Lost in the release Friday of reams of documents related to the Securities and Exchange Commission‘s investigation of the Bernie Madoff investment scam was why the documents were released in the first place.
Fox Business Network actually filed a lawsuit against the SEC earlier this year seeking the release of the documents after the government agency failed to comply with its Freedom of Information Act request.
On Friday, the SEC decided to release the documents. But instead of giving the documents to Fox Business to review, the agency released all of them by posting them on its Web site.
That way, everyone from The Wall Street Journal to the New York Times business section to the Associated Press and other wire services had big stories about the documents.
Fox Business also filed another lawsuit against the SEC earlier this year seeking all records relating to information that the SEC received regarding the potential violations of the securities laws or any other potential wrongdoing by R. Allen Stanford, or Stanford Financials Group and/or its affiliates.
