CONTRACTORS
Wall Street sniffer dogs axed ahead of budget cuts
New York/Washington — Faced with possible budget cuts under President Donald Trump, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will eliminate dozens of contractors hired to help root out Wall Street fraud, said two people with knowledge of the matter. The contractors are not full-time federal employees, but the SEC, which oversees the finance industry, relies on them to help shoulder complex investigations that often lead to trials that can go on for months or years. The recently eliminated positions include data-entry staff and paralegals, raising concerns within the SEC that the pace of enforcement actions would slow as those responsibilities increasingly fall to career attorneys, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the cuts have not been announced. The SEC and other agencies have been operating under what is known as a continuing resolution, which is temporary funding that keeps the government running until Congress and the White House agree on a formal budg...
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