Talk about a poison pen.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s top cop, with about a week left on the job, is taking time out from packing up to whack some of his toughest critics.
Robert Khuzami yesterday took aim at a Columbia University professor who chided the SEC’s head of enforcement for not suing enough high-ranking individuals at large financial institutions, choosing instead to settle with those companies.
“While debate about these issues should be encouraged, any debate should start with a fair and complete description of the facts,” Khuzami wrote about professor John Coffee.
Khuzami said in a blistering 1,500-word article in the National Law Journal that the SEC has charged a total of 102 individuals associated with the credit crisis, including high-level executives at Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Bear Stearns, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The 56-year-old former prosecutor has patrolled corporate America since he was appointed to the position in 2009 at the height of public fury over the SEC’s failure to catch Ponzi king Bernie Madoff.
Coffee had drawn first blood in an article he penned for the same publication on Dec. 3 — the one knocking Khuzami for going soft on Wall Street brass.
The SEC has been criticized before for its settlements, most notably by Manhattan federal judge Jed Rakoff.
It’s the second time in as many weeks that Khuzami has called out his critics by name.
Just before New Year’s Eve, the Brooklyn native blasted Simon Johnson, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, for a New York Times blog that said Khuzami’s hire was a “mistake” because of his former ties to Deutsche Bank.
Khuzami shot back in the comment section of the blog — an unusual move for a public official.
Johnson didn’t return a request for comment. But Coffee stood his ground.
“I do respect the guy,” Coffee said of Khuzami. “But I think the SEC has always had a strong tendency to look at any settlement as an opportunity for a victory parade.”