For years, Wall Street’s top enforcers lacked the firepower to thwart financial misdeeds like Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. But now that the Securities and Exchange Commission has turned to sophisticated statistical tools and financial experts, one of the most effective weapons in its new enforcement arsenal may be a more traditional one: whistle-blowers. Already, a whistle-blower program has bolstered an investigation into a trading blowup that nearly toppled Knight Capital, the largest stock trading firm on Wall Street, according to lawyers briefed on the case. More in the New York Times here.
