Senior SEC staffers spent hours at work looking at porn websites

[Cebu_4_2]

Senior SEC staffers spent hours at work looking at porn websites

Inquiries of 33 employees find one who was blocked more than 16,000 times in a month from visiting certain sites. He eventually found a way around the agency’s filter.
Associated Press

April 23, 2010

Senior staffers at the Securities and Exchange Commission spent hours surfing pornographic websites on government-issued computers while they were being paid to police the financial system, an agency watchdog says.

The SEC's inspector general conducted 33 inquiries of employees looking at explicit images in the last five years, according to a memo first reported Thursday evening by ABC News. It reports some shocking findings:

• A senior attorney at the SEC's Washington headquarters spent up to eight hours a day looking at and downloading pornography. When he ran out of hard drive space, he burned the files to CDs or DVDs, which he kept in boxes around his office.

• An accountant was blocked more than 16,000 times in a month from visiting websites classified as "sex" or "pornography." Yet, he still managed to amass a collection of "very graphic" material on his hard drive by using Google Images to bypass the SEC's internal filter.

Seventeen of the employees were "at a senior level," earning salaries of as much as $222,418.

Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista, the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said it was "disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at porn than taking action to help stave off the events that put our nation's economy on the brink of collapse."

[Apparition]

Well, we better have CONgress grant these guys more power so that they'll be even more capable of preventing future financial crimes. :sarc:

[goldmonkey]

An SEC accountant attempted to access porn websites 1,800 times in a two-week period and had 600 pornographic images on her computer hard drive.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/sec-pornography-employees-spent-hours-surfing-porn-sites/story?id=10451508

[Book]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3FXFlNeqy-I/Sa7CcW4h4FI/AAAAAAAAAF0/nICeF4545v0/s200/april_15_calendar.jpg

Boggles the mind.

:oo-->

[1970 Silver Art]

Ah yes! The taxpayer dollars at work. :sarc:

What I do not understand is that why the SEC staffers have to spend so much time looking at porn websites and downloading porn when they have Goldman Sachs to jerk off at. Since Goldman Sachs "owns" the SEC, then I would have thought that the employee benefit package that the SEC staffers get would include a Goldman Sachs "jerk off" package. I guess I am wrong on that.

Maybe the SEC staffers are sex-addicts and need to go down to Mississippi to hang out at the sex addict clinic with the "Cheet-ah" (a.k.a. Tiger Woods).

[uranian]

relatedly:

IRS Agent Didn't Report $41,842 in EBay Sales (http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-04-22/irs-agent-found-liable-for-failing-to-report-almost-42-000-in-ebay-sales.html)


An Internal Revenue Service agent was found liable for back taxes and penalties for not reporting income on nearly 2,000 transactions on EBay Inc., the online auction site, according to the U.S. Tax Court.

Andrea Fabiana Orellana failed to report $41,842 in income in 2004 and 2005 from sales of designer clothing, shoes and other items, according to a Tax Court summary opinion. Orellana is liable for $12,428 in unpaid taxes and $2,486 in penalties.

Orellana, who represented herself, sold items under several names, including “BlackTheRipper,” the court document said. She could not be reached for comment.

someone should ask her to find the bit in the tax code that says you actually have to pay income tax, eh??

[Spectrism]

This will be the cover story while the SEC director and all the staff never had any intention of doing their jobs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Schapiro

Schapiro was appointed in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan to fill one of two Democratic seats on the SEC. President George H. W. Bush reappointed her to this position in 1989. President Bill Clinton appointed Schapiro as acting chairperson of the SEC, and then appointed her chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 1994.

In July 1990, then-SEC Commissioner Schapiro was appointed chairman of the Task Force on Administrative Proceedings. The Task Force revised the entire Rules of Practice, and in March 1993 issued its final report, Fair and Efficient Administrative Proceedings. In November 1993, an SEC release solicited comment on the Task Force proposals, some of which were later adopted as SEC guidelines [6] on June 9, 1995.

In October 1993, Schapiro gave a speech in Lugano, Switzerland, "The Derivatives Revolution and the World Financial System," concerning potential regulation of the unregulated derivatives market in which she cited "the benefits to financial innovation that may result from a more flexible regulatory paradigm," and stated that she was "not convinced that consolidated regulatory supervision of securities firms and their affiliates is necessary or appropriate at this time."[7]

In 1996 Schapiro joined the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) (now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) as the president of NASD Regulation. She became the vice chairperson of the NASD in 2002, and in 2006 she became NASD's chairperson and CEO. As the CEO of NASD she oversaw its consolidation with NYSE Member Regulation to form the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority[8]. In 2005 she oversaw a wide-reaching probe into gift-giving and entertaining on Wall Street, uncovering several instances of lavish and excessive activities, that led to many charges.[9]

She was also a member of the boards of directors of Duke Energy and Kraft Foods.

In January 2008, President] George W. Bush appointed Schapiro to the 19-member council of the President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy.

In 2008, Schapiro was named to Investment Advisor magazine's IA 25, the list of the 25 most influential people in and around the investment advisory business.

[edit] Career as SEC chair
In 2009, under the direction of Schapiro, the SEC attempted to settle a case with Bank of America regarding the disclosure of bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives just before their take over by Bank of America. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff threw out the proposed $33 million dollar settlement saying it "does not comport with the most elementary notions of justice and morality". [10] [11]

On June 17, 2009, Bernard Madoff, in an interview by the SEC inspector general David Kotz, said that Mary Schapiro was a "dear friend," although she "probably thinks, 'I wish I never knew this guy.' " [12]. This was later reported to be false by SEC Inspector General David Kotz, who said "there was no evidence that Mr. Madoff had a close friendship with Ms. Schapiro."[13]

As Chair, Schapiro has instituted rulemakings aimed at reforming the structure of the markets for securities trading, including particularly dark pool alternative trading systems, internalization, dark order types on exchanges, and ECNs.[14]

[Spectrism]

I actually wrote them a letter last year.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Spectrism
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 8:33 AM
To: TradingAndMarkets
Subject: Predatory computer trading & high frequency trades

Hello,

I have been watching the stock market this past year and the news of various companies. It is OBVIOUS that the market is being manipulated. What concerns me further is that it is likely that taxpayer funding is being permitted to pass into private hands to make predatory trades.

How is it that Goldman Sachs is not shut down? They admitted to having a dangerous program and got US law enforcement to track down a suspected software thief in minutes. The influence that Goldman Sachs has on our government is obvious. Do they own you too? My guess is YES, as you allow them to steal money from the open market in high frequency trades, skimming profits in a 97% win ratio from traders.

Let me quote Mary Schapiro's sworn testimony before the Senate subcomittee on appropriations:

"First and foremost, we would use additional funds to enhance our systems for handling tips, complaints and referrals. Although the SEC has a number of different processes to track this kind of information, there is no central repository or system through which this information comes together to ensure it is handled consistently or appropriately. Nor is there any present capability to mine the data to find connections, patterns or trends that would enable us to more intelligently focus our enforcement efforts.

The SEC also plans to improve our ability to identify emerging risks to investors. We have many internal data repositories from filings, examinations, investigations, economic research and other ongoing activities. But the SEC needs better tools to mine this data, link it together, and combine it with data sources from outside the Commission to determine which firms or practices raise red flags and deserve a closer look."

If you are looking for risks to investors, open your eyes! You don't need sophisticated computers or software to see this. Get a court order and shut them down until their software and access is checked out. Further, institute a simple time requirement for trades. Make it 1 or 2 seconds instead of allowing the fastest computer with the nearest parallel interface to dominate the trades. Or, provide a 1 second delay to ALL traders for an even playing field. Stop the theft!

Spectrism
===================================

Dear Mr. Spectrism:

Thank you for your email and taking the time to provide us with your comments.

We welcome your comments because they help us to regulate and enforce the laws that assure fair and orderly securities markets.

I have passed your views on to the people at the SEC who specialize in the issues you've raised. If they have any questions or wish to respond directly to your comments, they will contact you.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to inform us of your views.

Sincerely,


GIULIA DE CARLO
Office of Investor Education and Advocacy
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(202)551-6551
==================================================

BTW- I did NOT send Giulia pictures of myself. ;D

[mamboni]

I actually wrote them a letter last year.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Spectrism
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 8:33 AM
To: TradingAndMarkets
Subject: Predatory computer trading & high frequency trades

Hello,

I have been watching the stock market this past year and the news of various companies. It is OBVIOUS that the market is being manipulated. What concerns me further is that it is likely that taxpayer funding is being permitted to pass into private hands to make predatory trades.

How is it that Goldman Sachs is not shut down? They admitted to having a dangerous program and got US law enforcement to track down a suspected software thief in minutes. The influence that Goldman Sachs has on our government is obvious. Do they own you too? My guess is YES, as you allow them to steal money from the open market in high frequency trades, skimming profits in a 97% win ratio from traders.

Let me quote Mary Schapiro's sworn testimony before the Senate subcomittee on appropriations:

"First and foremost, we would use additional funds to enhance our systems for handling tips, complaints and referrals. Although the SEC has a number of different processes to track this kind of information, there is no central repository or system through which this information comes together to ensure it is handled consistently or appropriately. Nor is there any present capability to mine the data to find connections, patterns or trends that would enable us to more intelligently focus our enforcement efforts.

The SEC also plans to improve our ability to identify emerging risks to investors. We have many internal data repositories from filings, examinations, investigations, economic research and other ongoing activities. But the SEC needs better tools to mine this data, link it together, and combine it with data sources from outside the Commission to determine which firms or practices raise red flags and deserve a closer look."

If you are looking for risks to investors, open your eyes! You don't need sophisticated computers or software to see this. Get a court order and shut them down until their software and access is checked out. Further, institute a simple time requirement for trades. Make it 1 or 2 seconds instead of allowing the fastest computer with the nearest parallel interface to dominate the trades. Or, provide a 1 second delay to ALL traders for an even playing field. Stop the theft!

Spectrism
===================================

Dear Mr. Spectrism:

Thank you for your email and taking the time to provide us with your comments.

We welcome your comments because they help us to regulate and enforce the laws that assure fair and orderly securities markets.

I have passed your views on to the people at the SEC who specialize in the issues you've raised. If they have any questions or wish to respond directly to your comments, they will contact you.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to inform us of your views.

Sincerely,


GIULIA DE CARLO
Office of Investor Education and Advocacy
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(202)551-6551
==================================================

BTW- I did NOT send Giulia pictures of myself. ;D




Hey Spec:

You'd get more attention to this letter if it was addressed from Long Dong Silver. :oo-->

[Spectrism]

Hey Spec:

You'd get more attention to this letter if it was addressed from Long Dong Silver. :oo-->


I think you are right. Should I try again or is it too late?

[1970 Silver Art]

Hey Spec:

You'd get more attention to this letter if it was addressed from Long Dong Silver. :oo-->


I think you are right. Should I try again or is it too late?


Yeah I would try again but put it the letter on a porn site since an SEC staffer will eventually see it since they spend a lot of time surfing porn on their computers at work.

[jedemdasseine]

Just make a porno about the SEC.

[JDRock]

...THATS why the sec NEVER will investigate the sheenies on wall st. ...the sheenie*s who distribute the propn KNOW who's at the other end......they use that to blackmail them from any real investigation/prosecution.