A textbook retirement speech blends beloved anecdotes with tired clichés. James Kidney, a trial lawyer at the Securities and Exchange Commission who recently departed the agency, offered a different style: an airing of grievances.
Mr. Kidney’s farewell remarks - he slammed colleagues for “tentative and fearful†actions and implied that the S.E.C. “polices the broken windows on the street level and rarely goes to the penthouse floors†â€" have caused a stir on Wall Street and in Washington. The remarks came to light on Tuesday in a Bloomberg News report that also includes an interesting interview with Mr. Kidney, who said that he would “always be an S.E.C loyalist and was trying to offer constructive criticism that could help the agency.â€
Mr. Kidney, who spent more than two decades at the agency, offered a theory for why the S.E.C. pulled some punches: the revolving door that shuttles its employees to Wall Street and back again.
Mr. Kidney also managed to land some jokes. (See: “I originally planned this to start at noon so I could give a four-hour speech getting even.â€)
And even some of his jabs were playful, people who attended the speech told DealBook. So you might want avoid a literal reading of the text, which DealBook obtained. Mr. Kidney could not be reached for comment to verify the authenticity of the remarks.
An S.E.C. spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But in the past, S.E.C. officials have cited the record number of cases filed in the aftermath of the financial crisis as evidence of taking a hard line with Wall Street. The bank extracted settlements from Goldman Sachs and others.
According to Bloomberg News, Mr. Kidney worked on the Goldman case.
