Spitzer Readying One, Maybe Two More Lawsuits

Before he leaves his position as New York attorney general to become governor of the state, Eliot Spitzer may unleash one, perhaps two, more whopper enforcement actions against major Wall Street firms, David Brown, the A.G.’s investment protection chief indicated at a Reuters Investment Banking Summit in New York.

Spitzer may also reach a number of additional settlements before he steps down, Brown said.

“I have one that is new and in the retirement space; I’m talking about retirement products and costs that go into [them],” Brown said, according to a Reuters report. “The other is really a bread-and-butter securities case that is on what I think is a new topic.”

Of the additional settlements, Brown indicated they would be related to enforcement actions Spitzer has already brought, and that they would come before the end of the year, in his, and Spitzer’s, desire “to get them wrapped up before the transition.”

Brown said that following the Enron case, “the pendulum swung back a little bit [away] from enforcement,” but in light of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation into backdated options scandal at more than 150 companies, “it may be beginning to swing back again.”

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