Pay to Play Proposal

One of SEC Chairman Schapiro's bolder pro-investor moves has been to resurrect former Chairman Levitt's 1999 proposal to prohibit investment advisers from using campaign contributions to win contracts to manage public money. The impetus for this re-proposal was the recent pay-to-play scandal in New York. (See a related SEC complaint)

For background on the issues, see the 4-part, pay-to-play series I wrote for TheStreet.com in 2001. I also have posted state-by-state summaries of the kind of pay-to-play practices that prompted the original 1999 proposal.

The deadline for comments on the SEC proposal is October 6. My group, Fund Democracy, will be submitting comments jointly with other groups. Please let me know of organizations that would consider joining the letter and would like to review a draft when one is available.