Warren Presses Fed, SEC On Enforcement

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter Oct. 23 to Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, Chair of the SEC Mary Jo White and head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry requesting information about the enforcement records of their agencies between 2009 and 2012. Warren wants to know how enforcement actions against executives responsible for the 2008 financial collapse taken by their agencies stack up against the much smaller Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). In the letter Warren praised SIGTARP’s “stellar” record in prosecuting executives and securing convictions, despite having just a fraction of the enforcement budget and staff of the other agencies.

Warren said SIGTARP has brought criminal charges against 144 individuals, obtained criminal convictions for 107 defendants, and obtained orders of restitution and civil judgments totaling $4.3 billion. The Fed, SEC and OCC were asked to provide the number of individuals the agencies have charged criminally (specifically asking for the number of senior officials charged), the number of prison sentences they’ve secured, and the total amount of funds the agencies have obtained, among other enforcement details. The request is part of Warren’s continued pressure on the agencies since being assigned to the Senate Banking Committee in January.