Obama's pick to lead SEC is sued for misleading statements

Posted Jan 13th 2009 12:45PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Law, Scandals

President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the SEC is already generating controversy. Mary L. Schapiro is being sued for making misleading statements to hasten the consummation of a merger of regulatory organizations: She took home a 57% raise as part of the merger. The merger between the regulatory arms of the NYSE and the NASD led to the creation of FINRA, where Ms. Schapiro served as CEO.

You can read more about the lawsuit in The New York TImes, and it seems possible that "No Drama Obama" will set her aside and look for someone who lacks any whiff of scandal.

But the truth is that even before this latest lawsuit, there were tons of reasons that Schapiro was an appalingly bad pick. Gary Weiss called her pick "an appalling endorsement of the status quo. That does not bode well for future SEC appointments."

Her confirmation hearings are scheduled for this week. She seems likely to sail in with little trouble, but that might not be good news for investors.

Tags: inthenews, Mary Schapiro, MarySchapiro, Obama, SEC