A new cop is poised to join the Wall Street beat, as the Securities and Exchange Commission prepares to change the leadership of its enforcement unit.
Mary Jo White, who took over the S.E.C. as chairwoman this month, is expected to name Andrew J. Ceresney as co-head of the commission’s enforcement arm, according to people briefed on the matter. Mr. Ceresney has served as Ms. White’s longtime lieutenant as both a corporate defense lawyer at the Debevoise & Plimpton firm and earlier in his career as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan.
He is expected to share the S.E.C. role with George S. Canellos, who became the commission’s interim enforcement chief this year when Robert S. Khuzami departed the agency. It is unusual, if not unprecedented, for the enforcement unit to be run jointly.
The joint leadership is likely to be temporary though, people briefed on the matter said, as Mr. Canellos, who has been at the S.E.C. nearly four years, is expected to return to private practice well before the end of President Obama’s second term. Mr. Canellos also served as a federal prosecutor under Ms. White when she was United States attorney in Manhattan, and is also a former colleague and friend of Mr. Ceresney.
Mr. Ceresney’s appointment would be Ms. White’s first major personnel announcement as chairwoman, and could renew concerns about a revolving door at the agency that shuttles lawyers from the government to the private sector, and back again.
While at Debevoise, Mr. Ceresney represented a number of the nation’s largest banks and their former top executives, including Kenneth D. Lewis, the former chief executive of Bank of America, who came under scrutiny related to the bank’s takeover of Merrill Lynch during the financial crisis. He also defended JPMorgan Chase/a> related to an inquiry into the bank’s foreclosure practices.
He will join Mr. Canellos in taking the helm of an enforcement arm that is in a transition period. While Mr. Khuzami revamped the division in the wake of the financial crisis, some longtime officials in the unit complain of low morale and a dwindling number of marquee investigations.
That said, the S.E.C. enforcement division continues to bring prominent insider-trading cases, a hallmark of Mr. Khuzami’s tenure. This month, the commission brought a case against a senior partner at the accounting firm KPMG for leaking secret information about his corporate clients to his golfing buddy.
Mr. Ceresney did not reply to a request for comment. The enforcement chief post does not require Senate confirmation.
