Meaghan Cheung, SEC's Madoff Watchdog, Cries: Don't Blame Me!

The Securities and Exchange Commission's New York watchdog, under fire for failing to uncover Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme - despite a dead-on tip by a whistleblower - yesterday tearfully defended herself, arguing that she and the agency did the best job possible.

"Why are you taking a mid-level staff person and making me responsible for the failure of the American economy?" an upset Meaghan Cheung, with eyes tearing up, told The Post.

"I worked very hard for 10 years to make a career, and a reputation, and that has been destroyed in a month," said Cheung, who was the SEC's branch chief of the New York enforcement division during that unit's earlier probe of Madoff's brokerage business.

The 37-year-old has been singled out by whistleblower Harry Markopolos as the woman who failed to detect the scam despite his lengthy warnings. It was Cheung who signed off on a 2006 SEC investigation that effectively gave Madoff the all clear.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Jason G]

Branch Chief is a mid level manager? This is news to me. It's odd, considering that Branch Chief's get paid thousands more than mid level managers. Oh, and they're, uh, not mid level managers.

And, and nice job tearing up for the press. I'm sure all the other competent women in the workforce are loving that set back.

[LondonMaggie]

Cheung singing "poor little me"... WOW.. I hope everyone heard Markopolos's testimony yesterday: She repeatedly blew him off, she had more important things to take care of, (and oh yeah she told him had "worked on bigger cases.") She was too busy to even ask him questions about his case.(She probably didn't even know what kind of questions to ask even if she did care!!).. Unbelievable. Especially considering Marcopolos's creditianls and the fact that he was well known and respected in Boston, and was introduded via the Boston SEC.. He wasn't some unknown off the street.
She deserves to go to jail.

Can't wait to hear her testimony.

[williambanzai7]

Can't take the heat, don't go in the kitchen.

[munki]

Great credentials, but the con artist is a con artist...
It really takes someone who has been a victim to understand...
maturity... but... many agencies do not want mature investigators...
costs... if we are to lose so much... at back end... should have invested in front end

[jackyjohnson]

She is no scapegoat, it is just plain incompetence.
Just another incompetent and arrogant woman lawyer without even the humility to ask Markopolos for some tutorials on basic financial math.
There are too many of these incompetent women lawyers, for the sake of diversity, at all levels of government. It's a good thing she went back home to take care of the children. She is probably doing a better job there.

[Name Not In Use]

Meaghan, most people know you are just a scapegoat.

Some posters are just like the people who smash store windows and set fire to cars.
They are just venting.
You will be OK.

But please, send AP and Huffington Post a better picture of yourself. This one is not good.

[kellygrrrl]

Dereliction of Duty - at best
Treason - at worst

[harriettubman]

So what she's telling us is there's absolutely no accountablity on any level of management at the SEC?

[Topsailsman]

Meghean,
I don't know what you did or did not do with respect to this, but I have noticed thousands of postings here on Huffpost that blame Barney Frank and Bill Clinton for everything. I suggest you try that, say it is the fault of Barney Frank and/or Bill Clinton.

[leeman79]

All of these people should be in jail.

[Sundialsvc4]

She's the scapegoat.

Paste all the world's sins upon her and throw her out of her career, and All Will Be Well In America Again.

No, she doesn't deserve to have her career end (although it's a fairly foolish thing to set up your career in the Federal Government anyway). This goes straight to the top ... to the Commission itself ... and keeps right on going "up" from there.

But... do we pursue that? Do we impeach Commissioners and follow the course where it may lead, to the Congress and to the Supreme Court and to the White House and to all the other places it might lead? Or do we finger one hapless middle-manager and send her to prison as a scapegoat?

Yep. Time to try on those orange jumpsuits, Meaghan. Nobody said life is fair.

[Furby]

All she had to do was NOT sign off on the all clear in 2006. If she was being pressured by her boss to sign off on it, she had to keep some evidence that she brought Markopolos's concerns to her boss's attention. If she didn't do this, perhaps she is in fact guilty of the accusation leveled at her, that she didn't look into it and that she didn't report it to her superiors.

[Topsailsman]

Oh, I get it. Just like at Abu Ghraib, it was the underlings, the few bad apples. It wasn't the policies or directives of people at the top. Of course, just stand up to your boss, they always respect you for that. That's why we have whistleblower laws that don't work. Coleen Rowley will tell you all about that.

[Name Not In Use]

Not sign off on Bernie Madoff and expect to get a megabuck job on Wallstreet?

Do the words "You'll never work in this town again." mean anything to you?

No one likes a whistle blower.

To get ahead, get along.

[american-dolt]

No she is part of the problem

[vigilantwarrior]

And when exactly did THESE "watchdogs" bark?

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/the-protection-racket/

[dukeitout]

So she looked at the books Madoff's people gave her and guess what- they balanced. As the old joke goes, they were overdrawn exactly what they were short. She was doing her job I suppose. The books looked great except they were fictitious. The customers were happy, the bad guys were rolling in money and ----boom!----the house of cards collapsed. The only thing she lacked was skepticism and inquisitiveness. It's something you can't be taught.

[Topsailsman]

Boy, not only do you have the god-given powers of skepticism and inquisitiveness, but you have the amazing power to know exactly what happened based on an article on Huffpost.

I have personally seen the biggest accounting firms audit companies and miss embezzlement because the criminal was good at what they did. The audits were well done, and after 4 years the luck turned and they just happened to pull a check for verification that unraveled the whole thing. If you think its easy to catch, then you don't know much about accounting fraud.

[andj]

I have worked in the 2 out of the big 4 Accounting firms.

Sometimes monetary relationships cloud the accounting partners judgement.

Partners in firms are under pressure to bring in clients and money to the firm. They develop relationships with the clients to bring in the business to the firm. They put that relationship before their duty to their profession and integrity. Their isn't a reward for uncovering fraud or not signing off the financials - you loose a client.

a good example is PwC India which has been handling Satyam's audit since 2000.
The company falsely boosted its balance sheet by $1bn. Merryl lynch picked this up in 10 days.

Sometimes the criminal is good but most times the audit firms dont always follow procedures by the book. Most times its the latter.

[brooklyncitizen]

Oh no, not tears.

[JoeBlough]

Last recourse.

[GeoLee]

Well, just how close was Elliot Spitzer to talking openly abut this when suddenly his tapped lines showed up with the prostitute business that took everyone else's eyes of the ball that counted ---the Madoff and other Wall Street illegalities. Our public obsession with sexual liaisons may have cost our country over 700 billion dollars which is exactly what the Bush administration and its justice department wanted the general public to cough up to save their family and friends from several other ponzi schemes int he real estate market.

[bulfinch]

So surprising that whenever someone sticks his head up to make real change it gets shot off.

[brooklyncitizen]

Yup yup.

THe Spitzer scandal was convenient...it sorta reminded me of the Martha Stewart witchhunt...interesting how the misdeeds of Democrats is punished yet the Republicans, Libby,MF54, etc...get away scottfree with crimes of greater consequence.

I wouldn't want to be married to Spitzer but I sure do miss him as Governor.

[Sundialsvc4]

"Our public obsession with sexual liaisons," if such a thing actually exists (and I doubt it...) is certainly good enough to distract the press.

Even Bill Clinton adroitly used it to completely distract the public's eye from whatever else he was doing at the time. Congress obediently made a grand show of it, and absolutely no one was looking in any other directions as (for example) nuclear secrets were being sold to China.

Maybe it's true that we don't like to think about high crime. More likely, the press (and those who control it) don't want to have us thinking about high crime. It's much easier to shift focus away to, say, genitals. It's much easier to find one defenseless schmoe and drive her out through the city gates ... armed with nothing but a book-contract.

[lisakaz2]

It's either you, your boss(es) or all. Which is it? If the guy tipped you off, what DID you do??? Lemme guess, you're just a Bou$hie and don't know how to do your job.

[JoeBlough]

Big paycheck, few tasks, great government job.

[WIpatriot]

Don't forget, no accountability, either.