Cox, C Rep sec

<p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">2009&nbsp;</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">May 6 (Bloomberg) -<b>- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was plagued by internal conflicts before the regulator drew fire for missing&nbsp;<a href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Bernard+Madoff&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background: no-repeat transparent;">Bernard Madoff</a>’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme, a U.S. government watchdog said.</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Under former SEC Chairman&nbsp;<a href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Christopher+Cox&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background: no-repeat transparent;">Christopher Cox</a>, the agency instituted policies that slowed cases and led enforcement-unit lawyers to conclude commissioners opposed fining companies, the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09358.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background: no-repeat transparent;">Government Accountability Office</a>&nbsp;said in a report today. An unidentified attorney said it was “widely felt” commissioners prevented the division from “doing its job,” according to the report.</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Some investigative attorneys came to see the commission as less of an ally in bringing enforcement actions and more of a barrier,” the GAO said. Cox’s policies “contributed to an adversarial relationship between enforcement and the commission.”</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The SEC failed to detect Madoff’s fraud, which dated to at least the 1980s.&nbsp;<a href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Mary+Schapiro&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background: no-repeat transparent;">Mary Schapiro</a>, who succeeded Cox in January, has tried to restore the SEC’s clout by replacing senior staff and reversing decisions made by her predecessor.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The report will help draw the curtain down on an era and investors are better off for it,” said<a href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=James+Cox&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background: no-repeat transparent;">James Cox</a>, a law professor at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who isn’t related to the former SEC chairman. “Enforcement’s presentations to the commission had gotten brutal and a lot of pushback was occurring.”</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Clash Over Fines</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>When Cox became chairman in August 2005, he stepped into a partisan dispute among SEC commissioners over whether it was appropriate to sanction public companies for violating securities laws. Democratic&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sec.gov/about/commissioner.shtml" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background: no-repeat transparent;">commissioners</a>&nbsp;argued that fines helped deter misconduct. Republicans countered that shareholders ultimately paid SEC penalties.</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The SEC issued guidelines in January 2006, stipulating that the agency would consider how much an alleged fraud benefited the company and the impact on shareholders before imposing a fine.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Cox, now 56, set up a procedure in 2007 that required enforcement attorneys to seek approval from commissioners before negotiating corporate penalties. Previously, SEC investigators could enter into settlement talks without obtaining permission.</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The pilot program was designed to test ways to speed up cases and improve oversight, and was tried in only nine of more than 1,000 cases that were all approved by the commission,” Cox wrote yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “The GAO analysis supports the chairman’s decision to end the pilot and pursue other approaches.”</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Poor Management</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At the time of its review, the GAO said eight cases had been settled in accordance with the policy. A former SEC commissioner who wasn’t identified told the government watchdog that poor management caused enforcement’s failings, not policies implemented under Cox.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The enforcement division’s management and attorneys agreed that the<b>&nbsp;policies led to “fewer and smaller” corporate fines, reduced incentives for corporations to cooperate with SEC investigations and generated a backlog of cases, the GAO said.</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sec.gov/2008annual/index.htm" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background: no-repeat transparent;">fiscal 2008</a>, the agency extracted about $1 billion of fines and illegal profits from companies and individuals after garnering $1.6 billion in 2007. Penalties exceeded $3 billion in each of the three years preceding 2007.</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="http://www.sec.gov/news/speech/2009/spch050409mls.htm" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial;">Schapiro</a>, 53, in February scrapped the policy that required SEC attorneys to get authorization from commissioners before negotiating fines.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In a letter responding to the GAO’s findings, she said it sent the “wrong message to enforcement staff and to the public at a time when the SEC needs to be sending a message that corporate wrongdoing will not be tolerated.” Schapiro said she’s also examining the 2006 policy on corporate fines.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Barred From Meetings</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The GAO report found that case resolutions became less transparent. During Cox’s tenure, commissioners increasingly barred enforcement personnel from meetings while considering sanctions or legal action, according to the report. The so-called executive sessions were limited either to investigators on the case or the SEC’s enforcement chief, its general counsel and secretary.</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In 2008, commissioners called executive sessions on 40 percent of the days they met to vote on enforcement actions, according to the report. That is three times the rate in 2005 when Cox became chairman.</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">U.S. Senator&nbsp;<a href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Jack+Reed&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial;">Jack Reed</a>, a Rhode Island Democrat</span>&nbsp;who requested the GAO report last year, scheduled a hearing tomorrow to examine the SEC’s enforcement unit. Witnesses include SEC Enforcement Director&nbsp;<a href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Robert+Khuzami&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial;">Robert Khuzami</a>, who took the division’s helm at the end of March.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">To contact the reporters on this story:&nbsp;<a href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Jesse+Westbrook&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background: no-repeat transparent;">Jesse Westbrook</a>&nbsp;in Washington at<a href="mailto:jwestbrook1@bloomberg.net" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background: no-repeat transparent;">jwestbrook1@bloomberg.net</a>;&nbsp;<a href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=David+Scheer&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background: no-repeat transparent;">David Scheer</a>&nbsp;in New York at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:dscheer@bloomberg.net" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background: no-repeat transparent;">dscheer@bloomberg.net</a>.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;=</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">huffpo</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; font-size: 13px; list-style: none; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission under outgoing President George W. Bush, Christopher Cox, resigned on Tuesday as the new president took office.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; font-size: 13px; list-style: none; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The departure of Cox, an independent regulatory official whose term extends through next year, had been expected. He also relinquished his position as one of the five members of the SEC. His resignation wasn't officially announced; it was confirmed by agency spokesman John Nester.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; font-size: 13px; list-style: none; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">President Barack Obama has nominated securities industry regulator Mary Schapiro to head the SEC at a time of economic crisis and shaken investor confidence that has conferred heightened importance to the position. Obama is expected to name an acting chairman until Schapiro is confirmed by the Senate and installed in the job. The acting chairman could be one of the sitting SEC commissioners.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; font-size: 13px; list-style: none; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As the financial crisis has raged, the SEC has been going through one of the most difficult times in its history _ buffeted by criticism for failing to detect signs that major Wall Street banks were in trouble before the crisis erupted last year, and for possibly lax oversight and enforcement in other areas. The scandal involving money manager Bernard Madoff brought new scrutiny on the SEC after it was revealed that agency staff repeatedly failed over the course of a decade to fully investigate credible allegations against him and to detect his alleged $50 billion fraud.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; font-size: 13px; list-style: none; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cox, a conservative Republican congressman from California, was appointed by outgoing President Bush in mid-2005. Bush named him to the position after the surprise resignation of William Donaldson, a Wall Street veteran whom Bush had installed to help restore confidence in a stock market shaken by the wave of corporate scandals in 2002.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">bs</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christopher Cox was the 28th Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He was&nbsp;<b>appointed by President Bush on June 2, 2005,&nbsp;</b>and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on July 29, 2005. He was sworn in on August 3, 2005.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">During his tenure at the SEC, Chairman Cox made vigorous enforcement of the securities laws the agency's top priority, bringing ground breaking cases against a variety of market abuses including hedge fund insider trading, stock options backdating, fraud aimed at senior citizens, municipal securities fraud, and securities scams on the Internet. He assumed leadership of the international effort to more closely integrate U.S. and overseas regulation in an era of global capital markets and international securities exchanges. He also championed transforming the SEC's system of mandated disclosure from a static, form-based approach to one that taps the power of interactive data to give investors qualitatively better information about companies, mutual funds, and investments of all kinds. In addition, as part of an overall focus on the needs of individual investors, Chairman Cox reinvigorated the agency's initiative to provide important investor information in plain English.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For 10 of his 17 years in Congress, Chairman Cox served in the Majority Leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was Chairman of the House Policy Committee; Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security; Chairman of the Select Committee on U.S. National Security; Chairman of the Select Committee on Homeland Security (the predecessor to the permanent House Committee); Chairman of the Task Force on Capital Markets; and Chairman of the Task Force on Budget Process Reform.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In addition, he served in a leadership capacity as a senior Member of every committee with jurisdiction over investor protection and U.S. capital markets, including the House Energy and Commerce Committee (as Vice Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee); the Financial Services Committee; the Government Reform Committee (as Vice Chairman of the full Committee); the Joint Economic Committee; and the Budget Committee.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Among the significant laws he authored were the&nbsp;<b>Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, which protects investors from fraudulent lawsuits</b>, and the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which protects Internet users from multiple and discriminatory taxation. His legislative efforts to eliminate the double tax on shareholder dividends — the subject of a thesis he authored at Harvard University in 1977 — led to the enactment in May 2003 of legislation that cut the double tax by more than half.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Chairman Cox also served as Co-Chairman of the Bipartisan Study Group on Enhancing Multilateral Export Controls, which published a unanimous report in 2001. In 1994 he was appointed by President Clinton to the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, which published its unanimous report in 1995.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">From 1986 until 1988, Chairman Cox served in the White House as Senior Associate Counsel to the President. In that capacity, he advised the President on a wide range of matters, including the nomination of three U.S. Supreme Court Justices, reform of the federal budget process, and the 1987 stock market crash.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">From 1978 to 1986, he specialized in venture capital and corporate finance with the international law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he was the partner in charge of the Corporate Department in Orange County and a member of the firm's national management.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 1982-83, Chairman Cox took a leave of absence from<b>&nbsp;Latham & Watkins</b>&nbsp;to teach federal income tax at Harvard Business School. He also co-founded Context Corporation, publisher of the English translation of the Soviet Union's daily newspaper, Pravda. In 1977-78, he was law clerk to U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Herbert Choy.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 1977, Chairman Cox simultaneously received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was an Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He received a B.A. from the University of Southern California in 1973, graduating magna cum laude after pursuing an accelerated three-year course.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Chairman Cox was born October 16, 1952, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He and his wife Rebecca have three children.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><i>http://www.sec.gov/about/commissioner/cox.htm</i></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">September 18, 2008, 8:00am EDT</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">S.E.C. No Evil</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;Christopher Cox</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">THE BOSS Christopher Cox, chairman of the S.E.C., in his office in February 2007.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Scot J. Paltrow</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For months, Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has been under fire for a belated response to market upheavals stemming from the subprime fiasco and for being soft on big corporations. He’s eager to dispel his critics. In his 10th-floor office, with a postcard view of the Capitol, Cox appears fit and buoyant despite a recent bout with a rare cancer of the thymus gland. He denies any suggestion that he has oriented the S.E.C. away from tough enforcement and investor protection. “I spend more time on enforcement than on any aspect of my job,” he says.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>But a look at his record since he became chairman in 2005 suggests that, behind the scenes, Cox has engineered a series of procedural and tactical changes, effectively reducing the S.E.C. enforcement division’s power</b>. The division, one of four in the S.E.C., investigates and litigates violations of securities laws. Under the new rules, enforcement staffers no longer have the freedom to negotiate fines against public companies in a select group of cases. Instead, the commissioners—three Republicans and two Democrats—dictate the maximum penalty the enforcement division can seek. Since the rule was imposed, penalties have dropped. For example, in March, the commission approved a fine of $10 million against&nbsp;<b>pharmaceuticals</b>&nbsp;manufacturer Biovail, significantly less than the enforcement staff had sought.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At the S.E.C., which has come under fire from Congress for its apparent lack of vigilance in the subprime mess, such tensions between frontline investigators and the politically appointed commissioners to whom they report have become commonplace. Former senior enforcement officials say Cox has used his control over the commission’s calendar to delay major cases and water down others. Cox and other commissioners have shifted the agency’s focus away from strong enforcement action against big public companies and Wall Street firms, instead emphasizing what S.E.C. lawyers consider petty-fraud cases, such as small Ponzi schemes.<b>&nbsp;Penalties against companies, individuals, and brokerage firms have sunk from a high of $1.5 billion in 2005 to $507 million last year.</b></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the coming months, the S.E.C. will be expected to sort out whether malfeasance contributed to the current economic crisis—and if so, whose. But the fundamental changes at the enforcement division will make this all the more difficult. The division has been significantly weakened by the exodus of top supervisors and is hamstrung by the new limits on its powers. Even if a new administration in the White House replaces Cox, whose term expires in 2009, it is not as though a switch could be flipped to begin more aggressive prosecution. Gearing up would require restoring the depleted ranks and finishing pending cases, both of which could entail substantial delays at a time when the market needs to quickly regain the confidence of battered investors.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Cox did not accomplish these changes on his own. Internal agency politics, critics say, played a major role, with Cox’s Republican colleagues, particularly Paul Atkins, pressing him to roll back enforcement and rein in the division’s independence. Beginning in late 2007, the White House, which nominates S.E.C. commissioners, helped clear the way for retrenchment in enforcement by delaying the replacement of two Democratic commissioners whose terms had ended. From January through July 2008, the commission had just three members, all Republican. This gave Atkins and Kathleen Casey de facto veto power over the more moderate chairman.</b></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The perceived absence of support for major investigations has alienated many staff members and prompted some of the enforcement division’s senior officials to quit. Since Cox took office in 2005, the staff count in the division has dropped 9 percent, to 1,124 people this year. His predecessor, William Donaldson—like Cox, a Republican—long declined to speak publicly about changes at the S.E.C. He told me recently, though, that he was aware of a “high degree of frustration” among the staff. “With the kind of problems we have now,” he said, “any attempt to reduce the effective role of the S.E.C. as a policeman has been a mistake.”</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the time President Bush named him S.E.C. chairman, Cox had served 17 years in Congress, where he stood out as one of the most effective pro-business representatives in a strongly pro-­business class of House Republicans. He took the helm at the S.E.C. during a period of corporate backlash against the agency and the stringent regulations imposed by the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The departing chairman, Donaldson, was a Bush family friend who had been appointed by the White House with the expectation that he would temper the S.E.C.’s activism. Instead, he embraced the agency’s role as cop. The business community felt “that Donaldson was too tough on corporate America and Wall Street,” says a former enforcement official. “Cox was brought in to chill it out.”</span></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font color="#ff0000">Besides pulling back on enforcement, Cox also cut back on the S.E.C.’s new risk-assessment office, created under Donaldson to help the agency do a better job of anticipating financial upheavals</font>. After the head of that office left, Cox didn’t replace him for nearly two years. Although Donaldson had authorized and filled eight positions and planned to expand the staff to 15, by 2007 the office was staffed mainly by part-timers, who in federal budget records were regarded as the equivalent of only two full-time workers. Cox says in response that he has allocated staff to other departments that he contends perform similar functions.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Also, under Cox, the commission loosened a key limit on short-selling in 2007, scrapping what’s known as the uptick rule, which is meant to forestall plunges in share value by allowing short-selling only when a stock is rising. A year later, after heavy short-selling threatened the survival of certain large financial companies, the S.E.C. temporarily restricted the short-selling of 19 mortgage-company and bank stocks.</b></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font color="#ff0000">Cox and other S.E.C. officials have said that it wasn’t possible to anticipate the effects of the real estate bubble’s bursting.</font>&nbsp;And Cox has said he’s able to do more with less by prioritizing enforcement and oversight efforts. The S.E.C., he told Congress in July, has more than four dozen pending investigations into the credit crisis. Some relate to whether improper short-selling and insider trading spurred the Bear Stearns collapse. But some members of Congress and the federal government clearly aren’t impressed. The Treasury Department has proposed grabbing for itself and the Federal Reserve some of the S.E.C.’s most important powers, including enforcement authority over brokerages and investment banks. At a Senate hearing in May,<b>&nbsp;Senator Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, faulted Cox for endorsing the White House’s request for only a minor increase in the S.E.C.’s budget for 2009. Durbin noted that Cox’s budget request would mean the loss of at least 94 more staff positions throughout the S.E.C</b>. “Developments and trends in the market call for more, not less, vigilance, to protect investors,” Durbin stated in a press release following the hearing.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cox, in an interview that he allows to go well beyond the allotted hour, defends his record and dismisses repeated interruptions from a secretary. He is adamant that he has stepped up enforcement: “We are redoubling our efforts in every way that we know how.” He attributes the decline in penalties to an inevitable shift in the mix of cases after the resolution of big accounting scandals in the first half of this decade.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Under his leadership, Cox says, the S.E.C. has become forward-looking “in ways that traditionally we might not have been.” And he takes great pains to present himself as a champion of the small-time investor.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After we’ve shaken hands and I’m nearly at the elevator, Cox summons me back to examine a column of framed mementos on his office wall. He’s often mentioned these items when testifying before Congress as symbols of his personal commitment to regulation. They relate to Samuel Insull, the Chicago electricity magnate whose company went bust in 1932, wiping out hundreds of thousands of investors and helping prompt the establishment of the S.E.C. in 1934. The display includes a photo of Insull and a check for $3.36 made out to Cox’s grandfather—all that he got back on a $6,000 investment in the company.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Almost from the moment Cox took office, former enforcement officials say, he began chipping away behind the scenes at the S.E.C.’s enforcement division—the largest and most high-profile of the agency’s four divisions. Approval of the enforcement division’s requests to initiate investigations, which was an expeditious process under former chairman Donaldson, turned into a logjam, as the commission closely scrutinized each one. “It was like someone poured molasses on the enforcement division,” says a former enforcement division supervisor.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>When the commission was divided over cases, Cox would simply take them off its agenda</b>. The same supervisor says, “You had cases where the enforcement staff had worked hard for three years. It was finally done, on the calendar. The general counsel has reviewed it. The day arrives for your hearing before the commission, and you’re told that morning it’s been pulled. Taken off the calendar. When’s it going back on? We don’t know.” By mid-2006, this had become routine. “Cases are held up, pulled, held up, pulled,” the supervisor says.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cox’s treatment of Linda Thomsen, the S.E.C.’s first female enforcement director, was seen by staffers as a sign of the division’s declining clout. A longtime S.E.C. lawyer, Thomsen had been named director by Donaldson just prior to his departure. Her predecessor, Steve Cutler, who had worked closely with Donaldson and several earlier enforcement directors going back to Stanley Sporkin, who held the job in the 1970s, told me that this kind of open-door relationship was the norm. Several former senior S.E.C. staffers say Thomsen had far less access.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Thomsen defends her boss. “This chairman has an extremely busy schedule,” she says. “I can get to him if I need to.” But she acknowledges that “sometimes it can take days.” Cox says, “She has complete and total access to me.” An S.E.C. spokesman says the two met as often as eight times a day during recent settlement negotiations with banks over auction-rate securities. The banks agreed to repay nearly $27 billion to investors.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Some former S.E.C. staffers say Thomsen complied too easily with the push to restrict enforcement. Cox boasts that the commission approves “99.999 percent” of the enforcement division’s recommendations. But some former S.E.C. enforcement officials say he maintains that high percentage by prevailing on Thomsen to water them down. Thomsen confirms that she has revised recommendations “from time to time” but denies that the commission has curbed enforcement efforts. “Everybody’s pro-law-enforcement” among the commissioners, she says. “Nobody likes crooks.”</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Demoralized, key enforcement staffers started heading out the door.</b>&nbsp;Veteran S.E.C. lawyer James Coffman left in 2007 after he was passed over for a promotion. He says that Thomsen told him he didn’t get the job because he was viewed as “too tough.” Thomsen, noting that toughness is one of the qualities necessary for an enforcement job, dismissed the notion that anyone would be denied a promotion for being “too tough.”</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>A budget shortfall led the S.E.C. to impose a hiring freeze in 2005.</b>&nbsp;The enforcement division’s staff is divided into groups, and ordinarily 15 lawyers report to an assistant director in each one. But as the freeze dragged on, some groups dwindled to seven or eight lawyers. An S.E.C. spokesman says that if one group is overburdened, cases are reassigned to a different group.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Enforcement staffers cite two cases as examples of the agency’s retreat from tough prosecution. One is the Biovail case. When eight women died after their bus smashed into a truck loaded with Biovail antidepressant pills, the pharmaceutical maker attributed a revenue decline to inventory lost in the crash. S.E.C. enforcement lawyers charged that not only was the company’s explanation false, but Biovail had also set up a company in Barbados to inflate reported profits and was in cahoots with a pharmaceutical distributor to stage a sham sale of pills, according to the S.E.C. complaint. Although an outside expert retained by the S.E.C. recommended a much larger fine, the commissioners decided on $10 million. Biovail accepted the penalty without admitting or denying wrongdoing. Cox says the commission relied on the advice of the agency’s chief economist.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The other case involved Tenet Healthcare, a hospital company that had allegedly boosted earnings through Medicare fraud. In March 2007, the S.E.C.’s settlement talks with Tenet nearly collapsed over whether the company would be granted a “safe harbor” provision, which protects a company from liability for financial projections that are made in good faith. The S.E.C. had routinely denied this protection in fraud settlements. Accordingly, enforcement lawyers refused to make an exception for Tenet. But on the night before they were set to appear before the commission, Tenet’s lawyer fired off an appeal to the S.E.C. commissioners.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The next day, a majority of the commissioners, including Cox, made it clear that they would grant Tenet safe harbor, according to several people who attended the meeting. The enforcement staff drafted a settlement. (The company paid a $10 million penalty.) The commission’s break with precedent on this and other cases caused consternation among the enforcement staff and helped spur the departure of Randall Lee, the veteran head of the S.E.C.’s Los Angeles office, which had handled the case. Cox says the commissioners took into consideration that Tenet had new management.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A January analysis by the law firm Morgan Lewis found that S.E.C. penalties have dropped by a “staggering degree” and that “the numbers suggest a philosophical shift by the Cox commission in what constitutes an appropriate penalty.”</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A spokesperson for the S.E.C., in an email statement, insists that “by any objective measure, the S.E.C.’s enforcement division has never been more effective or enjoyed greater support from the commission. The commission’s unparalleled support has brought unparalleled results from investors.”</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While major cases were bogged down, commissioners quickly approved minor ones involving penny stocks, boiler-room operators, and Ponzi schemers who fleeced groups of small investors. According to former S.E.C. officials, this apparent shift in agenda was pushed in large measure by former commissioner Atkins, who stepped down in August after his term expired. One former S.E.C. official claims to have heard&nbsp;<b>Atkins remark that he believed that the S.E.C. was “unconstitutionally constituted.”</b>&nbsp;Atkins denies this, saying that if he had believed the S.E.C. was unconstitutional, he would not have served on the commission. But a friend of Atkins’ says, “If you surprised Paul and asked him what he really thinks of the S.E.C., he’d probably say, ‘Blow it up.’?”</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Atkins, whom one former commissioner describes as “probably the most effective commissioner in the history of the S.E.C.,” benefited from Cox’s desire to build consensus. Cox shunned divided votes, delaying important matters until he could engineer a majority. Atkins wasn’t inclined to compromise. He castigated the enforcement division in speeches around the country and filed detailed public dissents in response to some of the agency’s decisions.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Atkins says the push against small-scale fraud cases has not come at the expense of large investigations. He suggests that by emphasizing such efforts, the S.E.C. adopted a strategy similar to one that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani employed to reduce the city’s crime rate—cracking down on quality-of-life offenses and securing arrests for minor violations. “You have to concentrate on the muggings and graffiti because that builds up respect for the rule of law,” Atkins says.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But demoralized staffers don’t agree. In one instance, after commissioners had approved penalties in a microcap fraud case, Atkins says an enforcement lawyer came up to the colleague who had conducted the investigation, slapped him on the back, and said sarcastically, “Congratulations on your small case.”</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://upstart.bizjournals.com/executives/features/2008/09/18/Profile-of-SEC-Chief-Christopher-Cox.html?s=print&page=all" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">http://upstart.bizjournals.com/executives/features/2008/09/18/Profile-of-SEC-Chief-Christopher-Cox.html</a>?s=print&page=all</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></p><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-size: 19px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="Financial_crisis_and_the_bailout">Financial crisis and the bailout</span></h2><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-size: 17px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="Role_in_the_crisis">Role in the crisis</span></h3><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 1975, the SEC’s trading and markets division ruled that investment banks must maintain a debt-to-net capital ratio of less than 12 to 1<font color="#ff0000">. In 2004, following extensive lobbying by the investment banks, the SEC under chairman Christopher Cox authorized five investment banks to develop their own net capital requirements.</font>&nbsp;This enabled investment banks to push borrowing ratios to as high as 40 to 1.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Merrill_Lynch#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[4]</a></sup>&nbsp;These five investment banks were Goldman Sachs,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Morgan_Stanley" title="Morgan Stanley" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background: none;">Morgan Stanley</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Lehman_Brothers" title="Lehman Brothers" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background: none;">Lehman Brothers</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bear_Stearns" title="Bear Stearns" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background: none;">Bear Stearns</a>, and&nbsp;<strong class="selflink">Merrill Lynch</strong>. This very high debt-to-reserves helped lead to the financial crisis of 2008 by weakening the ability of these institutions to recover from losses incurred when the risky CDO and CDS bets failed.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Merrill_Lynch#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Merrill_Lynch#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[6]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lee A. Pickard, who had been Director of the SEC’s Division of Market Regulation when the 1975 12-1 rule was ordered, said of the change, "The SEC modification in 2004 is the primary reason for all of the losses that have occurred."<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Merrill_Lynch#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[7]</a></sup></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">wiki hmmn &nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_sockpuppets">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_sockpuppets</a></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>harles Christopher Cox</b>&nbsp;(born October 16, 1952) is an American lawyer and former Chairman of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission</a>, a 17-year&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party(United_States)" title="Republican Party (United States)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Republican</a>member of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="United States House of Representatives" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">United States House of Representatives</a>, and member of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House" title="White House" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">White House</a>&nbsp;staff in the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_Administration" title="Reagan Administration" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Reagan Administration</a>. Prior to his Washington service he was a practicing attorney, teacher, and entrepreneur.<sup id="cite_ref-Biographical_Directory_of_the_United_States_Congress_1-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-Biographical_Directory_of_the_United_States_Congress-1" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 7px; font-size: 13px; display: table; zoom: 1; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><h2 style="color: black; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; font-size: 13px; display: inline; line-height: 1.3; background: none;">Contents</h2>&nbsp;<span class="toctoggle" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: 13px;">&nbsp;[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">hide</a>]&nbsp;</span></div><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#Pre-congressional_career" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><span class="tocnumber">1</span>&nbsp;<span class="toctext">Pre-congressional career</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#U.S.Congress" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><span class="tocnumber">2</span>&nbsp;<span class="toctext">U.S. Congress</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission_chairman" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><span class="tocnumber">3</span>&nbsp;<span class="toctext">U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman</span></a><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#Regulatory_initiatives" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><span class="tocnumber">3.1</span>&nbsp;<span class="toctext">Regulatory initiatives</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#Technological_modernization" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><span class="tocnumber">3.2</span>&nbsp;<span class="toctext">Technological modernization</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#Focus_on_individual_investors_and_seniors" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><span class="tocnumber">3.3</span>&nbsp;<span class="toctext">Focus on individual investors and seniors</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#International_integration" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><span class="tocnumber">3.4</span>&nbsp;<span class="toctext">International integration</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#Law_enforcement" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><span class="tocnumber">3.5</span>&nbsp;<span class="toctext">Law enforcement</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#Response_to_the_beginning_of_the_2008_U.S.Recession" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><span class="tocnumber">3.6</span>&nbsp;<span class="toctext">Response to the beginning of the 2008 U.S. Recession</span></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#Current_career" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><span class="tocnumber">4</span>&nbsp;<span class="toctext">Current career</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#See_also" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><span class="tocnumber">5</span>&nbsp;<span class="toctext">See also</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#External_links" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><span class="tocnumber">6</span>&nbsp;<span class="toctext">External links</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#References" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><span class="tocnumber">7</span>&nbsp;<span class="toctext">References</span></a></li></ul></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="Pre-congressional_career">Pre-congressional career</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; font-family: sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Cox&action=edit&section=1&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Pre-congressional career" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></h2><div class="thumb tright" style="clear: right; float: right; margin: 0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em; width: auto; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); font-size: 13px; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; padding: 3px !important; width: 222px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Honoring_Chris_Cox_by_Dreier_and_others.pdf" class="image" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Honoring_Chris_Cox_by_Dreier_and_others.pdf/page1-220px-Honoring_Chris_Cox_by_Dreier_and_others.pdf.jpg" width="220" height="285" class="thumbimage" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Honoring_Chris_Cox_by_Dreier_and_others.pdf/page1-330px-Honoring_Chris_Cox_by_Dreier_and_others.pdf.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Honoring_Chris_Cox_by_Dreier_and_others.pdf/page1-440px-Honoring_Chris_Cox_by_Dreier_and_others.pdf.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1275" data-file-height="1650" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></a><div class="thumbcaption" style="border: none; line-height: 1.4em; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px !important; text-align: left;"><div class="magnify" style="margin-left: 3px; border: none !important; float: right; background: none !important;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Honoring_Chris_Cox_by_Dreier_and_others.pdf" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); display: block; border: none !important; background: none !important;"><img src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.24wmf7/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" height="11" alt="" style="border: none !important; vertical-align: middle; display: block; background: none !important;" /></a></div>Honoring Chris Cox by congressman&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Dreier" title="David Dreier" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">David Dreier</a>&nbsp;and others</div></div></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cox was born in&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St.Paul,Minnesota" title="St. Paul, Minnesota" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">St. Paul, Minnesota</a>. After graduating from&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thomas_Academy" title="Saint Thomas Academy" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Saint Thomas Academy</a>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendota_Heights,Minnesota" title="Mendota Heights, Minnesota" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Mendota Heights, Minnesota</a>&nbsp;in 1970, Cox earned his B.A. at the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Southern_California" title="University of Southern California" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">University of Southern California</a>&nbsp;in 1973, following an accelerated three-year course.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[2]</a></sup>&nbsp;He was also a member of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Tau_Delta" title="Delta Tau Delta" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Delta Tau Delta</a>&nbsp;fraternity. In 1977, he earned both an&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Business_Administration" title="Master of Business Administration" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">M.B.A.</a>&nbsp;from<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Business_School" title="Harvard Business School" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Harvard Business School</a>&nbsp;and a&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juris_Doctor" title="Juris Doctor" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">J.D.</a>&nbsp;from&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Law_School" title="Harvard Law School" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Harvard Law School</a>, where he was an Editor of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Law_Review" title="Harvard Law Review" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Harvard Law Review</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Official_SEC_Biography:Chairman_Christopher_Cox_3-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-Official_SEC_Biography:Chairman_Christopher_Cox-3" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[3]</a></sup>&nbsp;In 1977–78, he served as law clerk to Judge Herbert Y.C. Choy of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Ninth_Circuit" title="United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[4]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In October 1978, Cox was paralyzed from the waist down following a serious off-road Jeep accident in the rainforest on the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii" title="Hawaii" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Hawai<span class="unicode">ʻ</span>ian</a>&nbsp;island of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molokai" title="Molokai" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Moloka<span class="unicode">ʻ</span>i</a>. He eventually regained the ability to walk, but wore a harness of steel bars and leather straps for six months. He still has two metal screws in his back, and according to a 2005&nbsp;<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune(magazine)" title="Fortune (magazine)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Fortune</a></i>magazine profile, “has been in pain every day for the past 27 years.”<sup id="cite_ref-StockCop_5-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-StockCop-5" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a></sup>&nbsp;Since he can't sit for extended periods of time, he has a special desk that allows him to work while standing.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[6]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As a contestant on the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC-TV" title="NBC-TV" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">NBC-TV</a>&nbsp;game show&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password(game_show)" title="Password (game show)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><i>Password Plus</i></a>, Cox won more than $5,000 over multiple appearances.<sup id="cite_ref-StockCop_5-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-StockCop-5" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a></sup>&nbsp;According to a re-broadcast of&nbsp;<i>Password Plus</i>&nbsp;on the cable network GSN, Cox appeared in 1980 and won $5,400 cash.</p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">From 1977 to 1986, Cox was first an associate and then partner with the international law firm of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latham%26_Watkins" title="Latham & Watkins" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Latham & Watkins</a>. At the time of his retirement in 1986 he was the Partner in Charge of the Corporate Department in the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County,California" title="Orange County, California" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Orange County</a>&nbsp;office, and served as a member of the firm's national management.<sup id="cite_ref-Official_SEC_Biography:Chairman_Christopher_Cox_3-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-Official_SEC_Biography:Chairman_Christopher_Cox-3" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[3]</a></sup>&nbsp;In 1982–83, Cox took a leave of absence from&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latham%26_Watkins" title="Latham & Watkins" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Latham & Watkins</a>&nbsp;to teach federal income tax at&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Business_School" title="Harvard Business School" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Harvard Business School</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Official_SEC_Biography:Chairman_Christopher_Cox_3-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-Official_SEC_Biography:Chairman_Christopher_Cox-3" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[3]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 1984, Cox co-founded&nbsp;<b>Context Corporation</b>, which produced daily English reproductions of the leading Soviet state-controlled newspaper,&nbsp;<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravda" title="Pravda" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Pravda</a></i>. The publication was used chiefly by U.S. universities and U.S. government agencies, and was eventually distributed to customers in 26 countries around the world. The company had no connection to the Soviet government.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[7]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">During the second term of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan" title="Ronald Reagan" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Ronald Reagan</a>&nbsp;from 1986 to 1988, he served as&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Counsel" title="White House Counsel" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Senior Associate Counsel to the President</a>. His duties included advising on the nomination of three Supreme Court justices, the establishment of the Brady Commission following the 1987 market crash, and the drafting of legislative reform proposals for the federal budget process.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[8]</a></sup></p><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="U.S.Congress">U.S. Congress</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; font-family: sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Cox&action=edit&section=2&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: U.S. Congress" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></h2><div class="thumb tleft" style="float: left; clear: left; margin: 0.5em 1.4em 1.3em 0px; width: auto; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); font-size: 13px; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; padding: 3px !important; width: 102px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1989_Chris_Cox_p19.jpg" class="image" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/1989_Chris_Cox_p19.jpg/100px-1989_Chris_Cox_p19.jpg" width="100" height="156" class="thumbimage" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/1989_Chris_Cox_p19.jpg/150px-1989_Chris_Cox_p19.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/1989_Chris_Cox_p19.jpg/200px-1989_Chris_Cox_p19.jpg 2x" data-file-width="232" data-file-height="363" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></a><div class="thumbcaption" style="border: none; line-height: 1.4em; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px !important; text-align: left;"><div class="magnify" style="margin-left: 3px; border: none !important; float: right; background: none !important;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1989_Chris_Cox_p19.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); display: block; border: none !important; background: none !important;"><img src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.24wmf7/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" height="11" alt="" style="border: none !important; vertical-align: middle; display: block; background: none !important;" /></a></div>1989,<i>Congressional Pictorial Directory</i>&nbsp;— Cox as a first term Congressman</div></div></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cox was elected to Congress in 1988 from what was then&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California" title="California" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">California's</a>&nbsp;40th District. He was re-elected eight more times from this&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County,California" title="Orange County, California" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Orange County</a>-based district, which was renumbered as the 47th District in 1993 and the 48th District in 2003.<sup id="cite_ref-Biographical_Directory_of_the_United_States_Congress_1-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-Biographical_Directory_of_the_United_States_Congress-1" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Early in his congressional career, Cox befriended two anti-Communists in Hungary and&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Lithuania" title="Republic of Lithuania" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Lithuania</a>&nbsp;who had been prisoners of conscience and who later became presidents of their countries after the end of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Soviet</a>&nbsp;domination. Cox met&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81rp%C3%A1d_G%C3%B6ncz" title="Árpád Göncz" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Árpád Göncz</a>&nbsp;in 1989, and when Cox was later married, he spent part of his honeymoon in Hungary with then-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81rp%C3%A1d_G%C3%B6ncz" title="Árpád Göncz" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">President Göncz</a>&nbsp;and his wife Mária. Cox met Dr.&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vytautas_Landsbergis" title="Vytautas Landsbergis" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Vytautas Landsbergis</a>, a professor at the Conservatory of Music in&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius" title="Vilnius" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Vilnius</a>, in 1989, well before the successful reestablishment of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Lithuania" title="Republic of Lithuania" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Lithuanian</a>&nbsp;independence. The night&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vytautas_Landsbergis" title="Vytautas Landsbergis" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Landsbergis</a>&nbsp;was elected President of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Lithuania" title="Republic of Lithuania" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Lithuania</a>, he embraced Cox on the tarmac at the airport in&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius" title="Vilnius" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Vilnius</a>&nbsp;after the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Soviet Union</a>&nbsp;had held Cox in&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Berlin" title="East Berlin" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">East Berlin</a>&nbsp;for a prolonged period.<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[9]</a></sup>&nbsp;In May 1998, Cox was presented with the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Lithuanian_Grand_Duke_Gediminas" title="Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas</a>, the highest honor the Republic of Lithuania can give to a living noncitizen.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[10]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 1989, Polish President&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lech_Wa%C5%82%C4%99sa" title="Lech Wałęsa" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Lech Wałęsa</a>&nbsp;joined Cox in a&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,D.C." title="Washington, D.C." style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Washington, DC</a>&nbsp;ceremony marking the enactment of Cox's legislation establishing the Polish-American Enterprise Fund. Together with the Baltic-American Enterprise Fund, the Hungarian-American Enterprise Fund, and seven other enterprise funds in Central and Eastern Europe and the former&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Soviet Union</a>, the Cox legislation, incorporated in the Support Eastern European Democracy (SEED) Act, matched U.S. foreign aid with venture capital in the newly free countries of the former&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact" title="Warsaw Pact" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Warsaw Pact</a>. Cox has some fluency in the Russian language.<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[11]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 1994, Cox was appointed by President&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton" title="Bill Clinton" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Clinton</a>&nbsp;to the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, which in 1995 published a unanimous report warning that the nation cannot continue to allow entitlement programs to consume a rapidly increasing share of the federal budget.<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[12]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Among Cox's most notable legislative successes as a Representative was the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Tax_Freedom_Act" title="Internet Tax Freedom Act" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Internet Tax Freedom Act</a>, a 1998 law prohibiting federal, state, and local government<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_taxes" title="Internet taxes" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">taxation of Internet</a>&nbsp;access and banning Internet-only levies such as email taxes, bit taxes, and bandwidth taxes. With&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="United States House of Representatives" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">U.S. Rep.</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Frank" title="Barney Frank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Barney Frank</a>&nbsp;(D-MA) as his chief co-sponsor, Cox authored legislation in 1997 to privatize the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Helium_Reserve" title="National Helium Reserve" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">National Helium Reserve</a>, which was then $1.4&nbsp;billion in debt to taxpayers. As of 2004, this was the third-largest<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatization" title="Privatization" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">privatization</a>&nbsp;in U.S. history, surpassing the value of the 1988&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrail" title="Conrail" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Conrail</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatization" title="Privatization" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">privatization</a>. Cox also wrote the only law that was enacted over President&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton" title="Bill Clinton" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bill Clinton</a>'s veto, the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Securities_Litigation_Reform_Act" title="Private Securities Litigation Reform Act" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Private Securities Litigation Reform Act</a>&nbsp;of 1995, aimed at protecting investors from fraudulent and extortionate lawsuits.<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[13]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For 10 of his 17 years in the Congress, from 1995 to 2005, Cox served in the House Majority Leadership as Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, the fifth-ranking elected leadership position (behind the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaker_of_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="Speaker of the United States House of Representatives" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Speaker</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majority_Leader_of_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Majority Leader</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majority_Whip_of_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="Majority Whip of the United States House of Representatives" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Majority Whip</a>, and the Chair of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Republican_Conference" title="House Republican Conference" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">House Republican Conference</a>). He was Chairman of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.House_Committee_on_Homeland_Security" title="U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">House Committee on Homeland Security</a>, and also Chairman of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox_report" title="Cox report" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Select Committee on U.S. National Security</a>&nbsp;that produced the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox_Report" title="Cox Report" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Cox Report</a>, an indictment of Chinese espionage and of security failures at several U.S.&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Energy_National_Laboratories" title="United States Department of Energy National Laboratories" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">national laboratories</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Biographical_Directory_of_the_United_States_Congress_1-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-Biographical_Directory_of_the_United_States_Congress-1" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When Congress established the Bipartisan Study Group on Enhancing Multilateral Export Controls through federal legislation in 1999, Cox was tapped as co-chairman. The group published a unanimous report in 2001 recommending wholesale modernization of U.S. export controls.<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[14]</a></sup>&nbsp;Cox also served as Chairman of the Select Committee on Homeland Security (the predecessor to the permanent House Committee); Chairman of the Task Force on Capital Markets; and Chairman of the Task Force on Budget Process Reform.<sup id="cite_ref-Official_SEC_Biography:Chairman_Christopher_Cox_3-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-Official_SEC_Biography:Chairman_Christopher_Cox-3" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[3]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the spring of 2001, then-Representative Cox was considered by President&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W.Bush" title="George W. Bush" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">George W. Bush</a>&nbsp;for a federal appellate judgeship on the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Ninth_Circuit" title="United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit</a>. Cox withdrew his name from consideration before a nomination could be made because one of his home state Democratic Senators,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Boxer" title="Barbara Boxer" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Barbara Boxer</a>, objected to him due to his perceived conservatism&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E3D61F30F937A15757C0A9679C8B63" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,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) 100% 50%;">[2]</a><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B01E3D71030F935A15755C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,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) 100% 50%;">[3]</a>. The seat that Cox had been considered for was eventually filled by Bush nominee&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_T.Bea" title="Carlos T. Bea" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Carlos T. Bea</a>.</p><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission_chairman">U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; font-family: sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Cox&action=edit&section=3&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cox was nominated by President&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W.Bush" title="George W. Bush" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">George W. Bush</a>&nbsp;to be the 28th Chairman of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="United States Securities and Exchange Commission" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">United States Securities and Exchange Commission</a>&nbsp;(SEC) on June 2, 2005 and unanimously confirmed by the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate" title="United States Senate" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">United States Senate</a>&nbsp;on July 29, 2005. He was sworn in on August 3, 2005.</p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Shortly after becoming&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;Chairman, he was diagnosed with thymoma, a rare form of cancer, and underwent surgery in January 2006 to remove a tumor from his chest. He returned to work "after several weeks recovering from surgery," according to The&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Press" title="Associated Press" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Associated Press</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[15]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In May 2008, Cox delivered the Commencement Address at&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeastern_University" title="Northeastern University" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Northeastern University</a>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston" title="Boston" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Boston</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts" title="Massachusetts" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Massachusetts</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-16" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[16]</a></sup>&nbsp;In April 2008, he received the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Southern_California" title="University of Southern California" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">University of Southern California's</a>&nbsp;highest award, the Asa V. Call Achievement Award, in a ceremony at the Los Angeles&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Biltmore_Hotel" title="Millennium Biltmore Hotel" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Millennium Biltmore Hotel</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[17]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_and_Economic_Recovery_Act_of_2008" title="Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008</a>, enacted in July 2008, gave Cox one of five seats on the Federal Housing Finance Oversight Board, which advises the Director of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Housing_Finance_Agency" title="Federal Housing Finance Agency" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Federal Housing Finance Agency</a>&nbsp;with respect to overall strategies and policies regarding the safety and soundness of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Mae" title="Fannie Mae" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Fannie Mae</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Mac" title="Freddie Mac" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Freddie Mac</a>, and the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Home_Loan_Banks" title="Federal Home Loan Banks" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Federal Home Loan Banks</a>. In September 2008, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress" title="United States Congress" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">U.S. Congress</a>&nbsp;passed and<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W.Bush" title="George W. Bush" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">President Bush</a>&nbsp;signed the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Economic_Stabilization_Act_of_2008" title="Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008</a>, which placed Cox on the newly established&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Stability_Oversight_Board" title="Financial Stability Oversight Board" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Financial Stability Oversight Board</a>&nbsp;that oversees the $700&nbsp;billion&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Assets_Relief_Program" title="Troubled Assets Relief Program" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Troubled Assets Relief Program</a>.</p><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="Regulatory_initiatives">Regulatory initiatives</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Cox&action=edit&section=4&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Regulatory initiatives" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">During his tenure, Cox led the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Commission</a>&nbsp;to write new executive compensation rules calling for companies to spell out exactly how their executives are compensated, including new information such as the lump-sum cost of retirement benefits and explanations of why specific stock option grants were approved.<sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[18]</a></sup>&nbsp;<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">The New York Times</a></i>&nbsp;observed that the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Commission</a>&nbsp;"largely stood its ground amid pressure from compensation specialists, investor advocates, and industry groups." With more than 20,000 comment letters, Cox said, "No issue in the history of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;has generated such interest."<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[19]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One of his first initiatives was launching a plain English effort, to eliminate legalese in investor communications in favor of clear language that let investors focus on what was important, the better to hold a company's performance up to the light of day. Not only the executive compensation rules,<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[20]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-21" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[21]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-22" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[22]</a></sup>&nbsp;but also disclosure rules for investment advisors<sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-23" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[23]</a></sup>&nbsp;and mutual funds—where more than half of U.S. households had their retirement and college savings—were subjected to the plain English requirements.<sup id="cite_ref-24" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-24" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[24]</a></sup>&nbsp;Under Cox the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;wrote new rules requiring the $10.6&nbsp;trillion mutual fund industry to make their prospectuses easier for investors to read, understand, and access.<sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-25" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[25]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cox defended the 2002&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act" title="Sarbanes-Oxley Act" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Sarbanes-Oxley Act</a>&nbsp;and resisted efforts to repeal it or scale it back legislatively.<sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-26" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[26]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-27" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[27]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-28" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[28]</a></sup>&nbsp;The greatest source of complaint about the law during his tenure was its Section 404, which produced compliance expenses far higher than the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;under his predecessor had predicted.<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-29" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[29]</a></sup>&nbsp;Working with the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Company_Accounting_Oversight_Board" title="Public Company Accounting Oversight Board" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Public Company Accounting Oversight Board</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;under Cox replaced the original auditing standard for Section 404 with a streamlined, more cost-effective version,<sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-30" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[30]</a></sup>&nbsp;and also provided new guidance for management intended to reduce unnecessary costs.<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-31" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[31]</a></sup>&nbsp;At Cox's direction the agency undertook a nationwide Small Business Cost-Benefit Study<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-32" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[32]</a></sup>&nbsp;to determine whether, as intended, the new auditing standard and management guidance had made compliance less expensive and better focused the 404 process on control elements that truly matter for companies of all sizes.<sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-33" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[33]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In June 2007 the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Commission</a>&nbsp;voted unanimously to repeal the so-called&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uptick_rule" title="Uptick rule" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">"uptick rule"</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uptick_rule" title="Uptick rule" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">"tick test."</a><sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-34" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[34]</a></sup>&nbsp;The action was not controversial at the time: it was taken after an extensive multi-year study by the Office of Economic Analysis, begun in 2003 under&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H.Donaldson" title="William H. Donaldson" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Chairman Bill Donaldson</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-35" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[35]</a></sup>&nbsp;The study found that the rule—which had never applied on&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASDAQ" title="NASDAQ" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">NASDAQ</a>&nbsp;or to&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_communication_network" title="Electronic communication network" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">ECNs</a>&nbsp;and other trading systems—had been rendered ineffective on the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NYSE" title="NYSE" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">NYSE</a>&nbsp;due to&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimalization" title="Decimalization" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">decimalization</a>&nbsp;(that is, the reduction of the "tick" increment to a penny, as compared to the 1/8 or 12½¢ that was in effect when the rule was adopted in 1938).<sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-36" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[36]</a></sup>&nbsp;Its repeal later became the subject of much debate, with some advocating its reinstatement. On July 15, 2008, Cox told a&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.House_of_Representatives" title="U.S. House of Representatives" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">U.S. House</a>&nbsp;hearing that the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Commission</a>&nbsp;was studying the potential institution of "a price test that could work with an increment of a nickel or dime" or some more meaningful amount.<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-37" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[37]</a></sup></p><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="Technological_modernization">Technological modernization</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Cox&action=edit&section=5&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Technological modernization" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Technological modernization of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;was a Cox priority throughout his tenure. He introduced new technology for investor disclosure,<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-38" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[38]</a></sup>&nbsp;compliance analytics,<sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-39" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[39]</a></sup>&nbsp;nationwide investigative work sharing,<sup id="cite_ref-40" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-40" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[40]</a></sup>&nbsp;and management of funds recovered for investors.<sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-41" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[41]</a></sup>&nbsp;In August 2008 he rolled out the future replacement of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>'s forms-based disclosure database, called&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDGAR" title="EDGAR" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">EDGAR</a>, with a new interactive disclosure system using computer-tagged data in the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBRL" title="XBRL" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">eXtensible Business Reporting Language</a>&nbsp;(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBRL" title="XBRL" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">XBRL</a>).<sup id="cite_ref-42" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-42" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[42]</a></sup>&nbsp;The new system was designed to let future investors easily search, sort, and recombine information to generate reports and analysis from hundreds of thousands of companies and millions of forms.<sup id="cite_ref-43" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-43" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[43]</a></sup>&nbsp;Under Cox the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;oversaw the creation of a taxonomy of over 11,000 XBRL data tags that catalog every element of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Generally_Accepted_Accounting_Principles" title="U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-44" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-44" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[44]</a></sup>&nbsp;In 2008 the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Commission</a>&nbsp;issued rules requiring all publicly traded companies and mutual funds in the United States to tag their financial information.<sup id="cite_ref-45" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-45" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[45]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Another Cox technology initiative liberalized the proxy rules to allow investors and companies to use Electronic Shareholder Forums—virtual meeting places on the Internet to promote shareholder initiatives, conduct straw polls, apprise a company's directors of critical shareholder concerns, and inform shareholders of management's and directors' views.<sup id="cite_ref-46" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-46" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[46]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 2006 the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;launched a war against Internet financial&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam(electronic)" title="Spam (electronic)" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">spam</a>, shutting down trading in companies that touted their stock by clogging investors’ in-boxes. Investor complaints about the practice fell from more than 220,000 per month in December 2006 to 70,000 per month in February 2007; Internet software and services company&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symantec" title="Symantec" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Symantec</a>&nbsp;credited the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;with cutting financial spam by 30 percent.<sup id="cite_ref-47" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-47" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[47]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">These technological initiatives were widely supported, with one observer noting that Cox "earned virtually universal plaudits for efforts to modernize technology, transparency, and understandability of corporate reports, and to provide for apples-to-apples comparisons (for the first time ever) of corporate executive compensation."<sup id="cite_ref-48" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-48" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[48]</a></sup></p><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="Focus_on_individual_investors_and_seniors">Focus on individual investors and seniors</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Cox&action=edit&section=6&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Focus on individual investors and seniors" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The particular needs of senior investors, whose ranks are growing rapidly, was a special Cox focus. In April 2006, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;held its first “Seniors Summit”, working with&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARP" title="AARP" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">AARP</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Industry_Regulatory_Authority" title="Financial Industry Regulatory Authority" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Financial Industry Regulatory Authority</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Securities_Administrators_Association" title="North American Securities Administrators Association" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">North American Securities Administrators Association</a>, and several state regulators; the conferences are now held annually.<sup id="cite_ref-49" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-49" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[49]</a></sup>&nbsp;A nationwide sweep examination conducted by the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;and authorities in seven states found that "free lunch" investment seminars, which draw large numbers of retirees, routinely involved significant&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_fraud" title="Securities fraud" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">fraud</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-50" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-50" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[50]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-51" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-51" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[51]</a></sup>&nbsp;Many were advised to put their retirement funds into equity-indexed annuities, where they could get stock market returns while keeping their money “safe”. But neither these investments, nor the sales agents, were registered with state or federal securities regulators—and investors were frequently unaware that it would be impossible to get their money back for as much as 15 years without paying a stiff penalty.<sup id="cite_ref-52" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-52" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[52]</a></sup>&nbsp;The&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;enacted rules in 2008 to protect seniors and other investors from fraudulent and abusive practices in annuities sales.<sup id="cite_ref-53" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-53" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[53]</a></sup></p><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="International_integration">International integration</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Cox&action=edit&section=7&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: International integration" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">During Cox's tenure the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;significantly expanded its international activity. Between 2005 and 2008, Cox signed supervisory arrangements covering enforcement and regulatory cooperation with regulators in the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Australia, Germany, Bulgaria, and Norway.<sup id="cite_ref-54" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-54" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[54]</a></sup>&nbsp;As Chairman of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_of_Securities_Commissions" title="International Organization of Securities Commissions" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">International Organization of Securities Commissions</a>' Technical Committee, he led international efforts to converge&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Generally_Accepted_Accounting_Principles" title="U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">U.S. GAAP</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Financial_Reporting_Standards" title="International Financial Reporting Standards" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">International Financial Reporting Standards</a>. In December 2007, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;adopted rules to permit foreign issuers to use&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Financial_Reporting_Standards" title="International Financial Reporting Standards" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">IFRS</a>&nbsp;without reconciliation to&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Generally_Accepted_Accounting_Principles" title="U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">U.S. GAAP</a>. And in November 2008, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;issued a roadmap&nbsp;– with clear milestones along the way&nbsp;– that could take U.S. public companies to mandatory adoption of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Financial_Reporting_Standards" title="International Financial Reporting Standards" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">IFRS</a>&nbsp;as early as 2014.<sup id="cite_ref-55" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-55" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[55]</a></sup>&nbsp;Cox also initiated a mutual recognition process for foreign regulators, based on an assessment of whether the securities regulatory system in another country produces comparably high-quality results for investors, including in the area of enforcement.<sup id="cite_ref-56" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-56" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[56]</a></sup>In August 2008 he executed an arrangement<sup id="cite_ref-57" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-57" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[57]</a></sup>&nbsp;with the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Securities_and_Investments_Commission" title="Australian Securities and Investments Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Australian Securities and Investments Commission</a>&nbsp;under which the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;could approve exemptions allowing Australian-registered securities exchanges to operate in the U.S. without having also to register with the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>, and U.S. exchanges would have the same privilege in Australia.<sup id="cite_ref-58" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-58" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[58]</a></sup>&nbsp;As of 2008, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;was in mutual recognition discussions with regulators in Canada,<sup id="cite_ref-59" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-59" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[59]</a></sup>&nbsp;and also in preliminary discussions with the Committee of European Securities Regulators.<sup id="cite_ref-60" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-60" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[60]</a></sup></p><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="Law_enforcement">Law enforcement</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Cox&action=edit&section=8&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Law enforcement" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">International enforcement also stepped up considerably under Cox.</span><sup id="cite_ref-61" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-61" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[61]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;During 2008 the&nbsp;</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">SEC</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;made 556 requests of foreign regulators for assistance with SEC investigations, many of which were connected to potential wrongdoing in the subprime market.</span><sup id="cite_ref-62" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-62" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[62]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;Among the significant international cases the&nbsp;</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Commission</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;has brought were the highly publicized 2008 charges against Hong Kong-based insider trading in&nbsp;</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones" title="Dow Jones" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Dow Jones</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;prior to its acquisition by&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporation" title="News Corporation" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">News Corporation</a>.</span><sup id="cite_ref-63" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-63" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[63]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;Under Cox the SEC also brought the largest number of cases in its history charging corporations and their officers with foreign bribery under the&nbsp;</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act" title="Foreign Corrupt Practices Act" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Foreign Corrupt Practices Act</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and imposed record penalites for these cases.</span><sup id="cite_ref-64" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-64" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[64]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Overall, enforcement was Cox's stated priority beginning in 2005<sup id="cite_ref-65" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-65" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[65]</a></sup>&nbsp;and throughout his chairmanship.<sup id="cite_ref-66" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-66" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[66]</a></sup>&nbsp;He moved quickly to settle the debate over whether it was legitimate to impose penalties on corporations, adopting a policy that made clear the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;"isn't turning out to be the corporate-friendly place that many in the boardroom set were hoping for."<sup id="cite_ref-67" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-67" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[67]</a></sup>&nbsp;Within the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;budget, as of 2008, he had increased the share devoted to enforcement to its highest level in 20 years.<sup id="cite_ref-sec.gov_68-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-sec.gov-68" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[68]</a></sup>&nbsp;Nonetheless, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>'s overall appropriation was held steady during two of his budget years, first by a Republican and then a Democratic Congress, and it was increased by only 2% in a third year.<sup id="cite_ref-69" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-69" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[69]</a></sup>&nbsp;These sub-inflation agency budgets, combined with merit pay increases for staff, caused the total enforcement personnel to decline.<sup id="cite_ref-70" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-70" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[70]</a></sup>&nbsp;Critics have attacked the underfunding of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;and blamed Cox,<sup id="cite_ref-71" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-71" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[71]</a></sup>&nbsp;though Congress<sup id="cite_ref-72" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-72" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[72]</a></sup>&nbsp;and the administration<sup id="cite_ref-73" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-73" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[73]</a></sup>&nbsp;clearly share the responsibility. When the agency budget was finally increased in fiscal 2008, he increased enforcement personnel by 4%.<sup id="cite_ref-sec.gov_68-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-sec.gov-68" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[68]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Beginning early in his chairmanship he focused the agency's enforcement efforts on&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Options_backdating" title="Options backdating" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">stock option backdating</a>, an illicit practice that had been exposed after the 2002&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act" title="Sarbanes-Oxley Act" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Sarbanes-Oxley Act</a>&nbsp;changed the rules regarding the reporting of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_stock_option" title="Employee stock option" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">stock option</a>&nbsp;grants.<sup id="cite_ref-74" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-74" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[74]</a></sup>&nbsp;Under Cox the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;investigated more than 160&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Options_backdating" title="Options backdating" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">stock option backdating</a>&nbsp;cases,<sup id="cite_ref-75" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-75" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[75]</a></sup>&nbsp;aided by the fact that the reporting forms for&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_stock_option" title="Employee stock option" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">stock option</a>&nbsp;disclosure were among the first to be mandated in “interactive data” format.<sup id="cite_ref-76" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-76" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[76]</a></sup>&nbsp;Some of these cases were noteworthy for their size: in December 2007 the agency won $468&nbsp;million in a settlement for&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Options_backdating" title="Options backdating" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">stock option backdating</a>&nbsp;against the former Chairman and CEO of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnitedHealth_Group" title="UnitedHealth Group" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">UnitedHealth Group</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-77" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-77" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[77]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cox also aggressively used the agency's “Fair Funds” authority to distribute funds recovered from securities law violators directly to injured investors.<sup id="cite_ref-78" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-78" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[78]</a></sup>&nbsp;By February 2008 the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;had returned more than $3.5&nbsp;billion to wronged investors, including more than $2&nbsp;billion in 2007 alone.<sup id="cite_ref-79" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-79" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[79]</a></sup>&nbsp;To expedite the return of the funds, cut red tape and lower costs, Cox created a new Office of Collections and Distributions.<sup id="cite_ref-80" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-80" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[80]</a></sup>&nbsp;A few weeks later, in May 2008, the new Office began sending more than $800&nbsp;million in Fair Funds to harmed investors in&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIG" title="AIG" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">American International Group, Inc. (AIG)</a>, which settled&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;charges of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_fraud" title="Securities fraud" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">financial fraud</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-81" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-81" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[81]</a></sup>&nbsp;In 2006 the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Commission</a>&nbsp;obtained a $350&nbsp;million penalty from&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Mae" title="Fannie Mae" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Fannie Mae</a>&nbsp;after accusing it of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_scandals" title="Accounting scandals" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">accounting fraud</a>; the penalty was one of the largest in&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Commission</a>&nbsp;history.<sup id="cite_ref-82" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-82" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[82]</a></sup>&nbsp;The following year the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Commission</a>&nbsp;charged&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Mac" title="Freddie Mac" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Freddie Mac</a>&nbsp;with&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_scandals" title="Accounting scandals" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">accounting fraud</a>&nbsp;and recovered a $50&nbsp;million penalty.<sup id="cite_ref-83" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-83" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[83]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As the 2008&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_crunch" title="Credit crunch" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">credit crunch</a>&nbsp;spread to&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_bond" title="Municipal bond" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">municipal finance</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auction_rate_security" title="Auction rate security" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">auction rate securities</a>&nbsp;market froze, leaving investors without access to their cash.<sup id="cite_ref-84" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-84" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[84]</a></sup>&nbsp;The&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;immediately investigated the largest firms in the market and entered into settlements that are the largest in the history of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>, amounting to up to $30&nbsp;billion to injured investors.<sup id="cite_ref-85" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-85" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[85]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cox also targeted&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_bond" title="Municipal bond" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">municipal securities</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_fraud" title="Securities fraud" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">fraud</a>. In April 2008 the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;charged five former&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego" title="San Diego" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">San Diego</a>&nbsp;city officials with&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_fraud" title="Securities fraud" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">securities fraud</a>&nbsp;involving billions in undisclosed pension liabilities that had placed the city and taxpayers in serious financial jeopardy.<sup id="cite_ref-86" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-86" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[86]</a></sup>&nbsp;Throughout his chairmanship he railed against the inadequacy of disclosure to investors in municipal securities, which the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;does not regulate,<sup id="cite_ref-87" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-87" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[87]</a></sup>&nbsp;and asked&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Congress" title="U.S. Congress" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Congress</a>for explicit authority for the agency to do so.<sup id="cite_ref-88" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-88" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[88]</a></sup>&nbsp;In December 2008, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;under his leadership authorized the creation of a free, Internet-accessible repository for municipal finance disclosure.<sup id="cite_ref-89" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-89" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[89]</a></sup>&nbsp;"With liquidity problems of municipal auction rate securities and rating downgrades of municipal bond insurers contributing to the current credit crisis, the disclosure and transparency of the municipal markets have never been more critical", he said.<sup id="cite_ref-90" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-90" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[90]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In late December 2008, following the confession by New York&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment_advisor" title="Investment advisor" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">investment advisor</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Madoff" title="Bernard Madoff" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bernard Madoff</a>&nbsp;and the filing of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="Securities and Exchange Commission" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;charges against him alleging a $50 billion fraud, Cox stated that he was "gravely concerned" that "specific and credible evidence" provided to the agency over a period of at least 10 years had not previously been referred to the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="Securities and Exchange Commission" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Commission</a>&nbsp;for commencement of a formal investigation. He ordered an internal investigation by the agency's Inspector General<sup id="cite_ref-91" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-91" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[91]</a></sup>&nbsp;The report found that substantive allegations concerning Madoff were first brought to the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="Securities and Exchange Commission" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;in 1992.<sup id="cite_ref-92" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-92" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[92]</a></sup></p><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="Response_to_the_beginning_of_the_2008_U.S.Recession">Response to the beginning of the 2008 U.S. Recession</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Cox&action=edit&section=9&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Response to the beginning of the 2008 U.S. Recession" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></h3><div class="hatnote boilerplate further" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Further information:&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_2000s_recession" title="Late 2000s recession" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Late 2000s recession</a></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Under his leadership, the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;on September 17 and 18, 2008, imposed a variety of both permanent and emergency restrictions on&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short(finance)" title="Short (finance)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">short selling</a>&nbsp;in response to the liquidity crisis.<sup id="cite_ref-ReferenceA_93-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-ReferenceA-93" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[93]</a></sup>&nbsp;Abusive&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_short_selling" title="Naked short selling" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">naked short selling</a>, in which the seller intentionally fails to deliver the shares sold short in time for settlement, was banned outright, an exception for options&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_maker" title="Market maker" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">market makers</a>&nbsp;that had been in place for several years was eliminated,<sup id="cite_ref-94" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-94" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[94]</a></sup>&nbsp;and a new anti-fraud provision, Rule 10b-21, was adopted to give specific enforcement authority in such cases.<sup id="cite_ref-95" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-95" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[95]</a></sup>&nbsp;In September 2008,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short(finance)" title="Short (finance)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">short selling</a>&nbsp;of 799 financial stocks was temporarily curtailed<sup id="cite_ref-ReferenceA_93-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-ReferenceA-93" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[93]</a></sup>&nbsp;in response to rumors accompanied by heightened short selling activity in the shares of major financial institutions.</p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On September 26, 2008, Cox ended the 2004 program for voluntary regulation of investment bank holding companies, begun under&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H.Donaldson" title="William H. Donaldson" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC Chairman William Donaldson</a>&nbsp;and then-Director of Market Regulation (later<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="Securities and Exchange Commission" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;Commissioner)&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annette_Nazareth" title="Annette Nazareth" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Annette Nazareth</a>. The program "was fundamentally flawed from the beginning, because investment banks could opt in or out of supervision voluntarily" Cox said.<sup id="cite_ref-ReferenceB_96-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-ReferenceB-96" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[96]</a></sup>&nbsp;A critical report by the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="Securities and Exchange Commission" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>inspector general that evaluated the program in light of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Stearns" title="Bear Stearns" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bear Stearns</a>&nbsp;near-failure in March 2008 found that while "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Stearns" title="Bear Stearns" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bear Stearns</a>&nbsp;was compliant with the capital and liquidity requirements" at the time of its acquisition, "its collapse raises serious questions about the adequacy of these requirements." However, according to the Inspector General, his report "did not include a determination of the cause of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Stearns" title="Bear Stearns" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bear Stearns'</a>collapse" or determine "whether any of these issues directly contributed to&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Stearns" title="Bear Stearns" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bear Stearns'</a>&nbsp;collapse." On that subject, the report stated, "we have no evidence linking these significant deficiencies with the cause of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Stearns" title="Bear Stearns" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bear Stearns'</a>&nbsp;collapse."<sup id="cite_ref-97" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-97" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[97]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-98" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-98" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[98]</a></sup>&nbsp;Cox criticized the oversight program on the ground that because of its voluntary nature and the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="Securities and Exchange Commission" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC's</a>&nbsp;limited statutory authority, the agency could not force changes in the hundreds of unregulated subsidiaries of large investment banks such as&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs" title="Goldman Sachs" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Goldman Sachs</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Stanley" title="Morgan Stanley" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Morgan Stanley</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrill_Lynch" title="Merrill Lynch" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Merrill Lynch</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehman_Brothers" title="Lehman Brothers" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Lehman Brothers</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Stearns" title="Bear Stearns" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bear Stearns</a>&nbsp;as bank regulators could do with bank holding companies.<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.sec.gov/news/testimony/2008/ts092308cc.htm" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,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) 100% 50%;">In testimony before</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress" title="United States Congress" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Congress</a>&nbsp;on several occasions in 2008, he asked for statutory authority to regulate investment bank holding companies.</p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In addition to the fact that the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm-Leach-Bliley_Act" title="Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act</a>&nbsp;did not give the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="Securities and Exchange Commission" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;the authority to regulate large investment bank holding companies, Cox noted that investors were vulnerable to other regulatory gaps such as the fact that the $60&nbsp;trillion market for&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_default_swap" title="Credit default swap" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">credit default swaps</a>&nbsp;was then completely unregulated. "Neither the SEC nor any regulator has authority even to require minimum disclosure", he said.<sup id="cite_ref-ReferenceB_96-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-ReferenceB-96" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[96]</a></sup>&nbsp;In testimony and public statements he urged&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress" title="United States Congress" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Congress</a>&nbsp;to enact remedial legislation.<sup id="cite_ref-99" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-99" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[99]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cox said that during the buildup of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008" title="Financial crisis of 2007–2008" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">credit crisis</a>, when the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating_agency" title="Credit rating agency" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">credit rating agencies</a>&nbsp;were still unregulated, they gave top credit ratings to financial instruments which packaged risky loans and spread the negative impacts of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008" title="Financial crisis of 2007–2008" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">credit crisis</a>&nbsp;more broadly throughout the markets.<sup id="cite_ref-100" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-100" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[100]</a></sup>&nbsp;Following the first-time SEC registration of the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating_agency" title="Credit rating agency" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">credit rating agencies</a>&nbsp;in September 2007 under newly enacted legislative authority, he ordered a 10-month examination of the three major&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating_agency" title="Credit rating agency" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">rating agencies</a>&nbsp;that uncovered significant weaknesses in their ratings practices for&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortgage-backed_security" title="Mortgage-backed security" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">mortgage-backed securities</a>&nbsp;and that called into question the impartiality of their ratings. The results were reported to&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress" title="United States Congress" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Congress</a>&nbsp;in July 2008.<sup id="cite_ref-101" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-101" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[101]</a></sup>&nbsp;The&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="Securities and Exchange Commission" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC</a>&nbsp;immediately commenced a rulemaking which concluded on December 3, 2008 with approval of a series of measures to regulate the conflicts of interests, disclosures, internal policies, and business practices of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating_agency" title="Credit rating agency" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">credit rating agencies</a>. The regulations were intended to ensure that firms provide more meaningful ratings and greater disclosure to investors concerning&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateralized_debt_obligation" title="Collateralized debt obligation" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">collateralized debt obligations</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residential_mortgage-backed_security" title="Residential mortgage-backed security" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">residential mortgage-backed securities</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-102" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-102" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[102]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In an interview with the&nbsp;<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Post" title="Washington Post" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Washington Post</a></i>&nbsp;in late December 2008, Cox said, "What we have done in this current turmoil is stay calm, which has been our greatest contribution&nbsp;– not being impulsive, not changing the rules willy-nilly, but going through a very professional and orderly process that takes into account unintended consequences and gives ample notice to market participants." Cox added that the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Commission's</a>&nbsp;decision to impose a three-week ban on short selling of financial company stocks was taken reluctantly, but that the view at the time, including from Treasury Secretary&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_M.Paulson" title="Henry M. Paulson" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Henry M. Paulson</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve" title="Federal Reserve" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Federal Reserve</a>&nbsp;chairman&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bernanke" title="Ben Bernanke" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Ben Bernanke</a>, was that "if we did not act and act at that instant, these financial institutions could fail as a result and there would be nothing left to save."<sup id="cite_ref-103" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-103" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[103]</a></sup>&nbsp;In a December 2008 interview with&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/ousivMolt/idUSTRE4BU3FL20081231" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,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) 100% 50%;">Reuters</a>, he explained that the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">SEC's</a>&nbsp;Office of Economic Analysis was still evaluating data from the temporary ban, and that preliminary findings pointed to several unintended market consequences and side effects. "While the actual effects of this temporary action will not be fully understood for many more months, if not years ... knowing what we know now, I believe on balance the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Commission</a>&nbsp;would not do it again."<sup id="cite_ref-104" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-104" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[104]</a></sup></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cox stepped down as Chairman of the SEC at the end of the Bush administration, on January 20, 2009.</p><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="Current_career">Current career</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; font-family: sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Cox&action=edit&section=10&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Current career" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Following his tenure at the SEC and a 24-year career in elected and appointed office that included service in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the U.S. government, Cox returned to his home in Southern California and the practice of law, which had been his pre-Washington profession. He joined the Boston-based international law firm of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bingham_McCutchen_LLP" title="Bingham McCutchen LLP" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bingham McCutchen LLP</a>&nbsp;as a partner in the firm's Corporate, M&A and Securities practice, resident in its&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Mesa" title="Costa Mesa" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Costa Mesa</a>&nbsp;office. He also became a principal in&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bingham_McCutchen_LLP" title="Bingham McCutchen LLP" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bingham Consulting LLC</a>, the firm's affiliated consulting business, and in 2011 was named its president.<sup id="cite_ref-105" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-105" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[105]</a></sup>&nbsp;Other notable principals in&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bingham_McCutchen_LLP" title="Bingham McCutchen LLP" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bingham Consulting</a>&nbsp;include former California governor&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Wilson" title="Pete Wilson" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Pete Wilson</a>&nbsp;and former&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire" title="New Hampshire" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">New Hampshire</a>&nbsp;governor&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Merrill" title="Steve Merrill" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Steve Merrill</a>, who is its chairman.<sup id="cite_ref-106" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cox#cite_note-106" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[106]</a></sup></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">===</p>