The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Lara Shalov Mehraban has been named Associate Regional Director for Enforcement in the agency’s New York Regional Office. 

Ms. Mehraban has been an Assistant Regional Director in the New York office since 2012.  In her new role, she will help supervise a staff of approximately 185 attorneys, investigators, accountants, and paralegals in the New York office’s enforcement program.  Ms. Mehraban fills the position previously held by Amelia Cottrell, who left the agency in July.

“Lara has made outstanding contributions to the New York Regional Office and the enforcement division on a variety of challenging investigations and matters, displaying a keen intellect and strong judgment,” said Andrew J. Ceresney, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.  “I have no doubt that she will help NYRO to continue its outstanding record of accomplishment and success.”

Andrew M. Calamari, Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office, added, “Lara has been a true leader in this office and is widely respected both within and outside of the SEC.  I am very pleased to welcome her to the ranks of senior management in the New York office.”

Ms. Mehraban said, “I am honored and thrilled by this appointment.  I am excited to continue working with the talented and dedicated staff in the New York Regional Office to fulfill the agency’s mission to protect investors.”

Ms. Mehraban joined the SEC in 2007 as a senior counsel in the New York office.  She has been a key contributor to SEC enforcement actions, including an investigation into AIG’s improper accounting treatment of numerous transactions that resulted in a $15 million settlement with AIG’s then-Chairman and CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, the McGinn Smith & Co. Ponzi scheme investigation in which the SEC halted a $125 million investment scheme and charged 19 defendants, charges against 14 individuals for their roles in sham offerings of stock in 20 purported mining companies, and fraud charges against a retirement plan custodian.

Before joining the SEC staff, Ms. Mehraban was a litigation associate at two New York law firms, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, and Stillman, Friedman & Shechtman, P.C.  Prior to her law firm practice, she clerked for the Hon. Michael Daly Hawkins of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Ms. Mehraban received a J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan School of Law in 1999, and a B.A., cum laude, from Duke University in 1994.