SEC accountant who bungled Madoff Ponzi probe gets bonus!?! By JOSH MARGOLIN, NYP, 8/15/11
Peter Lamore in his Connecticut driveway.
EXCLUSIVE Peter Lamore, 39, was awarded a $1,200 payout last year, even though he and the higher-up who approved his bonus "were subject to potential disciplinary action at the time" for their dismally subpar performance in the Madoff case.......... Lamore -- a compliance officer in the SEC's New York City office during the flawed 2005 examination of Madoff and his cooked books -- was never actually punished for his shoddy work. But government investigators found that Lamore's review of Madoff was "inappropriately focused, conducted without obtaining critical independent data, closed with unresolved issues remaining, and relied too heavily on" Madoff's bogus explanations, according to their Aug 2009 report.
Lamore was nominated for his bonus just two weeks after he was taken to task along with others in the 2009 report -- and nine months after Madoff's Ponzi scheme burst into the headlines. Amazingly, Lamore had already been promoted to SEC staff accountant in 2006 thanks, in part, to his inspection of Madoff's books, auditors found. --snip--
Lamore -- a compliance officer in the SEC's New York City office during the flawed 2005 examination of Madoff and his cooked books -- was never actually punished for his shoddy work. But government investigators found that Lamore's review of Madoff was "inappropriately focused, conducted without obtaining critical independent data, closed with unresolved issues remaining, and relied too heavily on" Madoff's bogus explanations, according to their Aug 2009 report. Never let it be said that the liberal vultures don't take care of their own.
So much for the SEC's IG H. David Kotz [cover-up] report which "found" that Madoff's audits and investigations were done by "untrained, unseasoned, indifferent, inexperienced and incompetent" clerical personnel who were either "intimidated or enthralled" by Madoff himself or "received no support and were actively discouraged from forcing the issue".
(Ref: Report Details How Madoff's Web Ensnared S.E.C. - NYT, by David Stout, 2009 September 03)
So what did David Kotz know and when did he know it? And why is he the one who is now going to investigate the "SEC shreddergate"? So that he can execute another cover-up of "incompetency and inexperience," including possibly his own? That's like having Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank investigate the root causes of real estate / mortgage market fiasco and then write the laws and regulations to "fix it".
From SEC Files Were Illegally Destroyed: Lawyer Says - CNBC / NYT, by Edward Wyatt, 2011 August 18
(tags: SEC CORRUPTION UNITED STATES) < snip > ..... The destroyed files comprise records of at least 9,000 preliminary inquiries into matters involving notorious individuals like Bernard L. Madoff, as well as several major Wall Street firms that later were the subject of scrutiny after the 2008 financial crisis, including Goldman Sachs , Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and Bank of America.The S.E.C. is the very agency that is charged with making sure that Wall Street firms retain records of their own activities, and has brought numerous enforcement cases against firms for failing to do so. ..... < snip >
..... Changes were made to the S.E.C. policy after questions about the document destruction were raised in early 2010 by Darcy Flynn. ..... < snip >
..... The National Archives wrote to the S.E.C. last year, saying that it “appears that there has been an unauthorized disposal of federal records,” and asked for further information, according to Mr. Flynn's chronology. Mr. Flynn said that S.E.C. officials discussed whether to lie about the document destruction because they might be open to criminal liability. Unlawful and willful destruction of federal records is punishable by up to three years in prison. ..... < snip >
..... The letter from Mr. Flynn's lawyer said that the old document destruction policy gave S.E.C. officials assurance that if they closed an inquiry without upgrading it to a formal investigation, there would be no record of their actions. It is common for S.E.C. employees to leave the agency for the private sector and then begin representing clients before the agency.
Mr. Flynn contends that the practice increases the likelihood that S.E.C. investigators could do undetected favors for former colleagues and their clients by quashing investigations. ..... < snip >
It appears that Darcy Flynn is still with the SEC, but has asked for federal protection under the whistle-blower statute. H. David Kotz, the SEC Inspector General who wrote a report on SEC's Madoff "investigations," will investigate the "SEC shreddergate" and expects to issue a report by the end of September.