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 18:

Too many regulators, not enough consolidation

FT | Francesco Guerrera | Jun 18, 2010

Does any of the following sound familiar? A lumbering giant runs into trouble during the financial crisis. As it teeters close to the brink, the government steps in to save it. I am referring, of course, to the Securities and Exchange Commission – the least talked about of the “too-big-to-fail” institutions.

Senator Grassley, Professor Frankfurter and the Revolving Door at the SEC

Legal History Blog | Dan Ernst | Jun 17, 2010

I do not usually associate Senator Charles Grassley, from my native state of Iowa, with Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, but it happens that they have something in common: a mistrust of the revolving door at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last month Grassley filed an amendment to the financial regulation bill that would require former employees to wait two years before representing clients before their old agency. This week he exchanged letters with the SEC’s Inspector General about a recent door revolver. Seventy-five years ago, Justice Frankfurter expressed similar concerns.

They won't miss the FSA

The Guardian | Gavyn Davies | Jun 16, 2010

President Barack Obama claimed yesterday that the oil regulators in the United States were colonised and influenced by gifts from the companies they were supposed to be regulating. Nobody believes that of the FSA, but nor was it a towering body, respected and feared by those in its purview. It came, it saw; it did not conquer.

Dell May Hold Road Map for Goldman and S.E.C.

DealBook | Peter Henning | Jun 16, 2010

The disclosure by Dell that it plans to settle a long-running investigation of its financial statements by the Securities and Exchange Commission may give a hint at how Goldman Sachs could try to resolve its own battle with the S.E.C. over the sale of a collateralized debt obligation. Rather than accuse Dell of engaging in intentional fraud, the S.E.C. only charged it with negligence, a much less harmful conclusion to the case.

Go Fund Yourself, Congress Ought to Tell the SEC: Ann Woolner

Bloomberg | Ann Woolner | Jun 15, 2010

Having failed to detect the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history, and with employees viewing Internet porn on the job, the SEC hasn’t exactly served as a shining star in the federal galaxy of regulators. A solution is now before Senate and House conferees who are hammering out their differences in a mammoth financial reform bill. The remedy: Give the agency more to do and freer rein. Counterintuitive? Yes. A bad idea? Not at all.

5 Forgotten Financial Frauds

SF Gate | Andrew Beattie | Jun 16, 2010

Until Bernie Madoff reminded us what a Ponzi scheme was, the term had fallen out of regular use. Fifty-billion dollars and many hurt investors later, the scheme and even the creator, Charles Ponzi, have made a return to the popular consciousness. We'll look at five forgotten frauds and whether or not they can ever expect to make a Ponzi-like comeback.

Whistleblower Bounty Provision is the Securities Law "Sleeper" in the Financial Reform Bill

ON Securities | Martin Rosenbaum | Jun 15, 2010

I view the whistleblower provision as the “sleeper” in the Dodd Bill for public companies. It’s received less publicity than other provisions such as mandatory Say-on-Pay and a majority voting requirement for directors in listed companies. However, its impact on public companies could be even greater than those other provisions. The bounty provision may encourage employees to report perceived violations in a greater number of cases than before. Considering the recent increases in SEC enforcement staffing and activity, public companies will also be at greater risk of SEC investigations and enforcement proceedings.

Why Is It Called a “Wells Notice”?

Compliance Building | Doug Cornelius | Jun 14, 2010

In 1972, SEC Chairman William J. Casey appointed a committee to review and evaluate the Commission’s enforcement policies and practices. Chairman Casey appointed John A. Wells, a lawyer at Royall, Koegel & Wells in New York, to the committee. He also added and former SEC Chairmen Manny Cohen and Ralph Demmler. Chairman Casey asked Jack Wells to be the Chairman of the Committee specifically because he was not a securities lawyer, Thus began what is now knows as the Wells Committee.