The new chairman of the SEC, Linda Shapiro, has pledged to redouble the agency's crime fighting efforts, after being stung by the Bernie Madoff affair. That pledge was on display when the SEC charged 11 people with illegal insider trading schemes related to two separate deals--one involving a Liberty Mutual acquisition, the other involving a deal that called for Odyssey Investment Partners to buy Neff Corp., according to the AP. Both seem like garden variety cases, except for the fact that an ex-Goldman Sachs banker was one of those charged. 

The agency has launched 224 formal investigations, more than double the number at this time last year and nearly as many as in any full year since at least 2004, reports the Washington Post. In addition, the SEC has filed against 527 defendants in the first six months of this year, compared with 317 last year. 

For more:
- here's the AP article
- here's the Post article

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