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.

Whither Collective Scienter?

The 10b-5 Daily | Lyle Roberts | Jun 4, 2010

Under the collective scienter theory, it is possible for a plaintiff to adequately plead scienter with respect to a corporate defendant even where the plaintiff is unable to adequately plead scienter with respect to any individual corporate employee who made a false statement. There is a circuit split on the issue, with the Second Circuit and Seventh Circuit adopting the theory and the Fifth Circuit rejecting the theory. That leaves a lot of room for district courts in other circuits to come to their own conclusions.

Australia: More powers, but is ASIC up to the job?

Sydney Morning Herald | Stuart Washington | Jun 4, 2010

IN ENGLAND, a division of the police, the Serious Fraud Office - not the Financial Services Authority - is responsible for cracking down on company crime. In Australia, this role falls to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. In the United States, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission - not the US Securities and Exchange Commission - regulates high-octane derivatives that caused the world to quake during the financial crisis. In Australia, the responsibility falls on ASIC. If you are starting to see a pattern, you would be right. ASIC history is one of continually upgraded responsibilities far beyond the scope of its initial focus on regulating securities.

The Madoff Circle: Who Knew What?

ProPublica | Jake Bernstein | Jun 3, 2010

When Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to running the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, he insisted he was the lone perpetrator, asserting that no one – not his family, not his colleagues, not his friends – knew of the fraud. But an alternate narrative is emerging from the pile of Madoff-related civil suits and court motions that have been filed in the last two years – one in which a small circle of men played knowing, integral roles in the scheme, in some cases benefiting more from it than even Madoff himself.

Canada: The feds’ weak case for a federal securities regulator

National Post | Jeffrey MacIntosh | Jun 1, 2010

The tea leaves have been read. The entrails have been poked and prodded. And now the mavens of constitutional divination have furnished us with an answer — the feds will prevail in their upcoming Reference to the Supreme Court of Canada. They will finally and unambiguously prove that they have the constitutional jurisdiction to set up a federal securities regulator. I demur. The feds are going down. Big time.

LESSONS FROM THE PEQUOT INVESTIGATION

SEC Actions | Tom Gorman | Jun 1, 2010

Things are not always as they seem. This sage maxim has been cited many times in different contexts. The resolution of Pequot insider trading investigation last week, along with the earlier scandal the initial inquiry generated, is a good illustration of how this principle applies in SEC investigations.