You may recall that one Gary Aguirre was the lead attorney in the investigation of suspicious trades at hedge fund Pequot Capital. In conjunction with his investigation, Aguirre was to interview John Mack, (then prospective and now current) chief executive of Morgan Stanley and a known friend of Arthur Samberg, founder of Pequot.

Under pressure from both Pequot and Morgan Stanley lawyers, SEC higher-ups declared hands-off on Mack. Aguirre pushed the point and was fired. His subsequent whistleblowing resulting in congressional hearings, which have in turn produced a report highly critical of the SEC's conduct in the matter.

The report from the Senate Finance and Judiciary committee supports the contentions of former SEC lawyer, Aguirre that the SEC doesn't treat all potential witnesses the same. Moreover the SEC showed "undue deference" to a Wall Street big-shot and botched what had been a promising investigation.

Get further details on the Pequot report from the New York Times. Also, check out the tags below for mucho background on the Prequot story.

-- MDT

Labels: Arthur Samberg, Gary Aguirre, John Mack, Pequot Capital, SEC