Posted by
Always To The Right on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 12:40:59 PM
When Barack Obama signed the new financial-regulation reform bill into
law, its supporters claimed it as a victory for transparency and
accountability. That may be true for Wall Street, although
debatable, but it’s not true for government and the regulatory regime it
enhanced. The SEC now claims that the bill has given them an exemption from Freedom of Information Act requests, the very device by which citizens and media force transparency in the halls of power
The use of FOIA has uncovered many problems at the SEC, which is
undoubtedly why Chris Dodd and Barney Frank wanted the exemption. Among
the cases listed by Fox Business as having been boosted by FOIA
requests are:
- March 2009 – Fox used FOIA to discover that the SEC had investigated
Madoff and R. Allen Stanford, but failed to follow through on
prosecution in time to save investors.
- 2009 – Fox again used FOIA to get records showing that the Fed knew
AIG execs would get their bonuses under the bailout legislation proposed
by Congress.
- SEC whistleblower Gary Aguirre forced the SEC to release documents
through FOIA requests that showed he was correct in accusing the agency
of interfering in an investigation of Pequot Asset Management — and
allowed him to get a settlement for wrongful termination.
None of these would have happened without FOIA.