Future of TARP and the Effects of Enforcement Initiatives on Financial Institutions Topic at ABA Meeting

NEW YORK, Nov. 24, 2009 – At the beginning of his presidency, President Obama announced the creation of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and named Neil Barofsky as the Special Inspector General for TARP.  Now that Congress has passed the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, the potential for institutions receiving TARP funds to face False Claim Act issues and civil or criminal actions based on the status of their SEC filings is on the rise.

The American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section will host a panel discussion next Thursday that will review the actions by SIGTARP and the SEC to date, with a focus on how TARP funds are being monitored and how TARP fund recipients and their counsel can prepare for the enforcement actions that are likely to arise in the upcoming months and years.  The panel session is called, “Watching the Watchdog: A Review of SIGTARP’s First Year and Beyond.”

Panelists:

• Kevin Puvalowski, deputy special inspector general, TARP
• Scott Friestad, associate director, Division of Enforcement, SEC
• Jonathan Kolodner, chief, Complex Frauds Unit, United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York
• Paul Butler, lawyer and former special assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
• William F. Johnson, former chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York

When:
Dec. 3, 2009
6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Where:
Allen & Overy LLP
1221 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Reporters wishing to cover the program should contact Jane Singleton for credentials at 202/662-1093 or singletv@staff.abanet.org.

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

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