Linda Chatman Thomsen

Linda Chatman Thomsen (born April 1, 1954) is an American attorney who was director of the Division of Enforcement for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2005 until early 2009. Since arriving at the SEC in 1995, she worked under four SEC Chairmen: Arthur Levitt, Harvey Pitt, William H. Donaldson, and Christopher Cox. William Donaldson named her director of the Division of Enforcement on May 12, 2005. She is the first woman to serve as director of the Division of Enforcement. Thomsen is known for her role in the suits by the SEC against Enron and Martha Stewart, and for not having investigated Bernard Madoff.

Pequot Capital Management insider trading and firing of SEC investigator In 2008 H. David Kotz, SEC inspector general, recommended that a disciplinary action be commenced against Thomsen due to her role in an insider trading investigation of prominent hedge fund Pequot Capital Management.

Kotz said he found there were 'serious questions' about the impartiality and fairness of the SEC's investigation of Pequot. A former SEC attorney who worked on the probe and was fired by the agency has alleged there was political interference in the probe by agency officials.

At the time, the SEC refused to take any enforcement action against Pequot, and it closed the case in 2006. It reopened the case after new information came to light. The hedge fund, which has now closed, denied any wrongdoing.

Madoff fraud Leaders of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) testified on February 4, 2009 before the United States House Committee on Financial Services subcommittee including Linda Thomsen SEC enforcement director, acting General Counsel Andy Vollmer, Andrew Donohue, Erik Sirri, and Lori Richards and Stephen Luparello of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The subject of the hearings was the question as to why the SEC had failed to act when Harry Markopolos, a private fraud investigator from Boston, alerted the SEC detailing his persistent and unsuccessful efforts to get the SEC to investigate Bernard L. Madoff, beginning in 1999. Vollmer claimed executive privilege in declining to answer some questions. Subcommittee chairman Paul Kanjorski asked Mr. Vollmer if he had obtained executive privilege from the U.S. attorney general. the SEC announced that Thomsen would resign from her position with no replacement identified and return to the private sector. The SEC announced Vollmer "plans to leave the Commission and return to the private sector," 9 days after Thomsen resigned. On July 9 The Washington Post announced that Richards would resign to "take on new challenges."

On April 13, 2009, the law firm, Davis Polk & Wardwell announced that Thomsen was returning to the firm as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office along with former Assistant to President Bush and White House Staff Secretary, Raul F. Yanes. The pair were recruited to work on white collar defense and government investigations and enforcement and increase the firm's financial regulatory practice.

Second instance of insider information On November 30, 2009, Kotz released a semiannual report to Congress which discussed an investigation into a Senior Officer of the SEC who provided inside information to a former official, but did not name the officer. The inspector general said that while "Ms. Thomsen's communication with Mr. Cutler did not violate the SEC's policy on external communications, she should have taken other steps 'to avoid an appearance of impropriety stemming from the relationship.'"

Private life

Thomsen is married to Steuart Hill Thomsen, a partner in the law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP.