The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission picked an outside lawyer to head its division responsible for overseeing brokerages, credit rating agencies and stock markets, the SEC said on Tuesday.

Robert Cook, 44, is currently a partner at law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, where he has been working since 1992.

Cook is expected to start in early 2010 as director of the SEC's division of trading and markets, where he will tackle controversial agency proposals such as one to curb short selling and reinstate an updated version of the 'uptick rule.'

His division will most likely be in charge of supervising a large section of the $450 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market.

Bills to regulate the private swaps industry are winding through the House of Representatives and on Tuesday, a draft Senate bill was made public that would clamp down on the financial instruments. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission would also gain authority over the opaque market blamed in part for exacerbating the financial crisis.

Cook has extensive experience working on swaps transactions, new financial products and structures as well as securities trading, the SEC said in a statement.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission picked an outside lawyer to head its division responsible for overseeing brokerages, credit rating agencies and stock markets, the SEC said on Tuesday.

Robert Cook, 44, is currently a partner at law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, where he has been working since 1992.

Cook is expected to start in early 2010 as director of the SEC's division of trading and markets, where he will tackle controversial agency proposals such as one to curb short selling and reinstate an updated version of the 'uptick rule.'

His division will most likely be in charge of supervising a large section of the $450 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market.

Bills to regulate the private swaps industry are winding through the House of Representatives and on Tuesday, a draft Senate bill was made public that would clamp down on the financial instruments. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission would also gain authority over the opaque market blamed in part for exacerbating the financial crisis.

Cook has extensive experience working on swaps transactions, new financial products and structures as well as securities trading, the SEC said in a statement.

A former lawyer with the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring with a prominent Manhattan lawyer to dupe hedge funds out of tens of millions of dollars.

Robert Miller, 52, of Englewood, N.J., entered the plea to conspiracy and securities fraud charges in a cooperation deal with prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Monday. If his cooperation is unsuccessful, he could face up to 25 years in prison at a sentencing scheduled for Feb. 5.

Miller admitted conspiring with lawyer Marc Dreier in November 2008 as Dreier sought to sell more than $44 million in fictitious securities to hedge funds.

Miller was a staff attorney in the SEC's enforcement division from about 1983 through 1986. Since then, he has worked as an analyst and money manager at various firms in the securities industry, according to court papers.

A charging document filed with the court said Miller and Dreier managed an investment fund together at various times between 1999 and 2008.

Prosecutors said Dreier last year contacted Miller and offered to pay him $100,000 to impersonate a representative of a Canadian pension plan during a phone call with a New York hedge fund.

They said Miller received a call from representatives of the hedge fund the day after he agreed to do it. Prosecutors said Miller received the call on a cell phone Dreier gave him with a Canadian area code and phone number.

The government said Dreier wired $100,000 into Miller's bank account shortly after Miller impersonated the Canadian pension fund representative, discussing the guarantee that the pension plan had supposedly issued for the $44.7 million note.

It said Miller also in two separate phone calls impersonated a representative of an Icelandic hedge fund that was supposedly selling a financial note. Court papers said Dreier directed an assistant at his firm, Dreier LLP, to look up weather in Reykjavik, Iceland, so Miller was better prepared for the calls.

A court-appointed examiner investigating Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s bankruptcy has been exploring whether the Federal Reserve improperly cut in front of other creditors owed money in the $613 billion bankruptcy case, records show.

Billing records filed with the court show the examiner is investigating an issue that has angered many of Lehman's creditors: how the Federal Reserve and the New York Fed -- which lent Lehman $46 billion in cash and securities before its bankruptcy filing last September -- were paid promptly and in full, while tens of billions of dollars in other debts were left to be sorted out in court. It remains unclear when and how much Lehman creditors will be repaid.

The examiner, Anton Valukas, chairman of law firm Jenner & Block LLP and a former U.S. attorney, said, "I am under a court order not to discuss what we are doing or how we are doing it."

Fed loans were crucial to propping up Lehman during its final days, and were part of an extraordinary government attempt to stabilize Lehman in the chaotic weeks of mid-September 2008. The government ultimately quashed a rescue of Lehman, which filed for bankruptcy protection. But its earlier steps now are open to scrutiny in bankruptcy court.

Details on the examiner's work remain scant, and it is possible no actions will be brought. Should the examiner determine that the Fed got preferential treatment, bankruptcy administrators could pursue court claims to recover assets for Lehman's creditors from the Fed, on the theory those assets should have remained with Lehman when it filed for bankruptcy last September.

The Securities and Exchange Commission leveled insider trading charges against a Perot Systems investment firm employee for taking home $8.6 million in allegedly illicit profits just days after Dell's $3.9 billion acquisition of the services company.

Reza Saleh, who works for Perot Systems (PER) investment firm Parkcentral Capital Management, bought a number of large call options contracts on Perot Systems beginning two weeks prior to the deal. Call options give the buyer the right to purchase a stock at a specific price and a specific future date.

Saleh sold all of his call options off immediately following Dell's (DELL, Fortune 500) announcement on Monday. The SEC said the options grew larger and larger as the announcement of the deal grew closer.

The SEC identified Saleh as a suspicious trader shortly after he sold off all of the options. Furthermore, Saleh admitted to the SEC that he was aware of the impending deal when he bought the options, according to SEC documents.

"The overwhelming evidence in this case allowed the SEC to move quickly against the trader before he could spend the huge profits from his illegal trading," said Rose Romero, director of the SEC's Fort Worth Regional Office, in a statement.

The SEC is seeking an emergency freeze of Saleh's assets.

Hassan Nemazee, a New York financier and Democratic party fund-raiser, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to bank fraud charges after being indicted by a grand jury earlier this week.

Mr. Nemazee, who is accused of fraudulently obtaining $292 million in loans from three banks, was allowed to remain confined to his home pending trial after a federal court hearing in Manhattan.

Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan allege he used the money in part to fund a lavish lifestyle and contribute to Democratic campaigns and political action committees.

After the hearing, Mr. Nemazee's lawyer, Paul Shechtman, said his client's campaign contributions were "modest and lawful." Mr. Shechtman added: "This is not a case about funneling money to candidates."

A.P. Moller-Maersk said it's going to sell up to 250,340 treasury B shares, representing approximately 5.7% of the total share capital, to both new and existing institutional investors.

At Tuesday's closing price of 36,900 kroner per B share, the value of the placing shares would be up to 9.2 billion Danish kroner.

A.P. Moller-Maersk dropped 5.4% to 34,900 kroner in early Copenhagen trade.

The firm said the sale would preserve financial flexibility in line with its traditionally conservative capital structure and provide additional flexibility to pursue strategic opportunities. In addition the sale will increase the free float which should increase the liquidity of the B shares -- on average, less than 11,000 shares are traded each day.

The company recently reported its first-ever loss, losing $540 million in the first half of the year as freight rates dropped by 30% and freight volumes fell 7%. It also predicted a loss-making second half.

The firm was thrust into the limelight in April after Somali pirates apprehended the Maersk Alabama. U.S. Navy sharpshooters ended the siege by killing the pirates and freeing the ship's captain.