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 June 11:

SEC's regional offices present managerial problems, become an obstacle to reform

Washington Post | Zachary Goldfarb | Jun 11, 2010

Officials in the SEC's enforcement division weren't interested in complex cases, just quick-hit lawsuits that would make the regional office look active, according to a review by the SEC inspector general. They brushed off her warnings about the Houston enterprise run by R. Allen Stanford -- only much later exposing it as one of the largest scams ever: an $8 billion Ponzi scheme.

'Den Of Thieves': Why Regulators Should Be Cultural Kings

Huffington Post | Alex Leo | Jun 10, 2010

It has become abundantly clear that regulation is a major if not the major issue in America. It's no coincidence these crises took effect after deregulatory dynasties--those of Reagan and Bush. What is clear in "Den of Thieves," clear in the Gulf and clear in our economy, is if our regulators aren't as important, educated, and hungry as the people they're regulating, Americans don't have a chance.

FINRA's Takeover of NYSE Market Regulation Marks The End of an Era in Market Regulation

Traders Magazine | Stephen J. Nelson | Jun 9, 2010

It was announced a month ago, on May 4, and was greeted without much fanfare: The New York Stock Exchange will delegate to FINRA responsibility for performing market surveillance and enforcement over trading on the NYSE. To comply with the niceties of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the NYSE will retain responsibility for making sure that FINRA is doing its job. Lawyers will prepare appropriate procedures to demonstrate that this oversight function is being carried out properly. But, I very much doubt that anyone believes this will amount to anything more than window dressing. The NYSE's oversight role will be mainly perfunctory. This is a sea change that removes the assumptions about market structure that are the founding principles of the Exchange Act.

Criminal Advice - Never Steal Anything Small

TheStreet.com | Gary Weiss | Jun 7, 2010

That's another sign of successful criminal activity: it's large, lavish and brazen, the more brazen the better. When performed on a small scale, it would result in jail time, or at least disgrace and humiliation, but when billions are involved -- well, it's no big deal. When bank tellers commingle customer funds with their own, they call it "embezzlement," and no amount of excuses, or absence of customer losses, will prevent that teller from being fired and, probably, blackballed forever from banking. To sum up our lesson for today, I quote Jimmy Cagney, "Never steal anything small."

An Inside Look at Bernie Madoff's Life in Prison

New York Magazine | Steve Fishman | Jun 7, 2010

But that evening an inmate badgered Madoff about the victims of his $65 billion scheme, and kept at it. According to K.?C. White, a bank robber and prison artist who escorted a sick friend that evening, Madoff stopped smiling and got angry. “F*ck my victims,” he said, loud enough for other inmates to hear. “I carried them for twenty years, and now I’m doing 150 years.”