From Washington On Parade:
Yesterday, Mary Jo White, the new Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced that a law partner from the firm she just left, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, would become the new Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement ““ the unit that decides who gets prosecuted and who gets a pass.
In making the announcement that Andrew Ceresney of Debevoise & Plimpton will share the post with the Acting Director, George Canellos, White called Ceresney a ” former prosecutor.” That hardly does justice to the cozy ties between Ceresney and Wall Street. (Ceresney worked for the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York in a prior career but has been employed at Debevoise since 2003.)
This time last year, Ceresney was basking in the glow of a herculean accomplishment for JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Ally. While directly employed as counsel to JPMorgan Chase, Ceresney had played a pivotal role in directing the negotiations between the U.S. Justice Department, 49 state attorneys general and an array of Federal regulators to tie up with a neat little red ribbon charges of mortgage, foreclosure and servicing fraud into the infamous National Mortgage Settlement ““ a deal big on promises and short on cash.
