NEW YORK — Signaling that it is time for a new cop to walk the Wall Street beat, the Securities and Exchange Commission accepted the resignation Monday of its top enforcement officer amid blistering criticism that the commission had failed to protect investors in recent years.
Linda Chatman Thomsen, the embattled director who had led the agency’s enforcement division since 2005, tendered her resignation to Mary L. Schapiro, the commission’s new chairwoman. A replacement for Thomsen, 54, has not been named.
Critics say her unit failed to detect and prosecute improprieties among mortgage companies, the nation’s brokerage firms and powerful investment advisers and hedge funds that led to the financial crisis.
In recent weeks, the chorus grew as Congress took Thom sen to task for turning a blind eye to a series of tips years ago that outlined the huge Ponzi scheme apparently conducted by Bernard Madoff, the trader and investment adviser arrested in December.
Schapiro has announced that she will streamline some procedures. The New York Times
