Federal Judge to SEC: “Grow a Pair!!!”

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff threw out the SEC’s slap-on-the-wrist settlement with Citigroup.  The SEC had agreed to a $285 million settlement over Citigroup’s sale of toxic mortgage debt.

According to the linked article, Judge Rakoff said the Securities and Exchange Commission “appeared uninterested in actually learning what Citigroup did wrong,” and ignored the interests of the public.  Judge Rakoff said:

“An application of judicial power that does not rest on facts is worse than mindless, it is inherently dangerous.  In any case like this that touches on the transparency of financial markets whose gyrations have so depressed our economy and debilitated our lives, there is an overriding public interest in knowing the truth.”

He called the SEC’s settlement “neither reasonable, nor fair, nor adequate, nor in the public interest,” and wondered whether the SEC was only interested in “a quick headline.”

YES.

This is the kind of news we should see more often.