And their respective buddies?>
It is to the point of rivaling a circus side-show...>>
SEC's Pitt, Levitt at Odds Over Who Missed More Votes in Office
By Judy Mathewson and Laura Smitherman
Washington, July 18 (Bloomberg) -- Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt and his predecessor, Arthur Levitt, are at odds over who missed more votes in office.
``The number of my recusals is less than my immediate predecessor's were in the same period of time,'' Pitt said Sunday on NBC's ``Meet the Press.''
``Absolutely dead wrong,'' said Levitt, who didn't remember exactly how many votes he missed after becoming chairman in 1993. Levitt, now a director of companies including Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, left the SEC in 2001.
The flap stems from a Bloomberg News report in June that Pitt sat out 29 votes in his first 10 months in office. Records released this week by the SEC show Levitt missed 16 votes in his first 10 months and 31 votes in the full year.
After the article was published, the SEC disclosed that Pitt recused himself on three other votes, bringing his total of known missed votes to 32 in 10 months, or one more than Levitt's 12- month total.
Pitt promised to sit out SEC votes involving former law clients for one year, a period ending Aug. 3. On government disclosure forms, he listed 112 clients, including Enron Corp.'s auditor Arthur Andersen LLP and the four other largest accounting firms.
Pitt's missed votes and ties to accounting firms from his days as a private lawyer are issues cited by his critics, including Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, in calling for Pitt's resignation.
Impact of Absences
SEC spokeswoman Christi Harlan said Pitt on Sunday was comparing his missed votes over 10 months in office with those of Levitt in his first full year. SEC Secretary Jonathan Katz said Pitt also divided some individual SEC actions into more than one vote.
Starting next month, when ethics restrictions expire, Pitt will take a more active part in cases involving former clients, he said in a New York Times interview today.
The impact of Pitt's recusals has been greater than Levitt's because the five-seat SEC has two vacancies. In at least four votes, only one commissioner was left to participate after Pitt and another commissioner recused themselves.
Two of these votes have been challenged on grounds that a legal quorum wasn't present. An administrative-law judge this month dismissed a case against Ernst & Young LLP because there was no quorum.
The Senate Banking Committee held confirmation hearings today on two SEC nominees, Republican Paul Atkins and Democrat Harvey Goldschmid, who would fill the two vacancies on the commission.
Levitt's Time
Republican Pitt and Democrat Levitt have been on opposite sides of SEC issues dating back to Levitt's chairmanship. As a lawyer, Pitt opposed some of Levitt's SEC proposals, such as restrictions on accounting firms providing consulting services for audit clients.
In Levitt's first year in office, the SEC had one vacancy and no single-vote actions, according to the records released by the agency this week.
Asked about the reasons for his missed votes, Levitt said he didn't recall specific recusals. ``I would assume they dealt with my extensive history of service in the financial-services industry and as head of the American Stock Exchange,'' he said.
Regarding other missed votes, Levitt said: ``I went to the doctor. I took a vacation. I had my teeth cleaned.'' He declined to be more specific.
`Not Participating'
One vote in which Levitt didn't participate was a rule change affecting the American Stock Exchange's ability to trade warrants on the Hong Kong 30 Index. Before becoming SEC chairman, Levitt had pledged to recuse himself from Amex votes.
Levitt also served in the 1970s as president of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc., a predecessor company of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
Before becoming SEC chairman, Pitt was a partner at the New York law firm Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, with clients including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and Wall Street firms Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley.
The SEC generally doesn't disclose votes to open formal investigations or refer matters to the Justice Department.
In the data released to Bloomberg News, Pitt and Levitt are usually listed as ``not participating'' when they sat out votes. The term doesn't necessarily mean a commissioner was abstaining over a conflict of interest, according to the SEC.
A commissioner ``may have left the room for some reason or may be on leave that week or may not feel adequately prepared to vote on a matter,'' said Harlan, the SEC spokeswoman. |
