The deputy director of enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission has retired, effective June 30.
Walter G. Ricciardi, who began his tenure in October 2005, oversaw litigation against Prudential Securities Group Inc. of New York, Jefferies & Co. Inc, also of New York, and Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company Inc of Covington, Ky., among others. The suits resulted in settlements of more than $617 million.
Mr. Ricciardi will become a partner at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP in New York, according to an SEC statement.
He will be replaced by George Curtis, the director of the commission’s Denver regional office, and Scott Friestad, an associate director in the division of enforcement in Washington.
Mr. Ricciardi oversaw “significant new technology improvements and management reforms that have knitted together the national resources of the SEC as never before,” said SEC commissioner Christopher Cox, who also said Mr. Ricciardi’s “contributions will long be remembered as a giant step forward for investor protection.”
Mr. Curtis and Mr. Friestad are also taking over a portfolio held by Peter Bresnan, who left the SEC in January 2008.
The pair will work under enforcement director Linda Chatman Thomsen, who will also be widening her brief.
Last year, Ms. Thomsen “set the SEC's all-time record for corporate penalty cases and brought the second-highest number of enforcement actions in SEC history,” according to the statement.
“George and Scott can and will provide the leadership, experience, intelligence, courage and character that is essential to getting the job done,” Ms. Thomsen said of the new appointments.
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