Mike Levin: “I wish to expand for one moment on the question of the notice provision in our amendment. As I indicated before, where…”

“I wish to expand for one moment on the question of the notice provision in our amendment. As I indicated before, where there are allegations that officers, directors of companies are misusing the accounting rules and abusing their powers, the SEC has to be able to look at financial records without giving the account holder an opportunity to move funds or to change accounts or to further muddy the investigative waters. Other agencies have that power, and this agency must have that power. We have carefully circumscribed that power in a number of ways. We have not just simply said you can subpoena any documents you want. We have criteria for doing that or else they have to give notice. One of the criteria is that it has to be an official investigation that has been ordered by the Commission. That is an important safeguard. This is not just the beginning of an investigation. This is not during a discovery process. This is where the Securities and Exchange Commission has initiated an official investigation, which is a very formal act on the part of the Securities and Exchange Commission. At that point, they should be able to subpoena documents under certain circumstances.”