Joseph J. Porco, Managing Director, Independent Asset Management

Broadening the class of "Injured Customers" and distributing
penalties to derivative claimants will further thestated goals of the
Fair Fund, because ViolativeTransactionstriggered a chain of
devastating consequential damages. Unfortunately, the Plan's
current form mistakenlyassumesthe activities undertaken by certain
Specialists at the NYSE victimized onlythose persons or entities
thatopened an account, in their name, with a clearing member.
Furthermore, Section 308(a) of theSarbanes-Oxley Act provides that
civil penalties canbe added to Disgorgement Funds for the"reliefof
victims" and that civil penalties can be addedto and becomepart of
thedisgorgement fund "forthebenefit of the victims ofsuch
violations." The Sarbanes-Oxley Act specifically uses the term
"victims." The Act does not use the term "owners ofa security
account" which is what the SEC definition of"injured customer"
really means.
At least one company in Connecticut, IndependentAsset
Management (IAM), is adversely affected by the currentdefinition
of "injured customer" andI refer to IAM's letterto myoffice and
comments to the SEC dated January 24,2006, which are enclosed.
If you have any questions, pleasedo not hesitate to contact me or
Jordan Press ofmy staffat 202/225-5541. Thank you for your
consideration.
Member ofQongress
Enc.
cc: Commissioner Cynthia Classman
Commissioner Paul Atkins
Commissioner Roel Campos
Commissioner Annette Nazareth
Linda C. Thomseri, Director ofEnforcement
The Honorable Mike Oxley, Chairman House Financial
Services Committee
The Honorable Richard Baker, Chairman, House Financial
Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and
Government Sponsored Enterprises