Boston Hosts Regional Securities Conference for Regulators, Investigators, and Prosecutors

BOSTON, MA—Federal and state regulators, investigators, and prosecutors met today at the 2010 New England Securities Conference held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston where they interacted with expert panelists and speakers regarding the complex and evolving environment of securities regulation and financial product innovation. The conference followed an event held Tuesday evening at the United States Courthouse where Robert Khuzami, Director of Enforcement for the Securities Exchange Commission, and Robb Adkins, Executive Director of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, thanked the conference attendees for their continued efforts to ensure that people in the financial services industry comply with the law.

U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Director David P. Bergers of the Boston Regional Office for the Securities and Exchange Commission; Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston Field Division; and William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth, co-sponsored both events. At today’s conference, experts covered topics of financial regulatory reform, asset management and hedge funds, financial crimes in the electronic age, and structured and new products. A panel discussion also occurred regarding coordination between criminal and civil authorities. Secretary Galvin provided the morning’s keynote address while U.S. Attorney Ortiz provided afternoon remarks.

U.S. Attorney Ortiz said, “In many ways, the diversity and the significance of the financial services industry in this region reflects its growing importance to the national economy. Virtually every citizen is touched in some way by the financial services industry, whether through a pension, a 401k, a home loan, or a student loan. Not only has it grown in importance, but the financial services industry has also become an increasingly complex industry making our jobs as regulators, investigators and prosecutors more difficult.”

Conference attendees included those from the following offices and agencies: the Office of Attorney General Martha Coakley; the Massachusetts Securities Division; the Insurance and Financial Services Division of Martha Coakley’s Office; U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Connecticut Department of Banking - Securities and Business Investments Division; the Department of Justice’s Office of the U.S. Trustee; the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Boston, Providence, New Haven, Albany, and D.C.; Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; Financial Regulatory Authority in NY; FINRA Boston, NY and D.C.; Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation; Maine Bureau of Insurance; Maine Office of Securities; MIT Sloan School fo Management; National Futures Association; New Hampshire Bureau of Securities Regulation; North American Securities Administrators Association; Office of the Attorney General in Maine; Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in Boston; Public Company Accounting Oversight Board in D.C.; Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation; Royal Canadian Mounted Police; Office of the Inspector General, Pension Benefit Guaranty in D.C.; Secretary of the Commonwealth; Securities Division, Department of Business Regulation in RI; Special Inspector General for the Trouble Asset Relief Program in D.C.; U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division and Fraud Sections; U.S. Department of Labor; U.S. Postal Inspection Service; U.S. Secret Service; U.S. Securities Exchange Commission in Boston, Philadelphia and D.C.; and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Newark, New York, Vermont and Connecticut.

For more information on President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, please visit http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/April/10-opa-429.html