Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, It is a great tragedy that the final version of the financial services bill which was approved by a House- Senate conference, contained little or no help for the hundreds of victims of Ponzi schemes, many of whom reside in my Congressional district. This bill fell far short of doing everything or even anything, to assure the average American investor in the stock market that we want to protect their interests. I proposed to the conferees certain amendments to the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) in order to protect victims of Ponzi schemes. Unfortunately, these reforms which were designed after extensive discussions with many of the victims, were totally ignored. My amendments included an ``anti-clawback'' provision, designed to end the terror of thousands of Ponzi victims, who face years of prolonged litigation against the government, unless these proposals are enacted. Under no circumstances, except complicity with a crooked broker-- should these investors be subject to clawback litigation. The opposition to this amendment has mainly come from the SEC/SIPC and Wall Street which seek to protect SIPC's right of subrogation, therefore taking money again from the victims and giving it back to SIPC. Not only is this disingenuous, but it shifts the burden of the financial loss to every taxpayer in America.…”