White Weary of White-Collar Prosecutions
Posted at 11:45 a.m. on Feb. 28
Bloomberg looks at whether Mary Jo White, President Obama’s choice to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, will be willing to “pull punches on corporate wrongdoing,” something that the agency has resisted throughout the financial crisis and its aftermath.
“White’s record on white-collar cases reveals a more practical streak. Her invention of corporate probation, or deferred prosecution…was later copied by scores of U.S. attorneys… White, 65, has spoken out against what she called a ‘feeding frenzy’ of enforcement after financial scandals.”
“While New York has always been the premier base for prosecuting Wall Street fraud, White doesn’t have a record on financial regulation… Investor advocates have been uneasy with her recent career as a Wall Street defense attorney, even as they respect her bona fides as a prosecutor.”
