"Dick the enforcer" is giving up sec post to go Deutsche

Global Finance, Nov 2001 by Keeler, Dan

GERMANY

In a curious case of gamekeeper turned poacher, a prominent former Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement director, Richard Walker, has joined Deutsche Bank as general counsel of the bank's corporate and investment banking division. Until August,Walker had been the SEC official responsible particularly for improper reporting practices and for Internet securities fraud.

As Dick the Enforcer, Walker had a pretty good track record-certainly good enough to make putative cyber-fraudsters think twice before acting. It was Walker who launched a take-no-prisoners investigation to find the prankster whose fake online press release in August last year sent Emulex's shares tumbling 60% in an hour. A year later, while Walker was packing his bags at the commission, the culprit was being sentenced to close to four years in jail and a crippling fine.

It was also Walker who brought this summer's successful antifraud injunction against Arthur Andersen, the first against a Big Five accounting firm for 20 years.

Walker's appointment tied in neatly with Deutsche Bank's October listing on the New York Stock Exchange, a move that has taken two years of effort. Explaining the appointment, Deutsche Bank director Tessen von Heydebreck says: "Dick Walker probably knows more than anyone about US securities law and regulations." But if Walker's specialty is spotting and dealing with complex fraud or wrongdoing, it makes you wonder what Deutsche Bank is so concerned about.