Speaking of our friends at the SEC
biz.yahoo.com
SEC Forms Internet Fraud Office
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Responding to the growth in securities fraud over the Internet, the Securities and Exchange
Commission has established a new office to fight it.
The market watchdog agency on Tuesday announced the formation of the Office of Internet Enforcement.
''While the Internet has many benefits, a small group of thieves is trying to hijack unsuspecting investors on the information
superhighway,'' said Richard Walker, the SEC's director of enforcement.
Securities fraud using the Internet has grown in recent years along with the bull market on Wall Street.
Walker noted that the SEC already has brought more than 30 cases involving Internet fraud. They have included nearly every
type of investment scam, such as phony stock offerings, stock-price manipulation, affinity group frauds targeting specific ethnic
or religious groups, and pyramid schemes in which funds from new investors are used to pay off promised returns to other
investors.
The SEC's online Enforcement Complaint Center now receives more than 120 complaints a day of potential securities fraud
over the Internet.
The new Internet office will be headed by John Stark, now the SEC's special counsel for Internet projects in the Enforcement
Division. Jay Perlman, a senior attorney in the SEC's chief counsel's office, will be Stark's deputy.
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