Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami spoke at a gathering of law enforcement agencies and securities regulators where he mentioned that the SEC’s Office of Market Intelligence (“OMI”) has proven to be a success story.
Khuzami has said that OMI has led to numerous tips and investigations, and that the SEC Staff was using OMI to generate referrals, develop new matters, and refer cases to various state agencies. OMI has engendered a great deal of positive feeling at the SEC, but it is impossible for outside analysts to view this as a success when we are not privy to the data that the Enforcement Director possesses. Nonetheless, since the SEC believes that OMI is a success, the securities industry must take notice. Further, this information also highlights the SEC’s increased focus on sharing information, as well as its ability to connect certain data – – something the SEC was accused of not doing after the Madoff scandal arose.
Accordingly, such activity should be monitored for potential indicators of future SEC investigations and actions.