Free Republic

FIRST ON FOX: Lawmakers want to know why the Social Security Administration has reportedly erroneously overpaid benefits to millions of Americans and then hit beneficiaries with demands for repayment to the tune of thousands of dollars. A bipartisan letter sent by House members in the Ohio delegation presses Dr. Kilolo Kijakazi, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), for answers on its efforts to claw back overpayments from Americans, many of whom did nothing wrong. Those affected are elderly or disabled people on a fixed income who may have their benefits frozen or cut until their debt is...

Within a week or so, if not sooner, we can expect the Dodd-Frank Act to become law....there remain hidden provisions that will have more impact than has been generally recognized. This column will focus on three: (1) the whistleblower bounty provisions of the act, which create unprecedented incentives; (2) the act's "clawback" provisions, which potentially affect all current and former "executive officers" of a listed company but that are expressed in vague language of uncertain scope; and (3) its approach to the extraterritorial application of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, where the act expressly reverses some aspects...

Two former investors are suing the Securities and Exchange Commission for $2.4 billion in damages, claiming the agency acted with negligence while examining Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff's investment business. The 63-page complaint, filed by Phyllis Molchatsky and Dr. Steven Schneider, claims the agency engaged in "serial, gross negligence" over the course of 16 years. It alleges that because the SEC's negligence occurred during the course of its regular functions, rather than when crafting policy, the agency is not shielded by the doctrine of sovereign immunity. .....