SEC DIRECTOR ADMITS FAILURE TO SPOT MADOFF

The new director of the SEC, Robert Khuzami, told a Senate Banking subcommittee hearing that the Commission's failure to spot Bernard Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi is "A wake-up call," and admitted, "There may have been multiple things that contributed to the agency's failure to act timely in the Madoff matter."

Speaking alongside SEC chairman, Mary Schapiro, Khuzami said a change in culture within the SEC's enforcement division has started to occur. He noted that since the end of January, the Commission has opened 287 investigations, a 32% increase over the same period last year. Agency lawyers have won 27 emergency temporary restraining orders from various courts since the end of January, compared with seven in the same period last year.