Legal News

AGs Have Style, Too. Comparing Cuomo?s to Spitzer?s. . .

By Dan Slater

It was only mid-April when auction-rate securities made their Law Blog debut. A couple months later, in late June, the ARS party started in earnest as state regulators began to let fly the lawsuits. Now, just six weeks after the first suit was filed, the ARS party appears to be winding down.

So who’s responsible for the wham-bam pace? Certainly, there were a few other state regulators involved, but NY AG Andrew Cuomo is responsible for orchestrating last week’s spate of settlements that will result in Merrill, Citi and UBS buying back more than $35 billion of illiquid auction-rates. In the wake of the settlements, the WSJ’s Amir Efrati and Aaron Lucchetti take stock of Cuomo’s report card.

“If the 50-year-old is now hitting his stride,” they write, “it is attributable to some key strategic hires as well as a style that pursues institutions without demonizing individuals in the manner preferred by his predecessor, former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.” For example, in his news conference Thursday, Cuomo wielded more carrot than stick, applauding Citi for paying a fine while even complementing an attorney defending the bank.

Beneath Cuomo, the WSJ reports, is a crew of Wall Street heavies that includes Eric Corngold, a former top official at the EDNY who’s credited with transforming the Brooklyn office into a major player in criminal securities prosecutions, and Benjamin Lawsky, a prosecutor in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office who worked on insider-trading cases in its securities-fraud unit. Earlier this year Cuomo hired David Markowitz, a former SEC lawyer.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 11, 2008 (boomark / email).