April 27, 2010
WASHINGTON - Senator Chuck Grassley has asked the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission for more information about the agency's response to employees who used government computers to view pornography, noting that none of the employees identified by the Inspector General review was terminated, despite the Chairman's statement last Friday that termination would be the consequence for such violations.
Grassley also asked the Chairman to address claims made by an SEC employee that one of the employees was a supervisor received no more than a slap on the wrist. The whistleblower employee said this same supervisor "bullied" examiners in an attempt to prevent them from pursuing "certain red flags" in an examination that uncovered a "massive fraud." In his letter to the Chairman, Grassley said, "this complaint appears to allege a direct tie between a regulatory failure at the SEC and a supervisor who the SEC did not adequately discipline for viewing pornography on government computers and on government time."
Click here to read Grassley's letter to Chairman Mary L. Schapiro, along with the document containing allegations about the supervisor who was among the employees who engaged in misconduct. Here is a copy of the letter Grassley received today from Inspector General David Kotz about the status of all the employees in question.
