The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Paul Levenson has been named director of the Boston Regional Office, where he will oversee enforcement and examinations in the New England region.

Mr. Levenson joins the SEC from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, where he is an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Chief of the Economic Crimes Unit that is responsible for investigations and prosecutions of financial crimes.  Mr. Levenson has successfully coordinated many criminal investigations with the SEC’s Division of Enforcement during his tenure in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.  He will begin working at the SEC in late October.

“Paul has served with great distinction as a supervisor and prosecutor of securities and other white collar cases,” said George S. Canellos, Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.  “We are thrilled that he will be bringing his formidable legal skills, vast experience, and judgment to the SEC as leader of our Boston Regional Office.”

Andrew J. Bowden, Director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, said, “Paul has been working energetically and effectively to protect investors for the last 23 years.  He also is an excellent manager.  We are excited that he has decided to continue his work with our dedicated team in Boston.”

Mr. Levenson said, “I am honored to have been chosen as the regional director of the SEC’s Boston office.  As a federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, I have worked closely with the lawyers and examiners in the Boston office and have been enormously impressed by their talent, professionalism, and dedication to enforcing the federal securities laws.  I look forward to working with them to carry out the SEC’s mission of investor protection and fair and orderly markets.”

Mr. Levenson joined the U.S. Attorney’s office in 1989 and served in the civil division as well as the Economic Crimes Unit and Public Corruption Unit.  He has led the Economic Crimes Unit since 2007.  Mr. Levenson has helped lead the investigation and prosecution of white collar crimes ranging from securities fraud, foreign bribery, tax fraud, insurance fraud, bank fraud, health care fraud, official corruption, and embezzlement.

Mr. Levenson previously was a litigation associate at Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler in Washington D.C. from 1985 to 1987.  He later worked at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in New York before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.  He began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Stanley A. Weigel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Mr. Levenson earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and his law degree from Harvard Law School.