Editor Notes:
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Key People
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District
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1989
During Bennett v. Southern Pacific Contra Costa Superior Court (1987) the
above FBI agent arrived at Mainframe Designs Cabinets and Fixtures.
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Key People
Connecting Actors in 1993 World Trade Center Bombings
The InvestigatorsU.S. Attorney for the Southern District
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9/11 Bennett, Doyle, Burd, Kopf, AT&T, Safeway
1989
FBI Agent Frank Doyle Jr.
During Bennett v. Southern Pacific Contra Costa Superior Court (1987) the
above FBI agent arrived at Mainframe Designs Cabinets and Fixtures.View details »
1990 The Judi Bari Bombing
Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit amet risus. Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod. Donec sed odio dui.View details »
The 1993 World Trade Center Bombing
Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit amet risus. Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod. Donec sed odio dui.View details »
Mary Jo White
| Mary Jo White | |
|---|---|
|
|
| 31st Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission | |
|
In office April 10, 2013 – January 20, 2017 |
|
| President | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Elisse Walter |
| Succeeded by | Jay Clayton |
| United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York | |
|
In office June 1993 – January 7, 2002 |
|
| President |
Bill Clinton George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Otto G. Obermaier |
| Succeeded by | James Comey |
|
United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Acting |
|
|
In office December 1992 – June 1993 |
|
| President |
George H.W. Bush Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Andrew J. Maloney |
| Succeeded by | Zachary W. Carter |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 27, 1947 Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Political party | Independent[1] |
| Spouse(s) | John White |
| Education |
College of William and Mary(BA) New School (MA) Columbia University (JD) |
Mary Jo White (born December 27, 1947) is an American
attorney who served as the 31st Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2013 to 2017. She was the first and only woman to be
the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, serving from 1993 to 2002.[2] On January 24, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated White to replace Elisse B. Walter as Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.[3] She was confirmed by the Senate on April 8, 2013 and was sworn
into office on April 10, 2013.[4][5] As of 2014, she was listed as the 73rd most powerful woman in the
world by Forbes.[6]
On November 14, 2016, White announced she would step down from her SEC
position at the end of the president's term.[7] She is now the Senior Chair at Debevoise & Plimpton.
Life and career[edit]
White was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in McLean, Virginia. She received a B.A. from the College of William & Mary in 1970. She earned an M.A. in psychology in 1971 from The New School for Social Research[8] and a J.D. degree from Columbia Law School in 1974,[2] where she was a Writing & Research Editor of the Columbia Law Review.
White became Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York in December 1992, and in March 1993 was appointed by President Bill Clinton as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District. She is noted for
having led the prosecution of John Gotti and overseen those of the terrorists responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, chief among them Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and Ramzi Yousef.[9]
After President Bill Clinton's controversial last-day presidential pardons, she was appointed by new Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate Marc Rich's pardon.[2]
For 10 years, she was chair of the litigation department at Debevoise & Plimpton,[10] whose self-proclaimed "core practices" and expertise are focused
on the success of Wall Street financial firms.[11] The Huffington Post called her "a well-respected attorney who won high-profile cases
against mobsters, terrorists and financial fraudsters over the course of
nearly a decade as the U.S. attorney for Manhattan."[12]
It has been asserted in Rolling Stone magazine that, among other duties at Debevoise, White has used
her influence and connections to protect certain Wall Street CEOs from
prosecution,[13] including a notable case involving the firing of Gary J. Aguirre for investigations into the CEO of Morgan Stanley
executive John J. Mack.
In 2013, White, as a lawyer for JSTOR, an original complainant in the prosecution of Aaron Swartz, asked the lead prosecutor to drop the charges after JSTOR changed
their position to oppose Swartz's prosecution because of steps Swartz
had taken to appease JSTOR.[14]
When White started at the SEC in April 2013, most of the agency's
enforcement cases from the 2008-2009 financial crisis were either
settled or near completion, freeing up resources for other work.[15] In a shift for the agency, White announced in June 2013 the SEC
would start demanding more admissions of misconduct as part of an
enforcement settlement.[16] In an October 2013 speech, White announced a new SEC enforcement
tactic practiced by neighborhood beat police to root out petty crime. In
her speech, White cited a March 1982 Atlantic article, espousing law enforcement's "broken windows" concept that theorizes enforcing small, petty crimes—like smashed
windows—can prevent bigger crimes. Focusing enforcement attention to
these small crimes avoids breeding an environment of indifference to the
rules, White said.[17]
During her tenure, White had to recuse herself from some of the SEC's
biggest enforcement cases as a result of her prior work at Debevoise and
that of her husband, John W. White, a lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. By February 2015 White had recused herself in about 50 cases setting
up deadlock situations within the Commission and thus, per a report,
compromised the effectiveness of the SEC.[18]
On November 14, 2016, White announced that she would step down from the
SEC after nearly four years service at the end of President Obama's term
in January 2017.[20] She earned, in the immediate wake of her announcement, a
complimentary overall review of her term as an independent regulator
from the Wall Street Journal despite differences the
editors had had with her. The editorial contrasted White's service to that of others "in one of history's
most ideological Administrations", as it termed the Obama
presidency.[21]
Criticism of White's leadership at the SEC[edit]
On June 2, 2015, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter to White indicating that her "leadership of the
Commission has been extremely disappointing"[22] pointing out numerous shortcomings and failures during her
tenure. Warren admonished that White failed to finalize certain
Dodd–Frank rules, did not curb the use of waivers for companies that
violated securities laws, allowed settlements without admission of
guilt, and was too frequently recused because of her husband's
activities.[22] In return, White argued that the agency had been effective and
that Warren had mischaracterized her statements and the accomplishments
of the agency.[23] The Massachusetts senator's attack on White generated backlash
from the White House, Congress, and Wall Street, with defenders calling
her a tough but fair enforcer of the rules.[24]
On October 14, 2016, Senator Warren sent a formal written request to
President Obama asking for the immediate dismissal of White as Chair of
the SEC because of her refusal to develop public disclosure rules of
political contributions made by corporations.[25]
In 2017, White was a member of a National Football League external expert advisory panel on domestic violence, reviewing allegations against Ezekiel Elliott. He was suspended for six games.[26]
In August 2018, White chaired the investigation related to Ohio State's
Coach Urban Meyer's denials of knowing about domestic violence committed
by one of his former assistant football coaches, Zach Smith.
