The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a large 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.
In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law or criminal law, or it may cause no loss of money, property, or legal right but still be an element of another civil or criminal wrong. The purpose of fraud may be monetary gain or other benefits, for example by obtaining a passport, travel document, or driver's license, or mortgage fraud, where the perpetrator may attempt to qualify for a mortgage by way of false statements.
A binary option is a financial exotic option in which the payoff is either some fixed monetary amount or nothing at all. The two main types of binary options are the cash-or-nothing binary option and the asset-or-nothing binary option. The former pays some fixed amount of cash if the option expires in-the-money while the latter pays the value of the underlying security. They are also called all-or-nothing options, digital options, and fixed return options (FROs).
The Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas, commonly known as the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), is a department of the state government of Texas. The DPS is responsible for statewide law enforcement and vehicle regulation. The Public Safety Commission oversees the DPS. However, under state law, the Governor of Texas may assume command of the department during a public disaster, riot, insurrection, formation of a dangerous resistance to enforcement of law, or to perform his constitutional duty to enforce law. The commission's five members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Texas Senate, to serve without pay for staggered, six-year terms. The commission formulates plans and policies for enforcing criminal, traffic and safety laws, preventing and detecting crime, apprehending law violators, and educating citizens about laws and public safety.
The Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) serves as an interagency law enforcement training body for 105 United States government federal law enforcement agencies. The stated mission of FLETC is to "...train those who protect our homeland". It also provides training to state, local, campus, tribal, and international law enforcement agencies. Through the Rural Policing Institute (RPI) and the Office of State and Local Training, it provides tuition-free and low-cost training to state, local, campus and tribal law enforcement agencies.
The United States Capitol Police (USCP) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States charged with protecting the United States Congress within the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its territories. It answers to the Capitol Police Board and is the only full-service federal law enforcement agency appointed by the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States.
Robert Allen Stanford, known primarily by his middle name, is an American convicted financial fraudster and former financier and was also a sponsor of professional sports. He is currently serving a 110-year federal prison sentence, having been convicted in 2012 of charges that his investment company was a massive Ponzi scheme and fraud.
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 and only 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 partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell.
The federal government of the United States empowers a wide range of law enforcement agencies to maintain law and public order related to matters affecting the country as a whole.
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.
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)
David C. Williams was the vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service from September 13, 2018 to April 30, 2020, and served as Inspector General (IG) for the U.S. Postal Service, in the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General, from 2003 to 2016.
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 a former Assistant Inspector General for Investigations at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 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, author and blogger 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, and a special investigator for the Maryland State's Attorneys Offices in two adjoining counties.
Christy Goldsmith Romero is an American lawyer and federal government official. She serves as the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a federal law enforcement agency and an independent audit watchdog that targets financial institution crime and other fraud, waste, and abuse related to the TARP bailout. In this capacity, she investigates financial institution crime related to the TARP bailout. Notable investigations by SIGTARP include Wilmington Trust, Sonoma Valley Bank, General Motors, United Commercial Bank, Morgan Stanley, Ally Financial, Bank of the Commonwealth, Jefferies, RBS, and SunTrust.
Mark Lee Greenblatt is an American attorney and government official currently serving as the Inspector General of the United States Department of the Interior. As the Department's 7th confirmed Inspector General, Mr. Greenblatt oversees a nationwide workforce of more than 270 investigators, auditors, evaluators, attorneys, and support staff whose mission is to detect and deter waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct in DOI programs, and to promote economy and efficiency in Departmental operations. Mr. Greenblatt is the senior official responsible for providing oversight of more than 70,000 Department employees, assessing the Department's diverse programs with more than $10 billion in grants and contracts, and conducting complex administrative and criminal investigations.
The 2021 United States Capitol attack was followed by various political, legal, and social repercussions. The second impeachment of Donald Trump, who was charged for incitement of insurrection for his conduct, occurred on January 13. At the same time, Cabinet officials were pressured to invoke the 25th Amendment for removing Trump from office. Trump was subsequently acquitted in the Senate trial, after a 57–43 vote in favor of conviction—ten votes short of the two-thirds majority required to convict. Many in the Trump administration resigned. Several large companies announced they were halting all political donations, and others have suspended funding the lawmakers who had objected to certifying Electoral College results. A bill was introduced to form an independent commission, similar to the 9/11 Commission, to investigate the events surrounding the attack; it passed the House but was blocked by Republicans in the Senate. The House then approved a House "select committee" to investigate the attack. In June, the Senate released the results of its own investigation of the riot. The event led to strong criticism of law enforcement agencies. Leading figures within the United States Capitol Police resigned.
