Sen. Elizabeth Warren harshly criticized Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Jo White in a letter sent Tuesday, writing that White’s tenure has been “extremely disappointing.”
The Massachusetts Democrat, known as Congress’ top critic of Wall Street practices, faulted White on a range of issues, taking exception to what she said was the agency’s delay in writing financial regulations and laxity in prosecuting companies.
Warren also took direct aim at White’s personal leadership by noting that she has had to recuse herself from cases because of her previous employment at a Wall Street defense firm and her husband John White’s job with another defense firm.
In the letter, Warren accused White of providing her with “misleading information” in response to the senator’s questions about the agency’s business in May, and wrote that she was “perplexed as to how and why you would have provided me with this misinformation.”
Warren voted for White’s confirmation in 2013, but said in the letter sent Tuesday that there was a “significant gap” between the promises White made during the confirmation process and her leadership of the agency over the subsequent two years.
In a response provided by the SEC, White said that “I am very proud of the agency’s achievements under my leadership, including our record year in enforcement and the Commission’s efforts in advancing more than 30 congressionally mandated rulemakings and other transformative policy initiatives to protect investors and strengthen our markets.”
“Senator Warren’s mischaracterization of my statements and the agency’s accomplishments is unfortunate,” White said, “but it will not detract from the work we have done, and will continue to do, on behalf of investors.”
One particular complaint Warren lodged with White concerned the delays surrounding a CEO pay disclosure rule mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law that the SEC has yet to write.
Before being appointed to the SEC, White worked as a securities lawyer, in addition to working as a prosecutor before that.
Because of her relationship with the firm Debevoise & Plimpton, the New York Times reported earlier this year, White has had to sit out dozens of cases. And due to her husband’s work at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, she has also had to recuse herself from investigations involving clients of that company.
Although White said during confirmation that her relationships with those companies would only narrowly affect her ability to run the SEC, Warren said that the effect has been widespread, and raised the concern that companies might hire one of the two firms in order to “neutralize” White by forcing her to recuse herself from investigations.
Writing that the public expects the SEC to be the “cop on the beat for an honest marketplace,” Warren asked for a response to her specific criticisms by July 1.
