Political Quotes

“Commissioner Aguilar said he shares concerns expressed by many that provisions of this bill would be a boon to boiler room operators, Ponzi schemers, bucket shops, and garden variety fraudsters by enabling them to cast a wider net and make securities law enforcement that much more difficult. Others have raised concerns. The North American Securities Administrators Association, the Consumer Federation of America, the Americans for Financial Reform, the Council of Institutional Investors, securities experts such as Professor John Coffee and former SEC Chief Accountant Lynn Turner, the AARP, concerned that seniors will be bilked out of their savings with these phony solicitations for companies that may not even exist. I share the concerns. I believe there is a path forward to protect investors and make it easier for small firms to come up with capital. Several of my colleagues had a substitute amendment--Senator Jack Reed, Senator Carl Levin, Senator Mary Landrieu--which would have done just that, made it easier to raise capital but kept the safeguards in place. It was defeated virtually on a party-line vote. It was defeated. It would have preserved the Dodd-Frank say-on-pay provisions to allow investors to weigh in if executives are getting exorbitant compensation and golden parachutes. The amendment would have prohibited companies from advertising and selling stock to the unsophisticated, unsuspecting investors.…”