So an SEC whistleblower contacts the agency, and is assured by the enforcement attorney working on JP Morgan that it's a "confidential" investigatio
February 2, 2010

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So an SEC whistleblower contacts the agency, and is assured by the enforcement attorney working on JP Morgan that it's a "confidential" investigation. The attorney then turns around and dimes the guy out to his employers.

Where do the Republicans find these candidates? Do they vet them carefully for moral and ethical problems, and then recruit the ones who don't pass?

More importantly: Why didn't the SEC stand up for whistleblowers by throwing the book at this sleazebag? Maybe the answer lies in the description of Demos as a "politically wired" Republican attorney:

George Demos is a Republican Congressional candidate from Eastern Long Island whose Web site bears the slogan "Fighting for Freedom," and touts his service as an enforcement lawyer in the New York office of the Securities and Exchange Commission. A bio says that he "handled some of the SEC's most significant investigations," including that of Ponzi scheme artist Bernard Madoff, and "worked tirelessly on the cases that never made the headlines."

But one case that never made headlines was his own: Demos' campaign Web site and public statements omit any reference to a report last March of the SEC's Inspector General (IG), which found he had improperly disclosed protected, nonpublic information about a whistleblower to the counsel for that whistleblower's employer, a major Wall Street bank, JPMorgan Chase. The IG's charges of misconduct grew out of an SEC probe that began in 2003 of JPMorgan and other big financial institutions suspected of illegal market practices.

Demos has denied he did anything improper, and his campaign declined to comment on the matter. But documents obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) -- a non-partisan non-profit based in Washington -- confirm that Demos was the staff attorney who was cited in the IG report for violating SEC rules. The IG referred the case to the agency's management for possible disciplinary action, but the SEC took no action. Soon after that, Demos quietly resigned from his job and launched his bid for a seat in the House of Representatives.

But the confidential information that Demos disclosed was used by a JPMorgan lawyer against one of the bank's own employees, a whistleblower who had alerted the SEC to possible wrongdoing by his employer, according to the report and other documents, some released under the Freedom of Information Act.

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