Woe to Meaghan Cheung, the “mid-level SEC employee” in the New York office tagged as the girl who ignored the Made-off scandal, despite intense prompting by tipster Markopolos who leveled this rebuke:
Cheung, branch chief in New York, actually investigated [Markopolos' claims] but with no result that I am aware of. In my conversations with her, I did not believe that she had the derivatives or mathematical background to understand the violation
Indeed, her protestations that she is being scapegoated for “the falling economy” would have some appeal, if Markopolos’ claims that she was out of her depth didn’t seem to hit so close to the mark. But pure incompetence isn’t a crime. Is it?
Still, it would be one thing if a clever scam had simply been overlooked. But with Markopolos leading the SEC horse right to the water, urging a drink or two, and with analysis as basic as looking at the options volumes required to effectuate Made-off’s supposed strategy, it gets a bit more difficult to be moved by those tears.
All the SEC will ever be good for is halting frauds already seriously in progress or delivering punishment after the fact. When it can’t even accomplish this, what good is it?
The SEC Watchdog Who Missed Madoff [The New York Post]
fuuurst
laaast
so they caught her. great. SEC is now vindicated. it was all her fault….
I thought all asians were very good at math
She gets her kicks from yelling at people that are wasting away with the bubonic plague but do a good impression or being real IT staff.
That’s more important than the Made-Offs of the world.
I blame IT for everything.
She did it. They got her finally. Everything is better. Everyone Wang Cheung
Meaghan is a very naughty girl and needs to be spanked :>
It’s a start.
What Yale thing?
“The Post” should now hunt down the mailman who picked up those packages containing the family jewels. I’d like to see him rot.
The SEC is wayyyyy to busy auditing Registered Investment Advisers who actually do the right thing. They were in our office 2 years ago for 10 days asking the dumbest possible quesitons (and we are only a 2 person office with 115m AUM). They sent two officers for two straight weeks for a measly 115m AUM. How they can skip over this ass clown is beyond me.
@4 I don’t think she is asian. I think she married into it.
Riiiiight…because mid-level SEC inspectors have always had a ton of latitude in what they examine.
As long as I have been in this business, an SEC audit has been to run down a checklist of technical items and look for a handful of violations.
Are all of the NASD registrations up to date? Check. Email retention plan? Check. Backup trading site in the Poconos? Check. $50B of accounts with $300mm in cash? Check.
What? You sold short 53 shares of IBM without a locate? Oh, the SEC looks very unfavorably on such flagrant market manipulation – we’re going to fine you $50k and you’ll have to promise to never do that again.
The prize on “the price is right” is some gigantic chevy escalade thing. Good luck selling that or keeping it running.
Oh no! She didn’t win! The woman looks genuinely upset!
Cherche la femme.
She’s like Wanda Chang from Seinfeld. Velly confoosing.
haven’t we been through this before people? gov’t can’t prevent crooks from gaming the system because of a lack of resources! blaming a mid-level hack is shameful. until there is an incentive for the really smart folks work for gov pay, it’s going to be a game of chase. though the tide may be turning given that working at the big banks today is the same as working for the fed. they may catch up at times, but they can’t keep up…
I guess Meaghan did not have access to her employer’s website on how it is supposed to work: http://www.sec.gov/complaint.shtml
There are several ways to file a complaint:
Complaints – Use one of our online forms to file your complaint electronically.
Tips – Report a potential violation of the securities laws directly to enforcement@sec.gov. Please do not use this email box for general comments or questions.
Spams – Forward investment-related spam e-mails to enforcement@sec.gov.
Questions – Use our “Fast Answers” web page for general questions about the federal securities laws or your investments.
If you do not want to communicate electronically, either print and fill out a form or write us a letter. Our address is: SEC Complaint Center, 100 F Street NE, Washington, D.C. 20549-0213. You can also send a fax to 202-772-9295.
Whistleblower Protection: If you work for a publicly traded company and have been fired, demoted, suspended, threatened, harassed, or discriminated against for reporting a potential shareholder fraud to a supervisor, federal regulator, or member of Congress, then please contact OSHA’s Office of the Whistleblower Protection Program right away. OSHA is the federal agency that investigates and handles these sorts of “whistleblower” complaints.
What Information Should I Provide?
We can best respond to you if we receive accurate and complete information. Though you are not required to furnish any more information than you wish, critical information for us to completely evaluate your complaint or tip includes:
Your name, mail and email addresses, and telephone numbers.
The name, mail and email addresses, telephone numbers, and website address of any individual or company you mention in the complaint.
If you have a complaint about a security or a securities salesperson, specific details of how, why, and when you were defrauded or encountered problems with investments or your broker or adviser.
What Happens After I Send Information to the SEC?
We thoroughly review and evaluate your information so that we may refer it to the appropriate SEC office. The Office of Investor Education and Advocacy will handle certain general questions about the securities laws and complaints relating to financial professionals or a complainant’s personal financial matters. The professionals in this office can counsel you regarding possible remedies and may, under appropriate circumstances, approach brokerage firms, advisers or other financial professional concerning matters you have raised.
Attorneys in the Division of Enforcement evaluate information and tips concerning violations of the federal securities laws. It is the general policy of the SEC to conduct its investigations on a confidential basis to preserve the integrity of its investigative process as well as to protect persons against whom unfounded charges may be made or where the SEC determines that enforcement action is not necessary or appropriate.
Subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, the SEC cannot disclose the existence or non-existence of an investigation and any information gathered unless made a matter of public record in proceedings brought before the SEC or in the courts. You can find information about public enforcement actions on our Web site
The SEC, like any rating agency, is a lagging indicator of things gone awry.
I like how Markopolos avoided testifying before Congress by saying he was too tired. When do people get to do that? Something’s fishy here.
nee Shevlin, so she’s a mick that married into the Cheung clan, a name that is associated with hong kong chinese who might be wealthy…. which explains why she might marry into the ‘rittre dicky’ crew
Poor thing. Thought that she could coast after law school at the SEC. Lawyers are such pussies…large and in charge when it comes to other people’s problems, but as soon as something lands on their own laps, it’s tears and excuses.
nee Shevlin, so she’s a mick that married into the Cheung clan, a name that is associated with hong kong chinese who might be wealthy…. which explains why she might marry into the ‘rittre dicky’ crew
fordham alum:
http://www.filjaa.org/forums/member.php?u=2683
he is pissed he will not get his finders fee for uncovering the fraud; Bernie gets it for turing himself in!
he is pissed he will not get his finders fee for uncovering the fraud; Bernie gets it for turning himself in!
@20 – exactly! Why isn’t the SEC more proactive? They should have shut Madoff down in the ’70′s, before he took his first dollar from an investor.
Lazy government employees. If they were on top of things, there would be no crime.
I guess she thought that she could coast after law school at the SEC. Most lawyers are such pussies. When it comes to other’s issues, they are masters of the universe. As soon as real problems land on their own laps, they become crying babies. C’mon Meaghan, stop your crying and take your medicine.
10- You know Yale thing, does a lot of coke, closet homosexual.
6, Lunch at Crayons??
12 – I got subpoeaned for $5000 worth of gains including a couple losing trades. I’m a:
Daytrader.
@27 – Did you read the article? Marko gave her a letter saying “what he’s claiming to do is impossible given the volume it would take”. She still missed it. Couldn’t find her own ass with two hands and a mirror. That’s not lazy, that’s incompetent.
Chinawoman is not the preferred nomenclature.
Whoa – Charlie drops the S-bomb. He’d better hope Obama revamps the FCC before they take up this case…
Dumb lawyers trying to investigate finance fraud.
“if someone hands you the wrong set of books, i don’t know how you find the real books”? Ok Megs…here’s what you do- FOLLOW THE MONEY
Yea, I’m sick. I’ll not comment today.
I got the SEC looking to my trading when one of the stocks in my portfolio blew up. I had owned it until about 3 days before they announced lousy results and the stock tanked 40%.
They were all over my trading sheets – why did you sell theN? What was your reasoning? Meanwhile, it was a crappy retailer, and retail sales came out and were terrible, same-store sales awful, why did I have to wait until the company announced earnings: if sales were bad, OBVIOUSLY earnings would be bad.
Hours of this, looking at the trades, what time they were made, etc.
Meanwhile – Madoff gets $50 billion Ponzi scheme done.
Here is what the SEC does: overinvestigate the little things (which they understand and aren’t a hassle paperwork-wise for them) and underinvestigate the big ones (vice versa).
Gaspo rant– “Where was the NASD?”
Well, Charlie, I believe that that NASD was following this scheme quite closely by way of one member on their board of governors.
@ 22 — well, even if she stayed with her own, she’d still be stuck with a needle dick. At least this way she avoids all the drunks at the family reunions, and may actually get a decent meal at her in-laws…
@40 hey hey hey…boiled meat is fantastic.
@40
Or those annoying songs that pop of nowhere and drag on for hours and hours until eveyones too drunk to stand.
Good observation on the food thing.
The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers!!!
“I worked very hard for 10 years to make a career, and a reputation.” –I beg to differ with you there, Megs. Markopolos told you exactly what to look for and you blew it. That’s not working at all. You certainly made yourself a reputation as a bumbling incompetent whose career should be over. Additionally, your claim to have worked very hard is undermined by your later statement that “I’m just mid-level management” so what could I have done. I guess we shouldn’t expect any better from hiring lawyers to try to regulate the financial markets.
@22:
You’ve conflated “Chinese” with “Jews”: everyone knows Jews are driven to grab loot to compensate for tiny penes and inability to perform: body organs atrophy from lack of use.
@36: Nice “Wire” reference.
I wonder if the Feds are following Madoff to the Russian “Mob” (Oligarchs @ CNBC) or The Greek?
Speaking of “The Wire”, anyone know Madoff’s connection with the doc workers?
Random question/statement: Since I’ve had a lot of time on my hands lately, I’m thinking of learning a new language. Which would be the most useful to learn? 1)Spanish 2)French or 3)Other. Thanks.
Yale to Fordham? That’s not a promising indicator.
But come on, guys, don’t you think the SEC gets a million such letters a year? Give her a break? This Markopolos guy is just trying to play Real American Hero and will squash people to get more press.
@29 – Ah, that Yale thing. nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
46: 3) Other. Specifically, Chinese or Arabic. (I’d say Hindi, but many Indians speak English.) Spanish is reasonably useful for getting along in the US and other Western Hemisphere countries, but if you want to learn it for business purposes, follow the money. As for French, French is only spoken in third-world hellhole countries filled with violent Muslim extremists.
Oh, and in a lot of African and Caribbean countries which aren’t economically important. Anyway, most Muslims speak some Arabic for religious purposes, so still Arabic there.
There are two Chinese languages and I don’t know anything more about them, so that part’s on you. Be warned that if you are a native English speaker, Spanish isn’t too big a jump even for an adult but a non-Romance and non-Germanic language like Arabic or Chinese is going to kick your ass.
Postscript: I guess Russian wouldn’t be bad either, at least you could listen to what the models are saying about you in the bars, but as far as actual business, they’re a pretty close-knit and somewhat unstable bunch. I’m leaning toward Chinese.
@ 46
Spanish would be the best to have fun travelling and boiking throughout Spain / Latin America. *However*, given sovereign risk being what it is in LatAm, the best money would be with Chinese or Arabic… the drag being that women from these areas aren’t nearly as attractive.
Let’s see. I just got out of college. If I’m reasonably talented do I want to go work for a government watchdog and make shitty money or for a trading company and have unlimited upside. You get what you pay for. All the government organizations are political organizations. When FERC went after energy traders for fraud they went after traders that worked for companies that profited from the California crisis. If anybody seriously thinks these organizations can police anything they’re sadly mistaken.
@ 44
actually, this is one area where the MOTs beat the general population: frequency of sex. gee, I wonder why…
btw, you’ve exposed yourself as a rittre dicky yourself, given your overuse of colons (tee hee), and base defensiveness… we’ll forgive the ‘penes’ error, as it’s correct in spanish.
@46, Mandarin Chinese is your best bet. @49, there are more than two “languages” of Chinese. Mandarin is the official language. Everything else is a dialect. Of course their dialects are further apart in sound than Spanish and Italian – go figure. Written chinese is all the same.
However, if you expect to be kidnap by terrorists in the Middle East (at least in certain areas), you might want to go with Arabic.
The SEC doesn’t investigate big things because those committing big frauds pay some scumbag Senator (e.g. Schumer) to protect them. When the SEC knocks the person calls their POS Senator and he Bitch Slaps the SEC into submission. Google “Aguirre Mack” if you want a good example…..
SEC visited Bears Stearns Asset Management regularly and found nothing out of order there as well. There was an emerging markets hedge fund at BSAM that did the same things as the Ralph Cioffi funds and it is still in business.
As a native Mandarin speaker, please do not learn Chinese unless you’re really good at picking up nuances of spoken languages and/or plan to live in a Chinese speaking environment for a while. Spoken Chinese from non-native speakers are about as painful as English from a FOB physics TA, except more atonal.
Two metrics:
1. Usefulness of foreign langugage fluency to (a) future earning power and/or (b) ability to get laid.
2. Difficulty of achieving fluency in reasonable period of time.
Chart that out and give me polished powerpoint slides by 7 tomorrow morning.
Some Arab women are very attractive especially Syrian! Most of them are hidden behind the veil but once the veil is off, they are way better looking than your typical Brazilian massage girl.
Arabic is somewhat easier for people (esp. who can read/write hebrew).
I agree that Arabic or Chinese is the way to go! Generally, Arabs are more hospitable and friendly than the Chinese.
@53:
The uneducated eventually detects his ignorance: “penes” is Latin, not Spanish; “penis” isn’t derived from Latin: it’s taken into English directly from Latin; “penises” is acceptable as a vulgar dialect just as the vulgar use “memorandums” instead of “memoranda”. Jews think it acceptable to use “lox” instead of the correct standard “Lachs”; I’ve always thought Yiddish to be Ebonics in German.
I remember SEC audit guy asking me what is Barra as he had never heard of it!
Meaghan is very weepy.
Based on the photo of her, it looks as though she’s wearing the same type of jacket Bernie wore during his perp walk a few weeks back
Thanks @49/50, @51, @54, @59, and I guess @57. I appreciate the input, and will consider all options.
@58, I’ll get right on that.
I’m impressed that you all have the quality of women down by geographic location. Since I am female myself, I haven’t really noticed. How about the quality of men from these areas?