WASHINGTON — The watchdog of the Securities and Exchange Commission has found the agency consistently mishandled its five investigations of Bernard Madoff’s business, despite ample complaints over 16 years about the multibillion-dollar fraud.
But SEC inspector general David Kotz’s 450-page report found no evidence of improper ties between agency officials and Madoff, or that senior SEC officials may have tried to influence the probes.
The SEC enforcement staff, conducting investigations of Madoff, left, “almost immediately caught (him) in lies and misrepresentations, but failed to follow up on inconsistencies” and rejected whistle-blowers’ offers to provide additional evidence, the report says.
Kotz’s exhaustive inquiry was intended as an investigation into the SEC’s conduct in the Madoff affair. He plans to issue separate audits that will include recommendations for changes. The Associated Press
