Top spots x SEC's mess-up
SEC officials who missed Madoff now in top spots at major law firms
They blew off the biggest securities fraud in history -- and got a career boost and hefty pay raise.
Several former senior officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission who had the power and tools to stop Bernie Madoff in his criminal tracks -- yet ignored warnings for nearly two decades -- have moved on to lucrative law-firm partnerships, The Post has learned.
"Everybody made out like bandits except for the people who were really screwed," said a former ranking SEC attorney, who left the agency before the Madoff case exploded.
"It's such an outrage, how bad it was. And they're all making well over seven figures now."
The SEC's inspector general has found the agency had been tipped off repeatedly since the early 1990s, and, if the regulators had done their job they "could have uncovered the Ponzi scheme well before Madoff confessed."
At the top of the class of ex-SEC enforcement officials who clawed up the career ladder despite zero-oversight in the Madoff scam is Linda Thomsen, a 14-year veteran at the agency and director of enforcement for three years when the colossal Ponzi scheme burst into the headlines in 2008.
She is now a partner at the international law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, where Grover Cleveland worked between his two terms as president.
Also graduating to better jobs and fatter paychecks are three former deputy directors of enforcement: Peter Bresnan, now at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; George Curtis, now at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher; and Walter Ricciardi, now at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison.
Two former directors of the SEC's New York regional office also moved up and out: Mark Schonfeld, also at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher; and Wayne Carlin, now at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz.
When they worked at the SEC, each was earning about $200,000 to $225,000.
In their new gigs, they pull down $2 million a year or more, according to Peter Zeughauser, a California-based consultant who tracks attorney salaries.
Ricciardi told The Post he did what he could, noting the inspector general's report mentioned that he alerted Schonfeld to the "potential urgency of the [Madoff] situation" in 2005. At that time, Ricciardi was director of the SEC's Boston office.
He would not answer follow-up questions, and none of the other former SEC officials would comment.
"You have to do more than just tell one person of these suspicions," the former SEC attorney said. "Then, after he became a big player -- the deputy director of enforcement -- what did he do? As soon as he got into a position of power . . . to do something, he did nothing."
Be our guest
These five judges live far enough from Albany to qualify to stay in the seven luxury apartments provided by the state during their 66-day annual session:
Where are they now?
These six lawyers were once top enforcement executives at the SEC. Now, despite the SEC's mess-ups in the Bernie Madoff case, they have landed in top-dollar spots at major law firms.
Peter Bresnan
* Now: Partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in Washington
* Then: Deputy director of enforcement
Walter Ricciardi
* Now: Partner at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison in Manhattan
* Then: Deputy director of enforcement
Wayne Carlin
* Now: Partner at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz in Manhattan
* Then: Regional director in New York
Mark Schonfeld
* Now: Partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Manhattan
* Then: Regional director in New York
George Curtis
* Now: Partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Denver
* Then: Deputy director of enforcement
Linda Thomsen
* Now: Partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell in Washington
* Then: Director of enforcement
(Published by NY Post - February 7, 2011)