New Securities Fraud Task Force Assembled in Charlotte, NC Last Week

The Charlotte Observer released information of note last Friday to those interested in issues of white collar crime. The Securities and Exchange Commission has partnered with the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of North Carolina, North Carolina’s Attorney General’s office, the FBI, the North Carolina Secretary of State’s securities division, the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal division, Mecklenburg County’s District Attorney’s office and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to form a task force based in Charlotte to fight against various forms of securities fraud.

The reasoning behind placing the task force in Charlotte is partially due to the fact that the city happens to be home to multiple Fortune 500 companies, making it the second largest center for banking in the country. This new task force intends to focus its’ efforts on seeking out instances of financial crime such as accounting fraud and insider trading.

The task force’s first meeting was chaired recently by the U.S. Attorney’s office. On the agenda was a whistleblower provision included in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that passed this past summer. This act was widely regarded as the most dramatic alteration of financial regulation in the U.S. since the Great Depression, and was in direct response to widespread demands for regulatory system changes due to the current financial crisis. The act’s intent was to target the financial services industry through imparting significant change in the country’s financial regulatory environment.

It will be interesting to see the effect this task force has on the number of people accused of white collar crime on both local and national levels.

Sources:

• Main Justice “Multi-Agency Fraud Unit Is Created in North Carolina” by Fahima Haque 1/26/11
• Wikipedia Entry – Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

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