For the last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been seen as a revolving door as a way to get a cozy job at a private firm. Examples include such names as the former SEC chairman Jay Clayton joining the private equity conglomerate Apollo Global Management while also taking an advisory role at River Asset Management to help oversee their new digital asset fund. The former SEC director who led the action against Ripple, Simpson Thacher, is now a part of the law firm that is working closely with Ethereum.
There has been an additional turnaround at the SEC this week, with the commissioning announcing last night that Alex Oh would resign as their enforcement director, only a mear six days after starting the job. For now, we have to wait to see if Oh’s short stint at the SEC will help her land a new job on Wall Street.
In a twist, the reason why she resigned was due to “a development [which] arose this week in one of the cases on which I worked while still in private law practice”. In Oh’s prior careers she was a corporate lawyer who represented ExxonMobil in a highly publicized case, where ExxonMobil was accused of hiring private security in Indonesia who actually killed and tortured local villagers. Conflict arose in this trial when the lawyers for the villagers questioned a senior lawyer at ExxonMobil and he was reportedly unresponsive to the questions, making sure to draw the answers out for as long as possible.
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A judge on Monday ruled in favour of the lawyers for the villagers ordering the ExxonMobil lawyer to provide direct answers. The judge then said that he might punish Oh for alleging without evidence that the lawyers for the villagers were disrespectful and unhinged.
Information for this briefing was found via Sedar and Refinitiv. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
