WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday nominated Mary Jo White, a former US attorney who built a reputation prosecuting white-collar criminals, terrorists and mobsters, to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency has a lead role in implementing changes on Wall Street.
Obama also named Richard Cordray to stay on as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The president used a recess appointment last year to bypass congressional opposition and install the former Ohio attorney general as head of the bureau. That appointment expires at the end of this year.
White spent nearly a decade as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, handling an array of white-collar crimes and complex securities and financial fraud cases. She brought down mobster John Gotti and won convictions in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
Obama said that experience makes White well-suited to implement legislation he championed to change the behavior on Wall Street.
“I’d say that’s a pretty good run. You don’t want to mess with Mary Jo,” Obama said at the White House. “As one former SEC chairman said, Mary Jo does not intimidate easily, and that’s important because she’s got a big job ahead of her.”