While I await the New Pecora Commission's results, I'm going digging.
Linda Chatman Thomsen was the Director of the Division of Enforcement for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2005 until early 2009. Thomsen is married to Steuart Hill Thomsen, a partner in the law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP, whose clients include hedge funds, broker-dealers, & investment advisors for securities enforcement matters.
Prior to the blowupover the SEC's failure in the Madoff scandal, there were other controversies involving Thomsen. The SEC inspector general, H. David Kotz, late last year recommended disciplinary action against Thomsen and another enforcement official over the handling of an insider-trading probe touching on big hedge fund Pequot Capital Management and a prominent Wall Street executive.
Kotz said he found there were "serious questions" about the impartiality and fairness of the SEC's investigation of Pequot. A former SEC attorney who worked on the probe and was fired by the agency has alleged there was political interference in the probe by agency officials. His allegations became public in 2006 and prompted an investigation by Republican staff of the Senate Judiciary and Finance Committees.
The SEC took no enforcement action in the Pequot case, which it closed two years ago - but recently reopened after new information surfaced. The hedge fund has denied any wrongdoing.
The hedge fund has shut it's doors.
Critics say her unit failedto detect and prosecute improprieties among mortgage companies, the nation’s brokerage firms and powerful investment advisers and hedge funds that led to the financial crisis.
In recent weeks, the chorus grew as Congress took Ms. Thomsen to task for turning a blind eye to a series of tips years ago that outlined the huge Ponzi scheme apparently conducted by Bernard L. Madoff, the trader and investment adviser arrested in December.
And Pequot's links to Bush supporter Morgan Stanley CEO, John Mack...
For example, on June 26, 2005, Linda Thomsen, the (SEC)director of enforcement, spoke by telephone about the Pequot case to Mary Jo White, a lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton, who was representing the Morgan Stanley board and was concerned about Mr. Mack’s possible involvement, the report said.
Ms. Thomsen said she had told Ms. White nothing about the case during the call. But according to Ms. White’s account of that conversation, Ms. Thomsen disclosed that subpoenaed e-mail messages showed that there was "smoke there" though "surely not fire."