Timothy L. Warren, Associate Director of Enforcement in Chicago Office, to Retire After 30 Years of Service

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Timothy L. Warren, Associate Director of Enforcement in the Chicago Regional Office, is retiring at the end of this month after more than 30 years of service.

Since his appointment to Associate Director, Mr. Warren has supervised a staff of more than 40 attorneys and other professionals responsible for investigating potential violations of the federal securities laws by a wide range of market participants.  Mr. Warren also has been significantly involved in international enforcement training with the Office of International Affairs to build capacity and strengthen partnerships with the SEC’s international counterparts, including conducting programs held in India, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea, Kenya, Swaziland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, and Turkey.  Before his appointment to Associate Director in 1998, Mr. Warren previously served as Assistant Regional Director, Branch Chief, and Staff Attorney.  Mr. Warren joined the SEC’s staff in 1985 following his graduation from law school.

“Tim has been a dedicated public servant who has contributed greatly to the SEC’s mission,” said Stephanie Avakian, Acting Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division.  “Tim is an institution in the Chicago Regional Office with an extremely long list of creative and high-impact actions that have protected investors and our markets.”

David Glockner, Director of the SEC’s Chicago Regional Office, added, “Tim handled and oversaw scores of significant cases during his career, but his most enduring legacy is the generation of lawyers that he mentored during his 18 years as a leader of our office’s enforcement program.”

Mr. Warren added, “I am extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend my entire legal career at the Commission working for the benefit of the investing public, I relish the time I spent working with like-minded overseas regulators, and am very grateful to have worked with such talented and extraordinary individuals as those resident in the SEC’s Chicago Office.”

Under Mr. Warren’s leadership, the SEC has brought enforcement actions addressing a wide variety of misconduct, including:

• A proceeding against national audit firm Grant Thornton LLP and two of its partners for improper professional conduct arising from ignoring red flags and fraud risks while conducting deficient audits of two publicly traded companies – Broadwind Energy Inc. and Assisted Living Concepts Inc.
   
• Securities fraud charges against the State of Illinois for allegedly misleading municipal bond investors about the state’s approach to funding its pension obligations.
   
• Fraud charges against Hollinger International’s former chairman and CEO Conrad M. Black, former deputy chairman and COO F. David Radler, and Hollinger Inc., a Canadian public holding company controlled by Black, alleging that they diverted cash and assets from Hollinger International and concealed their self-dealing from Hollinger International’s public shareholders.
   
• Charges against Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. for allegedly perpetrating a fraudulent earnings management scheme by, among other things, selling excessive amounts of pharmaceutical products to its wholesalers ahead of demand, improperly recognizing revenue from $1.5 billion of such sales to its two largest wholesalers and using “cookie jar” reserves to meet its internal sales and earnings targets and analysts’ earnings estimates.
   
• Charges against Yun Soo Oh Park a/k/a Tokyo Joe (Park), and Tokyo Joe’s Societe Anonyme Corp. for allegedly defrauding members of his Internet stock recommendation service and the investing public by undisclosed trading ahead of shares he recommended over the Internet for purchase, posting of false performance results, and recommending the stock of an issuer without disclosing that he had indirectly received compensation from that issuer.

Mr. Warren received the SEC’s Irving Pollack Award in 2009 in recognition of his significant contributions in leadership, integrity, intellect, and dedication to the SEC’s mission.  He received the SEC Chairman’s Award for Excellence multiple times during the course of his career.  Mr. Warren received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in 1981 and his law degree from Loyola University School of Law in 1985.