Time to expose Wall Street

Seattle Times: Call it The Exposition of Bernard Madoff. Understanding the failings and failures that allowed his $65 billion Ponzi scheme to survive and flourish should be part of the learning curve toward regulating Wall Street and the finance industry.

Madoff’s 150-year sentence must not be the end of the scandal. No one can believe his claim he acted alone. Ferreting out the details of the epic scam will point toward areas for drastic reforms or credible enforcement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission named a new director of its Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations. That is a start, if the new person is willing to enforce the rules and clean house. Last fall, an SEC investigation of itself found bumbling and incompetence but no wrongdoing.

The bumblers allowed Madoff to skate through three examinations and two investigations. Lots of detailed complaints were never explored.

Self-serving loop

Main Street would never go near Wall Street if ordinary people — and their 401(k)s and pension funds — understood what a closed, self-serving loop it all represented.

The SEC investigation, for example, could not find that romantic ties between a former SEC assistant director and Madoff’s niece, a compliance officer for Madoff Investment Securities, influenced the investigations.

Congress fails taxpayers, investors, ordinary citizens and the nation if it does not toughen regulation and enforcement of the finance industry. Madoff is a symbol of one category of abuse. Tell his story and find those who helped him.