Former US Prosecutor Is Reported Choice for SEC Enforcement Chief
A former federal prosecutor in Manhattan is close to being named to become the new enforcement chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Robert Khuzami, a former assistant U.S. attorney who focused on federal crimes, is the choice to replace Linda Thomsen, who announced yesterday that she is stepping down, the Washington Post reports. The Post did not identify the source who said Khuzami will be named to the position by new SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro.
Khuzami is currently general counsel in the Americas for Deutsche Bank. He headed the white-collar crime unit in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan and helped prosecute the “blind sheikh” accused in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Thomsen is stepping down “amid blistering criticism” that the SEC had failed to protect investors, the New York Times reports. A former lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell, Thomsen has worked at the SEC for 14 years, according to MarketWatch.
Thomsen leaves after receiving “a harsh grilling” from Congress over the SEC’s failure to detect alleged fraud by Bernard Madoff, accused of running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors out of $50 billion, the Post reports. Supporters told the Times that she was hampered by an agency sending a message to back off from enforcement and regulations.
