Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) is demanding information from U.S. Securities and Exchange Committee Chairwoman Mary Jo White on SEC leaks to the media. Her deadline: Friday. Sept. 5. Specifically he wants to know what kind of punishment she has imposed on employees who have leaked information to the media.
The SEC did it’s own lengthy and intense internal investigation on the leaks, but came up with squat. Behind the scenes, fingers pointed at former SEC lawyer Tyler Gellasch, who has since left the SEC after a year and now works for Sen. Carl Levin‘s (D-Mich.) Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
“Attendance at closed Commission meetings should be a privilege, not a right,” implored Hensarling in his stern letter dated Monday, August 18. “…Mere intellectual curiosity is not sufficient justification for an employee to stop his work and attend a closed meeting. SEC employees who have not played a meaningful and substantial role in the enforcement matter pending before the Commission should not be attending a closed meeting.”
Hensarling remarked that both CNBC and The Hill had obtained the SEC’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) non-public investigative report. “Leaks of this magnitude are unacceptable,” he warned.
So let’s get this straight: the letter about a leak investigation report leaking was leaked?
Perhaps Levin’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations should investigate (wink! wink!).