Dear Eliot and Andrew

My suggestions to the outgoing and incoming New York State Attorney General can be found at Forbes.com, here.

I call on Eliot Spitzer to stop the absurd legal case against Dick Grasso, and I urge his successor Andrew Cuomo and move against issues of real concern to investors -- arbitration, pump and dump, hedge funds and naked shorting. (Move ahead on the first three and repudiate the fourth.)

The need for a strong and feisty NYAG is underlined by reports in the media that the Securities and Exchange Commission is going to mount a full frontal assault against whistleblower Gary Aguirre at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today. The New York Times reports that another SEC official shared Aguirre's concerns about the SEC's handling of a major insider trading case.

Spitzer has totally ignored hedge funds during his tenure. Perhaps his successor can take a stab at that issue and the others I mention, and repudiate the fraudulent "naked shorting conspiracy" diversion campaign.

UPDATE: Turns out that it wasn't much of an assault on Aguirre at the hearing today. The SEC came away with several cartons of egg smeared on its face. See this account in the New York Times Dealbook blog.

© 2006 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

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