SEC probe, Citigroup hired ex-boss of top agency official

Victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme have reacted angrily to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision not to fire any employee over the agency’s failure to stop the massive fraud. “It’s pouring salt in the wound,” said investor Stephanie Halio. “I think it’s pathetic.” The penalties the agency meted out — including pay cuts, demotions, counseling and suspensions of up to 30 days — are “pitifully too little, too late,” Halio said. Read full article > >

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Madoff victims enraged at SEC’s decision to keep employees who failed to stop fraud

Insider trading is illegal — except for members of Congress. A Wall Street executive who buys or sells stock based on insider information would face a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and quite possibly a federal prosecutor. But senators and congressmen are free to legally trade stock based on nonpublic information they have obtained through their official positions as elected officials — and they do so on a regular basis. Read full article > >

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Crony capitalism exposed

The Securities and Exchange Commission , which failed to stop Bernard Madoff’s long-running investment fraud despite repeated warnings , has disciplined eight agency employees over their handling of the matter but did not fire anyone, according to a SEC spokesman. A ninth employee, who was facing a potential seven-day suspension, resigned before disciplinary action was taken, spokesman John Nester said. Read full article > >

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Eight SEC employees disciplined on failure to stop Madoff fraud

Shares in Olympus plunge 30% after it admits to using funds form past acquisitions to hide losses on securities investments.

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Olympus admits to hiding losses

The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted a new set of disclosure rules for hedge funds, private equity funds and other private money managers Wednesday, but it backed off on several of the tougher requirements it had originally proposed. The agency also exempted many firms from the new rules, saying they will apply only to those with at least $150 million under management. Read full article > >

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SEC waters down, adopts disclosure rules for money managers

At first blush, a proposal the Securities and Exchange Commission took up Wednesday appeared to be one of the more mundane chores the agency faces as it carries out a congressionally mandated overhaul of Wall Street rules . An SEC commissioner apologized for the boredom factor, saying, “I know this sounds dry . . . ” Read full article > >

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SEC reviews proposal regulating derivatives called ‘swaps’

To buy long-term Treasury securities.

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Fed Launches $400B ‘Operation Twist’