(November 10, 2013) — LeeAnn Ghazil Gaunt has been appointed chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit, the agency has announced.
As chief, Gaunt will be in charge of overseeing the unit focusing on “misconduct in the large municipal securities market and in connection with public pension funds including: offering and disclosure fraud; tax or arbitrage-driven fraud; pay-to-play and public corruption violations; public pension accounting and disclosure violations; and valuation and pricing fraud,” according to the SEC.
Gaunt has worked in the unit since its inception in 2010 and supervised the SEC’s first “pay-to-play enforcement action” against Goldman Sachs and its former vice president Neil Morrison last year. The bank had made campaign contributions to then-Massachusetts state treasurer and candidate for governor to influence public contracts for securities underwriting. The SEC reported that the investment bank had made more than $7.5 million in underwriting fees. The case was settled in May 2013.
The new unit chief worked in the SEC’s Boston regional office for 13 years, building experience in investigative operations including investment adviser violations to insider trading, the SEC said.
“LeeAnn has demonstrated tremendous judgment and leadership as a valued member of our enforcement team,” said Andrew Ceresney, co-director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, in a statement.
Gaunt will fill the seat of Elaine Greenburg, who left the SEC to join a private law firm in July this year.
Prior to joining the SEC enforcement staff, Gaunt was in private practice in Boston, first at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and later at Goodwin Procter LLP. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Fairfield University and her law degree from the Northeastern University School of Law.
Related content: CalPERS Presses SEC for Better Investor Support, Systemic Risk, and What theSEC is Doing About It