Courts Are Examining SEC Actions. How about the FDA?

On August 16, Judge Ellen S. Huvelle of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the SEC’s proposal to settle charges that Citigroup misled investors about certain investments in its portfolio. Gary L. Crittenden, Citigroup’s former CFO, and Arthur Tildesley Jr., former head of investor relations, were also charged. The firm agreed to pay $75 million, without admitting or denying charges.

But Judge Huvelle asked why only the two named executives were included and, more generally, why current shareholders should have to bear the cost of the fine.

The FDA’s treatment of the anti-cancer drug Avastin is further evidence of government’s growing paternalism (or what I have taken to call seigneurialism, on the premise that fathers act in order to rear their children but lords act to keep their peasants child-like). Issues of regulation are not the central focus of Business Rights Watch, but government paternalism lays the groundwork for the government prosecutions that come about when people attempt to reassert the adult right to make their own decisions.

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