Uh Oh

We occasionally mused, during the three months between Gary Gensler choosing himself to be the next Securities and Exchange Commission chair and the Senate begrudgingly acquiescing to that choice, whether he’d have anything to do once he arrived at 100 F Street NE. After all, Acting Chair Allison Herren Lee & co. were keeping pretty busy in the interim on things Gensler would presumably have done upon his confirmation.

Well, here’s one thing neither we nor, we imagine, he thought he’d have to spend so much time on: Finding directors of enforcement.

The new enforcement chief for the Securities and Exchange Commission resigned after just a few days on the job…. Alex Oh, a former partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, will be succeeded on an acting basis by Melissa Hodgman, the SEC said.

While Gensler’s nomination to lead the SEC was wildly cheered by the left in spite of his pedigree, they didn’t give him much benefit of the doubt when it came to his first move in the job, hiring a corporate lawyer for arguably the agency’s most important job. But, as with failed Office of Management and Budget nominee Neera Tanden, it wasn’t progressive ire that did in Oh, but something much grosser.

Ms. Oh decided to resign after U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, in an order issued Monday, questioned her conduct during a deposition in a lawsuit filed against Exxon Mobil…. The deposition involved an Exxon lawyer based in Asia, who relied on a “script” to answer questions in an unresponsive fashion, the plaintiffs alleged. The conduct “impeded, delayed and frustrated” the ability of plaintiffs’ lawyers to ask questions, they said…. The judge also ordered Ms. Oh to explain why she shouldn’t face sanctions for her conduct during the deposition.

Oh, yea, and it gets worse.

Oh was part of a legal team defending ExxonMobil in a lawsuit seeking to hold the company liable for murder and torture by the Indonesian military during civil unrest between 1999 and 2001.

Better luck next time, Gary.

New SEC Enforcement Director Alex Oh Resigns, Agency Says [WSJ]
SEC enforcement chief resigns over role in Indonesian torture case [Politico]

For more of the latest in litigation, regulation, deals and financial services trends, sign up for Finance Docket, a partnership between Breaking Media publications Above the Law and Dealbreaker.