Throughout the week over at Securities Docket, I highlight the most interesting columns and blog posts from around the web on the subjects of SEC enforcement and securities litigation. Here is a digest of my picks for the week ending April 29.

Last Week's FCPA Decision In The Govt's Favor Is A Limited Setback For Subjects Of Federal Corruption Inquiries

Simpson Thacher | Apr 29, 2011The ruling is not a whole-hearted endorsement of DOJ's broad interpretation of the FCPA's definition of “foreign official.” The judge did not rule that employees of state-owned entities necessarily fall within the definition of “foreign official.” Rather, he merely left open the possibility that employees of state-owned entities – depending on the specific facts in play – will be “foreign officials.”

Raj Rajaratnam's Trial Captivates South Asians

New York Times | Sam Dolnick | Apr 28, 2011

The trial has prompted soul-searching in South Asian circles and a debate over whether it has evoked the kind of outrage and embarrassment that many Jews felt over the Bernard L. Madoff scandal. Some fear that a guilty verdict would tarnish the growing number of South Asians on Wall Street. And others feel the case's only cultural significance is as a signal that South Asians have risen high enough in finance — as in other realms of American life — to be enmeshed in a multimillion-dollar debacle.

On Wall Street, Why Is Enough Never Enough?

NYT Opinionator | William D. Cohan | Apr 27, 2011

As we await the verdict in the insider-trading trial of Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund, the following question comes to mind: Why would people who seem to have it all — wealth, prestige, powerful jobs and infinite access to others with the same — risk that, and more, to provide inside information to the Sri Lankan-born billionaire?

Why Has the SEC Abandoned Administrative Enforcement Actions?

Securities Law Observations | Robert Fusfeld | Apr 25, 2011

Is it really possible, you ask, that a federal agency charged with important law enforcement responsibilities and that has limited resources has abandoned the most efficient and cost effective forum available to it? So let us take a quick look at some historic comparisons. In the first quarter of 2011 the SEC issued exactly one substantive decision in an administrative case or appeal from a self regulatory organization case....In contrast forty-two decisions were issued in the first quarter of 1996. Some might argue that 1996 was an unusual year. So let us examine 1997. In that year's first quarter the Commission issued thirty opinions.

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