GC was ‘unaware’ of his mother’s account.
David Becker, a former general counsel of the SEC has agreed to pay $556,017 to settle claims over improperly cashing in on funds that were tied to Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
When Becker’s mother died in 2004, the high-profile lawyer and his brothers inherited profits from a Madoff account that she once held, Bloomberg reports. Then, in November 2010, a lawsuit filed in bankruptcy court revealed that the Beckers had illegally derived up to $1.5 million in funds.
Becker stepped down from his position at the federal watchdog in 2011 and became a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. He had joined the SEC as deputy general counsel in 1998 and served as the regulator’s chief legal officer, overseeing the implementation of its policies.
In a statement to Bloomberg, William Baker III, the ex-general counsel’s lawyer, said that Becker had made full disclosure of his financial stake while he was at the commission and had actively followed the agency’s ethics procedures.
‘As Becker repeatedly said, he was unaware of his mother’s account until long after it was liquidated, and he always expected that he would return any fictitious profits that he unknowingly received,’ Baker says. ‘Becker has done everything possible, both at the SEC and in his private affairs, to assist the victims of the Madoff fraud.’
Investigations lodged against Becker after the lawsuit was made public suggested there were conflict of interest matters surrounding the policies he worked on at the SEC, which were linked to how Madoff customers should be compensated.
