No Quarter
Have you heard of the Seattle Sleuth?
Many plugged-in people on Wall Street have...this gumshoe has been rattling more than windows the past few years with her broadside blasts.
Indeed, Yolanda Holtzee has been taking dead aim at white collar crooks and, believe it or not, wants to land the top job at the Securities and Exchange Commission…
April 18, 2006
Wall Street is full of corporate gadflies, many of whom agitate for corporate-governance reform or focus on arcane bylaw changes. Ms. Holtzee, a self-styled Internet investigator in sweatpants, focuses on exposing out-of-bounds behavior and catching bad guys. And after pointing regulators in the right direction more than once, Ms. Holtzee has achieved two things every gadfly craves: attention from those she targets—and action.
“I think people take her seriously because she has good instincts and actually produces cases,” says former senior SEC official Ari Gabinet, now an executive at Vanguard Group Inc., the fund management giant. “If I could have hired her, we would have had an endless stream of cases.”
Ms. Holtzee swaps notes with regulators, including the enforcement chiefs at both the SEC and another Wall Street regulator, the National Association of Securities Dealers, according to people familiar with the matter. The SEC and NASD review her emails. Earlier this year, when Mary Schapiro was appointed to head the NASD, the Wall Street self-regulatory group gave Ms. Holtzee an early heads up, according to people familiar with the matter. She has been called by the SEC to testify in Washington, and a software firm sued her for her negative comments in an Internet chat room. The case was dismissed.
WSJ/Post-Gazette-reprint
The war drums are beating louder...this is no joke, Yolanda is in it to win it:
WEB SLEUTH WANTS SEC POST
By Kathie O’Donnell
January 29, 2007
BOSTON — Look out Christopher Cox. Yolanda Holtzee, who runs a “private investment club” from her Seattle home, is gunning for your job as Securities and Exchange Commission chairman.
Ms. Holtzee, 50, whose Internet sleuthing has helped the SEC in the past, has provided tips that she said led to a probe of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. (KKD) and charges against an Estonian financial firm. Now she is looking to run the SEC.
She has been urged to seek appointment as SEC chairman in 2009, Ms. Holtzee said in an e-mail, adding that she “decided it’s in the best interests of the American public and global capital markets, as well.”
Ms. Holtzee, who was profiled by The Wall Street Journal in an April article, searches chat rooms and online documents looking for corporate impropriety. When something smells rotten, she e-mails regulators and journalists.
Why does Ms. Holtzee do it?
“Partially boredom, and also because I think that the playing field is not level,” she said.
The more help regulators get, the more efficient they can be and the more level the securities market playing field becomes, Ms. Holtzee said.
“It helps everybody — not just the large money manager. [It helps] the average retail investor — Mom and Pop,” Ms. Holtzee said.
The name of her investment club is ALCAP LLP, which she said isn’t a hedge fund. Ms. Holtzee declined to say how much money she oversees or give details about investment returns.
Although the Wisconsin native spends much of her workday in casual attire such as sweatpants, dressing up for Washington won’t be a problem, she said.
“I look good in a suit,” said Ms. Holtzee, who said she earned a graduate degree from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “I could pass for a Yalie.”
SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment on Ms. Holtzee’s aspirations.
Investment News
Regulatory actions are laudable, and anecdotally it would seem that things have improved...after all when was the last time you saw a burrito vendor hawking his goods at the corner of Wall and Broad?
But there are many masters to please in the SEC’s corner office. And jobs are at stake...Davos hogged the headlines last week but this was our favorite story…
By Adam Shell, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — This city’s famed Wall Street, long considered the financial capital of the world, is in danger of losing its top spot within 10 years unless the U.S. reforms its burdensome regulatory rules, limits frivolous lawsuits and makes it easier for skilled talent from abroad to come here to work, says a new study commissioned by top New York elected officials. USA Today
Capital knows no borders..we certainly don’t want to see London eat New York’s lunch.
Stay tuned…
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