After three years as Wall Street's top watchdog, Mary Jo White defends the track record of the Securities and Exchange Commission with a prosecutor's knack for building a case, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. Despite complaints that the agency has not been tough enough on Wall Street, White points to the 89 senior executives and more than 100 companies charged with misdeeds associated with the 2008 financial crisis. The agency has collected $3.76 billion for those misdeeds, she says. "The SEC has been quite aggressive and successful in that space," she says, "but I also understand the frustration." By the time President Obama tapped White to lead the SEC in 2013, the agency had long suffered under the popular notion that it was a slow and toothless tiger. By nominating White to rebuild the agency's reputation, Obama was leaning on a former federal prosecutor who had helped put John Gotti behind bars. But in the years since, the SEC has been swallowed by the task of implementing dozens of rules called for under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law and the 2012 JOBS Act, which aims to make it easier for small businesses to raise money. The 4,000-person agency is seemingly constantly at war with Congress, while scrambling to keep up with the technological changes that have overtaken Wall Street. Just recently, Senate Democrats blocked the nomination of two SEC commissioners and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) complained that the agency was not tough enough on Wall Street. “The SEC doesn't have the criminal powers, and I think often when you're hearing people complain about the lack of accountability, it's, 'well, nobody or few went to jail.' That is not really the SEC,” White said.
