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Wall Street is being judged
Capitol Hill has yet to get its act together on financial regulatory reform. But another arm of the federal government, the judiciary, is emerging as the new best friend of investors.
It started a few weeks ago when Judge Jed Rakoff refused to approve the Securities and Exchange Commission’s wimpy $33 settlement with Bank of America over the bank’s failure to come clean with shareholders about its acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
The judge ordered the SEC to explain why it didn’t hold anyone at Bank of America personally accountable for Merrill’s decision to pay nearly $6 billion in bonuses before the merger was completed.
Now Judge Shira Scheindlin, who works in the same federal courthouse in lower Manhattan as Rakoff, has picked up the torch of investor rights.
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The Wall
