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 August 9, 2013.

Corporate Filers Beware: New “RoboCop” Is On Patrol

John Carney and Francesca Harker, Forbes

It may not be the superhuman robotic police officer who patrolled the lawless streets of Detroit in the 1987 sci-fi thriller, but corporate filers should be every bit as concerned about the Securities and Exchange Commission's (“SEC”) new Accounting Quality Model (“AQM”), labeled not-so-affectionately by some in the financial industry as “RoboCop.” Broadly speaking, the AQM is an analytical tool which trawls corporate filings to flag high-risk activity for closer inspection by SEC enforcement teams. Use of the AQM, in conjunction with statements by recently-confirmed SEC Chairman Mary Jo White and the introduction of new initiatives announced July 2, 2013, indicates a renewed commitment by the SEC to seek out violations of financial reporting regulations. This pledge of substantial resources means it is more important than ever for corporate filers to understand SEC enforcement strategies, especially the AQM, in order to decrease the likelihood that their firm will be the subject of an expensive SEC audit.

Independent Agencies, Sometimes in Name Only

Floyd Norris, The New York Times

This year, two new members of the S.E.C., one Democrat and one Republican, have been confirmed by the Senate and are about to be sworn in. They were each nominated by President Obama. But the reality appears to be that he did not really choose them.

Instead, they were effectively chosen by senior senators. Both the Republican, Michael S. Piwowar, and the Democrat, Kara M. Stein, were aides on the Senate Banking Committee…. That helps to explain why the S.E.C. has in recent years splintered into factions far more than ever before. “They tend,” said Arthur Levitt, the chairman of the S.E.C. from 1993 to 2001, “to embrace the philosophy of their mentors.”

SEC puts legal lessons learned to use in Fabrice Tourre trialDina ElBoghdady, The Washington PostThe Washington PostAt the trial of a Citigroup executive a year ago, Matthew Martens attended as a spectator and watched the defense win jurors over with the “Where's Waldo” argument.

The jury cleared Brian Stoker of the fraud charges leveled against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission — a stinging setback for the agency's trial unit, which Martens heads. Stoker's attorney argued that his client was a minor player at Citigroup, yet the SEC picked him out of the crowd as the sole culprit behind a mortgage deal gone bad. “We certainly learned lessons,” Martens, 41, said in an interview Friday. 

The lessons were applied with success….

The Gray Line of ‘Confidential' Information

Peter J. Henning, DealBook

The insider trading case against SAC Capital Advisors seems to be all about the trading “edge,” a term the firm's owner, Steven A. Cohen, once said he hated. Under the securities laws, proving a violation requires showing that the information used was nonpublic, which means it was not already available in the stock market — the edge that can make for lucrative profits and sidestepping big losses.

The charges filed last week against Sandeep Aggarwal for tipping off a SAC portfolio manager to give that edge raise the question of when information is sufficiently confidential that its use constitutes insider trading.

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