SEC Compliance Chief Resigns; Her Office Fiddled While Madoff Burned His Victims

The Washington Post’s Zachary A. Goldfarb reports here that Lori A. Richards, longtime Director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, is resigning after 14 years on the job. Richards’ Office reviewed Madoff’s operations in 1999, 2004, and 2005, without uncovering his Ponzi scheme.

Last week’s Post carried this outstanding piece by Goldfarb on former Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations attorney Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot. Walker-Lightfoot was hot on Madoff’s trail in 2004, raising and/or trying to ask several pertinent questions about Madoff’s activities, before she was re-assigned to other duties. Walker-Lightfoot’s supervisors at the time were Mark Donohue and his boss Eric Swanson. Swanson later married Madoff’s niece. The SEC’s Inspector General, H. David Kotz, claims to be currently looking at ”all the circumstances surrounding the SEC’s various examinations of Mr. Madoff, including the 2004 examination.” Stay tuned.