PETER BRESNAN AND WALTER RICCIARDI NAMED DEPUTY DIRECTORS OF THE SEC'S DIVISION OF ENFORCEMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2005-154

Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2005 - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the appointment of Walter G. Ricciardi and Peter H. Bresnan as Deputy Directors of the Division of Enforcement. As Deputy Directors, Bresnan and Ricciardi will serve as senior officials in the Division of Enforcement and will assist in planning and directing the Commission's investigations and other enforcement efforts. Ricciardi joined the Commission's staff in April 2004 when he was appointed the District Administrator of the Commission's Boston District Office. Bresnan joined the Commission's staff in April 1995 as Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel. Since April 2004, Bresnan has served as an Associate Director in the Division of Enforcement. Bresnan also served as the Acting District Administrator of the Boston District Office from November 2003 to April 2004, and served as Deputy Chief Litigation Counsel from November 2001, where he shared responsibility for managing the Commission's nationwide litigation program.

Linda Thomsen, the SEC's Director of Enforcement said, "I am delighted that Walter and Peter have agreed to take on these new challenges. They are both committed to and possessed of the virtues we hold dear: integrity, fairness and excellence. Between them they have years of experience at the Commission and decades of experience practicing law. And we will exploit every ounce of that experience and all of their collective and abundant talents to protect investors."

Bresnan has led a number of ground-breaking cases for the Commission. As an Associate Director, Bresnan led the investigations that led to the Commission's charges against former Kmart executives for misleading investors about the company's financial condition in the months prior to its bankruptcy, as well as the Commission's recent actions against Instinet, LLC, Ford Motor Credit Company, and the Wood River hedge funds. Bresnan was the Commission's lead trial counsel in the WorldCom case in which the Commission obtained the largest civil penalty ever levied for a violation of the federal securities laws. During his tenure as the interim head of the SEC's Boston office, Bresnan spearheaded the Commission's market timing cases against Putnam, Massachusetts Financial Services Company, and two subsidiaries of FleetBoston, in which the SEC recovered a total of $420 million on behalf of injured investors. Earlier, he successfully resolved the Commission's first litigated yield-burning case and litigated the Commission's first fraud case against an offshore hedge fund and its manager involving an alleged $393 million in investor losses.

Prior to joining the Commission, Bresnan was a litigator at the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. Bresnan, 50, earned his undergraduate degree in history from Kenyon College in 1977 and his law degree from Fordham University Law School in 1982. He served as a Commentary Editor of the Fordham Law Review.

While Ricciardi was serving as the District Administrator, the SEC's Boston Office conducted the investigation that resulted in the filing by the Commission of fraud charges against Biopure Corporation and its current general counsel and others for making misrepresentations about the status of its efforts to obtain FDA approval of its artificial blood substitute. The Boston office also conducted the investigation that resulted in fraud charges being brought by the Commission against the founder and former CEO of Transkaryotic Therapies for misrepresentations concerning the status of clinical trials and FDA approval for its only drug. During Ricciardi's tenure, the Boston office also investigated the Brite Business fraud that led to the filing of fraud charges against Raymond James Financial and others. Ricciardi also fostered a close working relationship with state securities and other regulators and federal criminal authorities. These efforts resulted in coordinated Commission and state settlements and criminal plea agreements in such matters as New Alliance Bancshares, where the first criminal charges were brought for fraud in connection with the conversion of a bank from a mutual to stock form of organization.

Ricciardi began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Charles R. Richey, United States District Judge for the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. He then became an associate in the law firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed in Washington, D.C. After approximately four years with Hughes Hubbard, Ricciardi joined the Office of the General Counsel of Coopers & Lybrand. At the time of the merger with Price Waterhouse in 1998, Ricciardi was Coopers & Lybrand's Deputy General Counsel for Litigation. After the merger, Ricciardi was PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP's Leader of the Litigation Practice Group and was responsible for representing the firm and its personnel in connection with securities and other litigation, and SEC and other governmental investigations and proceedings. Ricciardi was also elected to the Board of Partners and Principals of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, where he served on the admissions, governance, partner affairs, and management evaluation and compensation committees. Additionally, he was elected to and served on the Global Oversight Board of the global organization of the PricewaterhouseCoopers firms.

Ricciardi, 52, received his A.B. from Columbia College in 1975 and his J.D., cum laude, from New York University in 1978. He served as Note and Comment Editor of the New York University Law Review.

Bresnan will continue to serve as Associate Director of Enforcement and Ricciardi will continue to serve as District Administrator of the Boston office in addition to their new positions until replacements for them are appointed.

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2005-154.htm