Jay Clayton is one of the best trading lawyers on Wall Street and, if you know anything about tracking sophisticated crimes, he is perfect for running the country’s most well-known law enforcement agency.
On Wednesday, Trump named Clayton the “interim” US lawyer for the Southern District. The reason the Southern District is so important in revealing financial crime is that it spans Wall Street, banks and real estate home to Manhattan. As bank robber Willie Sutton once said, “That’s where the money is.”
Clayton, 58, knows the money business very well. He was chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term, focusing on the agency’s efforts to crack down on fraud that led to nearly 3,000 cases of Wall Street police, which directly affected small investors.
But what money has learned is his private sector trading experience, giving him the advantage of actually running the operation of a vast criminal law enforcement agency like the Southern District.
“He has a track record of running one of the largest federal law enforcement agencies. He’s even, thoughtful and strategic,” said a longtime securities attorney who worked for the government and worked closely with Clayton. “In addition, his private sector activities span all sorts of issues involving highly relevant capital markets in the Southern District.”
Clayton has been trading banking, M&A and underwriting for 28 years. Most importantly, he is a due diligence expert for his deal partners, and decided that he didn’t take away the money in the first place, not just if he had the money to pay for anything. During the 2008 financial crisis, he was the bank’s go-to lawyer. Goldman Sachs had been stabilizing the company’s balance sheet by negotiating a cash injection from Warren Buffett.
Such due diligence is a little known part of M&A jobs, and is often hidden by the big news of large multinational companies that combine vast operations to establish the world’s largest companies. However, it is very important to check where the capital flow comes from, or whether the CEO is hiding malicious transactions in either his personal or private life that could endanger the success of the integrated company.
Clayton needs to be confirmed by the Senate, narrowly managed by the GOP, so his appointment should be at least official along the party line. He received overwhelmingly bipartisan support when it was confirmed to run the SEC.
Given the harmful political environment, this time it may be difficult, and some important opposition is already increasing. A potentially big hurdle is NY Democrat Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Senate minority. It should be noted that Schumer voted against him for the SEC post, but he was well above the 61-37 number.
According to Senate Custom, US senators in states of appointed US lawyers often have a big say in whether candidates are approved and whether some GOP senators still prefer informal rules.
But if you know anything about Trump, he’s all about destroying norms. Clayton is barely a Magazine party to look at his law enforcement records in fairness. When he was SEC chairman, he filed a civil suit against the current Magazine Darling and Tesla chiefs. Elon Musk is allegedly mispromoting his acquisition of EV.. The securities fraud case resulted in a $20 million payment, and Musk was banned as chairman for three years.
If Clayton is confirmed, what money learns will take him into safety issues and ensure that violent criminals who violate federal law are taken from the streets. He also watches human trafficking. Human trafficking sees financial crimes that have a huge element of money in its creepy business and the office has special expertise in revealing.
Clayton declined to comment.
