Business

EX-SEC BOSS: NOT ME

Ex-Securities and Exchange Commission boss Arthur Levitt yesterday fired back at critics trying to lay at his feet some of the blame for the Bernie Madoff scandal, saying he wasn’t asleep at the switch.

“At this point, I don’t see any evidence that the SEC dropped the ball,” Levitt, who’s now an adviser to private-equity shop Carlyle Group, told The Post.

The 78-year-old Levitt also denied allegations that he had a chummy relationship with Madoff, who last week was arrested on charges of having masterminded a $50 billion Ponzi scheme that has touched everything from hedge funds to charities to European banks.

Some have suggested that Levitt and Madoff were close enough during the eight years that Levitt was SEC chairman that it might have skewed his oversight of the company. Additionally, Levitt said he’s never been ,an investor in Madoff’s advisory business.

“We were not socially friendly,” Levitt said. “I knew Bernie the way I know [former Citigroup CEO] Sandy Weill or [ex-Merrill Lynch chairman Dan] Tully. He received no special breaks from the commission.”

Levitt’s comments come as the search for reasons why Madoff’s alleged scam went unchecked for so long. As a result, the SEC, which oversees the activities of broker-dealers, has begun to face some tough questions.

At the center is Levitt, who earned a reputation as a supporter of the average investor during his reign as SEC chairman from 1993-2001. However some said Levitt may have ignored red flags when it came to Madoff.

“I don’t know how anybody that’s been in regulation for the past decade . . . can escape some scrutiny for how the Madoff empire was allowed to expand without any of the scrutiny that any of the smaller firms were subjected to routinely,” said Bill Singer, partner of Stark & Stark and a former NASD regulator.

“If I went to burn $50 billion in my backyard, I can’t imagine that the fire department wouldn’t have come running.”

Indeed, despite suspicions raised by Street pro Harry Markopolos, who in 1999 concluded in a letter to the SEC that “Madoff Securities is the world’s largest Ponzi scheme,” it appears no probe was ever launched.

At this point, Levitt said, focus should be on the resource-starved SEC itself. Unless complaints are very specific, they probably won’t start an investigation,” he said.

mark.decambre@nypost.com