SEC itself. I know of no individual who is better qualified to face these problems and to solve them than Bill Casey, and I strongly urge approval of his nomination. JOHN C. WHITEHEAD, Senator JOHN SPARKMAN, Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, I have know Mr. William J. Casey, the nominee to the Securities and Exchange Commission since 1946. During that period Mr. Casey has been my legal adviser and also associated with me as a director of a company of which I was the president. I know Mr. Casey as a person to be honest and credible and in every way capable of performing the duties of Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. I unhesitatingly recommend him for this position. WALLACE S. WHITTAKER. Hon. JOHN J. SPARK MAN, THE CHASE MANHATTAN BANK, Chairman, Committee on Banking and Currency, DEAR SENATOR SPARKMAN: I have noted in the press the hearings you are holding concerning the nomination of William J. Casey by the President to be Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Apparently at these hearings certain questions have been raised concerning Mr. Casey's qualifications for the position. Since I have known and respected Mr. Casey for a number of years I felt it appropriate that I write and send to you my own personal views concerning his nomination. I first knew Mr. Casey during the war years when, as a Naval officer, I served as an Assistant Executive Officer of O.S.S. concerned with Europe and Africa. Mr. Casey had an exceptional record in O.S.S. and served his country with distinction. In the years since then I have continued to know Mr. Casey and have been generally familiar with his career and interests. In my judgment, Mr. Casey is a man of outstanding ability, combining a wide knowledge of business and law with great initiative and energy. I am convinced that he would bring to the Securities and Exchange Commission the strong leadership and power of decision which it will require in order to resolve the difficult problems that confront it in the period ahead. The fact that he has not been involved directly in the securities business is a further asset under existing circumstances. Bill Casey is a man who has had many complex interests over past years. He has continued to exhibit a strong concern for the public welfare, and I am sure you know of his activities in this regard-among them, his candidacy in the primary of 1966 for a seat in Congress and his recent membership on the Presidential Task Force for International Development. At the same time he has carried out a highly active and varied career in business and law. Articles in the press have been critical of certain incidents that have arisen in connection with several of Mr. Casey's business interests. For myself, I have no question whatsoever concerning the honesty and integrity of Bill Casey, and I would not for a moment hesitate to support his nomination as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Indeed, it is someone with the very qualities of initiative, decisiveness and broad experience possessed by Mr. Casey that I believe could deal effectively with the problems confronting the Commission. Sincerely, Hon. JOHN SPARKMAN, OFFICE OF THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, STATE OF NEW YORK, Albany, N.Y., March 8, 1971. Chairman, Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, DEAR SENATOR SPARKMAN: I have known William J. Casey, whose nomination by the President as a member of SEC is under consideration by your Committee, since we were fellow students at Fordham University beginning in the early 1930's. In the intervening period I have had an opportunity to observe him in his professional practice, in civic undertakings, in alumni work, as a fellow Trustee of Fordham University, and in political activity-including candidacy for public office. In all these relationships I have been impressed by his manifest leadership abilities, his demonstrated capacity for problem analysis and clarity of thinking, and his ready facility in stripping away non-essentials to reach the heart of a problem. Mr. Casey bears an excellent reputation for character and honesty, and I commend him without reservation to your favorable judgment and that of the members of your Committee. Sincerely, MALCOLM WILSON. NEW YORK, N.Y., March 5, 1971. Senator JOHN SPARK MAN, Chairman, Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, DEAR SIR: In connection with the hearings of your Committee on the nomination of William J. Casey to the Securities and Exchange Commission, I am writing to give you my opinion of Mr. Casey, whom I have known for over 25 years. We served together in the OSS during the war and I have had frequent contact with him since then. I consider Mr. Casey a man of the highest character, an able lawyer and administrator. With my background of over 40 years in the investment banking firm of Goldman, Sachs & Co., principally engaged in corporate finance work, I believe that Mr. Casey is eminently suited for the Chairmanship of the SEC. Sincerely yours, KAI G. WINKELHORN. WORMSER, KOCH, KIELY & ALESSANDRONI, Hon. JOHN SPARKMAN, Chairman, Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, DEAR SENATOR SPARKMAN: May I take the liberty of volunteering enthusiastic support of the nomination of William J. Casey to the Securities and Exchange Commission. He is a man of intellectual brilliance, and of impeccable honesty and credibility. I have known him intimately for many years. In addition to personal associations with him (in which I consider him one of my best friends), I have had these contacts with him: For ten years, starting in 1945, I was a member of the Planning Committee of the New York University Federal Tax Institute (presiding over its estate planning sessions); and for eight years I gave and directed a course in estate planning at that University. Subsequently and for many years, I chaired panel discussions in advanced estate planning for The Practising Law Institute in New York City and gave and directed a course for it in the same subject. For the past five years I have been chairman of the Advisory Committee of the University of Miami Estate Planning Institute. In all these connections I have been called upon to select or help to select lecturers and members of technical discussion panels; and I have had a similar function in regard to many lecture appearances at universities, bar associations upon, Mr. Casey has been one of my first selections (and often my very first selection) because of his technical ability and his exceptional contributions of wisdom and judgment. Both Mr. Casey and I have written rather prolifically in the field of estate planning and taxation. For this reason, additionally, I submit that I am in a position to testify as to his technical and professional ability, and I state it to be most exceptional indeed. And, from my personal associations with him, I submit that he is a man of the highest moral integrity. I cannot imagine a man more qualified to occupy the position for which he has been nominated, and I earnestly urge his approval by your Committee. For my further identification, I refer you to Who's Who in America. Respectfully, RENE A. WORMSER. Hon. JOHN SPARKMAN, TULANE UNIVERSITY, New Orleans, La., March 3, 1971. Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR SPARKMAN: I am writing in regard to the nomination of Mr. William J. Casey for the Chairmanship of the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is essential, of course, that a prospective SEC Chairman not himself have been party to a violation of the very Acts the Commission is charged to enforce. It is no less important, in my opinion, for the prior transactions of a prospective member-and especially Chairman-of the Commission to be such as not to call into question the future credibility of the Commission. Among Federal regulatory agencies, the SEC has one of the best records for solid achievement. You and your colleagues on the Committee must judge for yourselves whether Mr. Casey's past activities would be a bar to his effectiveness on the Commission. In making this judgment, I hope that you give proper weight to guidance which, while not conclusive proof of the candidate's violation of Acts which the SEC is expected to enforce, strongly suggests that his service on the Commission might open it to debilitating criticism. I thank you for whatever consideration you might give to these comments. Sincerely, STEPHEN A. ZEFF. [Business Week, Mar. 6, 1971] THE WRONG MAN President Nixon obviously made a bad choice when he nominated New York tax lawyer William J. Casey to be the next chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission. He compounded the error when he decided to stick with Casey even when it had been revealed that the proposed chairman of a crucial regulatory agency had been the defendant in a series of lawsuits involving the securities laws. Perfectly honest men can be dragged into lawsuits. But the SEC needs more than just an honest man for its chairman in the period ahead. It needs someone with demonstrated ability and unquestionable integrity, someone with the stature to preside over a sweeping reorganization of the securities industry and a relentless purge of the shady people and shady practices that have tainted it in the years of get-rich-quick boom and run-for-the-exits recession. Nothing in the record suggests that Casey is such a man. He failed to be candid with Congress because he saw nothing in his conduct-which conformed to the accepted Wall Street pattern-that, in his opinion, needed explaining. The part that SEC must play in reforming Wall Street is too important to be entrusted to a man who sees nothing that needs reform. If William J. Casey does not have the good taste and good sense to withdraw at this point, then STANDARDS FOR THE S.E.C. The general purpose of the statutes administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission is "to protect the interests of the public and investors against malpractices in the securities and financial markets." More specifically, the commission is charged with preventing anyone from selling securities by means of any "untrue statement of a material fact or any omission to state a material fact" of from engaging in "any transaction, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon the purchaser." The Senate Banking Committee has now voted to call back William J. Casey for further questioning on his qualifications to be chairman of the S.E.C. Three weeks ago the Senate committee tentatively approved Mr. Casey's nomination by President Nixon, but has now decided to look into a lawsuit in which he had been found guilty of plagiarism and two other cases in which he was charged with violating the securities laws. One of these securities cases was settled out of court; the other is still pending. At the same time, the S.E.C. itself is investigating the possibility that Roosevelt Raceway, of which Mr. Casey became a director in 1967, may have inadequately disclosed to the S.E.C. the fee arrangements it had made with Mr. Casey's law firm. The issue that the Senate Banking Committee faces is not whether Mr. Casey has committed illegal acts-the Senate is not a court of law-but whether in view of the record he can command the highest public respect. The S.E.C. chairmanship is an unusually sensitive and important position, since the man who fills that post stands as the protector of the public interest against those who may succumb to the temptation to cut sharp corners and make a fast dollar, as well as against those who would deliberately practice fraud. No one should be considered for membership on the S.E.C.-or any other regulatory commission, judicial appointment or Cabinet post-who shows any evidence of disregard for the most scrupulously ethical business behavior. No one deserves such a position who has shown insensitivity to problems of conflict of interest or unwillingness to disclose past or present business and tax practices fully and with complete candor. Such are the standards that the Senate must apply in deciding whether Mr. Casey is qualified to serve as chairman of the S.E.C. Obviously, they are standards that should be applied to all other Presidential appointments as well. |