Seeker of Truth
05-29-2003, 03:13 PM
Commentary: Corporate Pitt Bull
Posted May 29, 2003
By Louis Clark and Martin Edwin Andersen
The announcement that Harvey L. Pitt, the controversial former chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), is launching a new Washington-based consultancy that includes a specialty in whistle-blower protection is a world-class transmogrification even in a city where jobs and professional identities change with dizzying speed.
Just last year, Pitt resigned as head of the SEC after Congress, investor groups and even some in the Bush administration went ballistic by his all-thumbs response to a series of corporate scandals that rocked the stock market.
Now Pitt is back as part of a Beltway bandit firm specializing in issues related to last year's passage by Congress of the landmark Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Pitt's new company says it will advise corporate boards and audit committees on how to investigate boardroom misconduct and how to protect the identities of anonymous whistle-blowers.
Pitt was nowhere to be seen when Congress sharply debated the terms of a bill lifted into law on the back of public revulsion over months of revelations of corporate excess. And the venture's credentials received an uncertain burnish with the announcement that one of his affiliates will be Terry Lenzner, head of Investigative Group International Inc. (IGI). Democratic politicians frequently have used the Washington gumshoe firm to investigate perceived political and other enemies. For example, IGI once investigated Oklahoma Republican Sen. Don Nickles, ostensibly for an Indian tribe unhappy with the senator about a tribal-land matter.
More interesting is that it was IGI that tobacco giant Brown & Williamson chose to investigate path-breaking nicotine whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand, whose saga later was chronicled in the movie The Insider. Seven years ago the tobacco company compiled a 500-page report called "The Misconduct of Jeffrey S. Wigand Available in the Public Record" that was the basis for a story in the Wall Street Journal. The Journal itself concluded that much of the information dredged up by IGI about Wigand did not hold up to fair scrutiny.
More @ insightmag.com (http://www.insightmag.com/news/437439.html)
Posted May 29, 2003
By Louis Clark and Martin Edwin Andersen
The announcement that Harvey L. Pitt, the controversial former chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), is launching a new Washington-based consultancy that includes a specialty in whistle-blower protection is a world-class transmogrification even in a city where jobs and professional identities change with dizzying speed.
Just last year, Pitt resigned as head of the SEC after Congress, investor groups and even some in the Bush administration went ballistic by his all-thumbs response to a series of corporate scandals that rocked the stock market.
Now Pitt is back as part of a Beltway bandit firm specializing in issues related to last year's passage by Congress of the landmark Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Pitt's new company says it will advise corporate boards and audit committees on how to investigate boardroom misconduct and how to protect the identities of anonymous whistle-blowers.
Pitt was nowhere to be seen when Congress sharply debated the terms of a bill lifted into law on the back of public revulsion over months of revelations of corporate excess. And the venture's credentials received an uncertain burnish with the announcement that one of his affiliates will be Terry Lenzner, head of Investigative Group International Inc. (IGI). Democratic politicians frequently have used the Washington gumshoe firm to investigate perceived political and other enemies. For example, IGI once investigated Oklahoma Republican Sen. Don Nickles, ostensibly for an Indian tribe unhappy with the senator about a tribal-land matter.
More interesting is that it was IGI that tobacco giant Brown & Williamson chose to investigate path-breaking nicotine whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand, whose saga later was chronicled in the movie The Insider. Seven years ago the tobacco company compiled a 500-page report called "The Misconduct of Jeffrey S. Wigand Available in the Public Record" that was the basis for a story in the Wall Street Journal. The Journal itself concluded that much of the information dredged up by IGI about Wigand did not hold up to fair scrutiny.
More @ insightmag.com (http://www.insightmag.com/news/437439.html)