‘Times’ absolves lawyer for KC firm who exmined Madoff

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday that it was launching an investigation into its failed effort to check the activities of money manager Bernie Madoff. Upon the admission of failed oversight, the business press pointed out that a former assistant director of compliance and examinations at the SEC had married a Madoff niece in 2005.

The examiner, Eric Swanson, went to work for the Kansas City company BATS trading earlier this year.

On Tuesday, Swanson was painted with brush of suspicion. Yesterday, however, The New York Times published a story depicting Swanson as a sharp-eyed regulator who played only a minor role in the SEC’s work on Madoff. The Times story also noted that Swanson, while at the SEC, pursued enforcement action against a company that his future father-in-law served as a member of the board.

The Times story concluded by noting that Swanson’s wife has told friends the couple lost a substantial pile of money invested with her uncle, who was placed under house arrest this week. — David Martin