SEC Reorganization Includes Public Pensions Unit

According to a news release, the reorganization includes a new, specialized Municipal Securities and Public Pensions unit that will focus on misconduct in the large municipal securities market and in connection with public pension funds including: offering and disclosure fraud; tax or arbitrage-driven fraud; pay-to-play and public corruption violations; public pension accounting and disclosure violations; and valuation and pricing fraud.

The unit will be led by Elaine C. Greenberg, who is the Associate Regional Director of the Philadelphia Regional Office of the SEC and has served as the Co-Chair of the Division’s national Municipal Securities Working Group. Previously, she was Assistant Regional Director, Branch Chief, and Staff Attorney in the Philadelphia office.

Greenberg received her J.D. from Temple University School of Law, and her B.A. in Anthropology from Temple University.

The Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit Deputy Chief is Mark R. Zehner, who has served as Regional Municipal Securities Counsel in the SEC’s Philadelphia Regional Office and as Co-Chair of the Municipal Securities Working Group. Previously, he was an Attorney-Fellow in the Office of Municipal Securities in the SEC’s Washington, D.C. office, and prior to that a Partner with Saul, Ewing, Remick, & Saul LLP in Philadelphia.

He received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and his B.A. in Government from Dartmouth College.

The division named leaders of national specialized units it has established in five priority areas dedicated to particular highly specialized and complex areas of securities law, and also has created a new Office of Market Intelligence that is responsible for the collection, analysis, and monitoring of the hundreds of thousands of tips, complaints, and referrals that the SEC receives each year.

The announcement said these units and the new office will help provide the additional structure, resources, and expertise necessary for enforcement staff to keep pace with ever-changing markets and more comprehensively investigate cases involving complex products, markets, regulatory regimes, practices and transactions.

The new Office of Market Intelligence will be led by Thomas A. Sporkin, who assumes this new role after serving as Deputy Chief in the Office of Internet Enforcement at the SEC since 2001. Previously, he was Senior Counsel and Staff Attorney in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

Sporkin received his J.D. from American University Washington College of Law, and his B.S. in Economics from the University of Maryland.

Other Specialized Units

The other new specialized units announced by the Enforcement Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission include:

• Asset Management — This unit will be led by Co-Chiefs Bruce Karpati and Robert B. Kaplan and will focus on investigations involving investment advisers, investment companies, hedge funds, and private equity funds. Karpati was founder and head of the SEC's Hedge Fund Working Group, and has served as Assistant Regional Director for the New York Regional Office of the SEC, and Kaplan has served as Assistant Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.
• Market Abuse — This unit will be led by Daniel M. Hawke, who is Director of the SEC's Philadelphia Regional Office, and will focus on investigations involving large-scale market abuses and complex manipulation schemes by institutional traders, market professionals, and others.
• Structured and New Products — This unit will be led by Kenneth R. Lench, who has served as Assistant Director, Branch Chief, Assistant Chief Counsel, and Senior Counsel/Staff Attorney with the SEC's Division of Enforcement, and will focus on complex derivatives and financial products, including credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, and securitized products.
• Foreign Corrupt Practices — This unit will be led by Cheryl J. Scarboro, who has served as Associate Director, Assistant Director, Deputy Assistant Director, and Staff Attorney in the SEC's Division of Enforcement, and will focus on violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act, which prohibits U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials for government contracts and other business.

The news release said other initiatives that are being undertaken by the division include substantially expanding staff training programs, streamlining management, putting additional experienced investigators on the front lines, revising internal enforcement procedures, restructuring processes to ensure better sharing of information, leveraging the knowledge of third parties, and revamping the handling of tips.