Nothing is more important to a fully streamlined corrupt crony capitalist economy as the ever-present “revolving door” between regulatory agencies and the industries/companies they regulate. These moves have become so pervasive in American society that it is simply impossible to keep up with them all, but I try my best to cover the most egregious examples whenever possible. As a refresher, I suggest reading the following:
Revolving Door 2014: Former Head of the Federal Communications Commission Joins Carlyle
Journalism’s Revolving Door: Washington Post’s National Security Editor Joins the State Department
The Pentagon’s Revolving Door with Defense Contractors…Some Shocking Statistics
How Jack “Bailout Bonus” Lew Got to Treasury
It Never Ends: Top Obama Housing Advisor Jumps Ship to Wells Fargo
Meet Liz Fowler: Architect of ObamaCare Jumps Ship to Johnson & Johnson
Meet Mary Jo White: The Next SEC Chief and a Guaranteed Wall Street Patsy
I recognize that’s a lot of catching up to do, but you get my point. There were many other posts I didn’t even mention in the interest of not overdoing it.
In any event, last evening we were informed of another example. Bruce Karpati, a former top Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer, is moving on to become global chief compliance officer at private equity giant KKR. He left the SEC last May when he was chief of the Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit. Naturally, he went to work for an asset manager, Prudential’s mutual fund unit specifically. Now that he thinks enough time has passed, he is going for the real money.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Bruce Karpati, a former top Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer, is heading to private-equity giant KKR & Co. to become global chief compliance officer, said people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Karpati, most recently the chief compliance officer for Prudential Financial Inc’s mutual fund business, is expected to start at KKR later this month, one of the people said.
Mr. Karpati spent more than a dozen years at the SEC, rising through the ranks to lead the enforcement division’s asset-management unit. He oversaw investigations into a wide variety of investment firms, including a probe that ultimately led to a settlement between hedge-fund manager Philip Falcone and the SEC that banned Mr. Falcone from the securities industry for several years.
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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The Best SEC Speech Ever
There’s a lot more that Kidney said that’s worth repeating, including his comments about the revolving door:
I have had bosses, and bosses of my bosses, whose names we all know, who made little secret that they were here to punch their ticket. They mouthed serious regard for the mission of the commission, but their actions were tentative and fearful in many instances. You can get back to Wall Street by acting tough, by using the SEC publicity apparatus to promote yourself as tough, and maybe even on a few occasions being tough, if you pick your targets carefully. But don’t appear to fail. Don’t take risks where risk would count. That is not the intended message from the ticket punchers, of course, but it is the one I got on the occasions when I was involved in a high profile case or two. The revolving door doesn’t push the agency’s enforcement envelope very often or very far.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-04-08/the-best-sec-speech-ever
I must be seeing things but it looks like Dropbox put Condoleezza Rice on their board?