SEC Shreds, Burns, and Zaps Evidence of Past "Non-Investigations"

Matt Taibbi reveals a whistleblower's case of dark doings at the SEC, where cover-ups are job one, and no evil deed goes unrewarded.

Flynn discovered a directive on the enforcement division's internal website ordering staff to destroy "any records obtained in connection" with closed MUIs. The directive appeared to violate federal law, which gives responsibility for maintaining and destroying all records to the National Archives and Records Administration. Over a decade earlier, in fact, the SEC had struck a deal with NARA stipulating that investigative records were to be maintained for 25 years – and that if any files were to be destroyed after that, the shredding was to be done by NARA, not the SEC.

But Flynn soon learned that the records for thousands of preliminary investigations no longer existed. In his letter to Congress, Flynn estimates that the practice of destroying MUIs had begun as early as 1993, and has resulted in at least 9,000 case files being destroyed. For all the thousands of tips that had come in to the SEC, and the thousands of interviews that had been conducted by the agency's staff, all that remained were a few perfunctory lines for each case. The mountains of evidence gathered were no longer in existence.

There's a good list of some buried cases, but it looks like there was a whole lotta greasing of wheels and other objects involved.

Shocking, but not surprising. I predict a full inquiry, and try not to laugh too loud.