Linda Walsh / AP Photo
Looks like the Bernie Madoff scandal is shaking up the Securities and Exchange Commission: Linda Chatman Thomsen, the agency’s top enforcement officer, is stepping down. Thomsen, a 14-year SEC veteran, has led the Division of Enforcement for four years, overseeing investigations into Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Merrill Lynch. But she and her team came under heavy criticism for their handling of the Madoff case; last week, members of the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets railed against her and the agency at a Madoff-related hearing, as former investment banker Harry Markopolos testified he’d repeatedly tried to warn the SEC about Madoff but was rebuffed. “I gift-wrapped and delivered the largest Ponzi scheme in history to them and somehow they couldn’t be bothered to conduct a thorough and proper investigation,” he told the committee. Thomsen is expected to return to the private sector.