The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government,created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market manipulation.
The Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service is the governing body of the United States Postal Service (USPS). The board oversees the activities of the Postal Service,while the postmaster general actively manages its day-to-day operations.
The United States Postal Regulatory Commission,formerly called the Postal Rate Commission,is an independent regulatory agency created by the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. Like the Postal Service,it was defined in law as an independent establishment of the executive branch.
The United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) was created by Public Law 104–208,passed by Congress in 1996. The inspector general of the United States Postal Service (USPS) is appointed by the presidentially appointed governors on the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service and reports to them. The term of the inspector general is a maximum of seven years. To ensure accountability,the inspector general keeps Congress,the governors,and Postal Service management informed of the office's work and alerted to potential areas where the Postal Service could be more economical and efficient.
Robert Allen Stanford is a convicted financial fraudster,former financier,and sponsor of professional sports. He was convicted of fraud in 2012,having operated an eight billion dollar Ponzi scheme,and is now serving a 110-year federal prison sentence.
Linda Chatman Thomsen was the director of the Division of Enforcement for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2005 until early 2009. Since arriving at the SEC in 1995,she worked under four SEC Chairmen:Arthur Levitt,Harvey Pitt,William H. Donaldson,and Christopher Cox. William Donaldson named her director of the Division of Enforcement on May 12,2005. She is the first woman to serve as director of the Division of Enforcement. Thomsen is known for her role in the suits by the SEC against Enron and Martha Stewart,and for not having investigated Bernard Madoff. She succeeded Stephen M. Cutler. She is now a senior counsel at Davis Polk &Wardwell.
Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American financier who was the mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history,worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. Madoff's firm had two basic units:a stock brokerage and an asset management business;the Ponzi scheme was centered in the asset management business.
Harry M. Markopolos is an American former securities industry executive and a forensic accounting and financial fraud investigator.
David G. Friehling is an American accountant who was arrested and charged in March 2009 for his role in the Madoff investment scandal. He subsequently pleaded guilty to rubber-stamping Bernard Madoff's filings with regulators rather than fully reviewing them. His role in covering up Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme makes it the largest accounting fraud in history.
H. David Kotz,also known as Harold David Kotz,is a managing director at Berkeley Research Group.
Andrew Neill Vollmer is an American lawyer. He retired as partner in the securities department at law firm WilmerHale. Prior to April 2009,he had been Deputy General Counsel for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and acting General Counsel. He succeeded Meyer Eisenberg as Deputy General Counsel,who retired from the Commission in early January 2006 and former General Counsel Brian Cartwright who left the Commission for the private sector in January 2009.
The Madoff investment scandal was a major case of stock and securities fraud discovered in late 2008. In December of that year,Bernie Madoff,the former Nasdaq chairman and founder of the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC,admitted that the wealth management arm of his business was an elaborate multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot is a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) attorney. She worked on the Bernard Madoff investigation in 2004,as the Lead Investigator for the SEC on the case. She discovered key elements of the Madoff Ponzi scheme and reported them to her superiors. She was moved off the case prior to being able to complete the investigation.
No One Would Listen:A True Financial Thriller is a book by whistleblower Harry Markopolos about his investigation into the Madoff investment scandal and how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission failed to react to his warnings. The book was released on March 2,2010,by John Wiley &Sons.
Chasing Madoff is a 2010 documentary film written and directed by Jeff Prosserman. The film is based on the book by Harry Markopolos. It was first released at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam on 19 November 2010. It was first shown in North America on 26 August 2011.
David M. Becker is an American lawyer and a partner of Cleary Gottlieb. He was twice General Counsel and Senior Policy Director of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Shana Diane Madoff,sometimes referred to as Shana Madoff Skoller Swanson,is an American former attorney who is now a yoga teacher.
Eric J. Swanson is an American lawyer who worked at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and dated and eventually married the niece of Bernard Madoff while the SEC was investigating Madoff's investment firm for what was eventually revealed to be a massive Ponzi scheme. Swanson is currently the Senior Vice President,General Counsel,and Secretary of BATS Global Markets,the third-largest stock exchange in the United States.
David Paul Weber is an American criminalist,and the former Assistant Inspector General for Investigations at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He is the Principal Investigator of a $2.6 million grant by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,to test various white collar crime interventions concerning elder financial exploitation and high-tech crime. In the past,Weber was a whistleblower who reported allegations about foreign espionage against the stock exchanges,and misconduct in the Bernard L. Madoff and R. Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme investigations. In June 2013,the SEC settled with Weber his whistleblower protection and U.S. District Court lawsuits,paying him one of the largest federal employee whistleblower settlements ever. In 2014,In Bed with Wall Street author Larry Doyle named Weber as one of his "top 5 whistleblowers". On July 30,2015,Weber was recognized by six United States Senators and one member of the House of Representatives at the First Congressional Celebration of National Whistleblower Appreciation Day. On August 5,2021,Weber met with the President,Speaker of the House,and Senators at the signing of H.R. 3325,the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal for those officers who lost their lives at the Capitol Insurrection,as he represents one of the deceased police officers and his widow. Weber is now a forensic accounting professor at the Perdue School,Salisbury University. As part of his teaching duties,he is a special investigator for the Maryland State's Attorneys Offices in two adjoining counties,and a Virginia financial crimes state prosecutor in the neighboring Virginia county. He supervises his students who act as intern investigators on financial crime cases.
Louis DeJoy is an American businessman serving as the 75th U.S. postmaster general. He was appointed in May 2020 by the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service (USPS). Prior to the appointment,he was the founder and CEO of the logistics and freight company New Breed Logistics and was a major Republican Party donor and fundraiser for Donald Trump. DeJoy is the first postmaster general in two decades without prior experience in the USPS. His companies still hold active service contracts with the USPS,generating controversy over conflict of interest.
