It's unclear if the Trailblazer complaint tipped off authorities, but all four people who signed it became targets.
Mary L. Schapiro, chairwoman of the commission, said the agency had curtailed travel by investigators and delayed work on a major information technology project that would help officials sift through tens of thousands of complaints and tips on securities law violations.
The campaign included an hourlong program on MTV and a page on MySpace devoted to the topic, with message boards where people could trade complaints and tips about Gamekillers.
Not surprisingly, there has been a rapid uptick in the number of economic-espionage investigations opened by the government, partly in response to a rise in complaints and tip-offs from companies.
In California, the same type of data collects in the system until a complaint or tip prompts state investigators to find it.
According to the complaint (hat tip: NYO), CBS points out that "the last 'allegedly wrongful act' took place on June 16 2006, and that Mr. Rather did not file suit until September 19 , 2007 roughly 15 months later".
Sporkin's 41-member Market Intelligence Unit last month moved into new offices in Washington that look a little bit like a Wall Street trading floor, where they process more than 100 tips, complaints and referrals that come in each day.
The call from Dee Dee Stone was quickly routed to a preliminary version of the SEC's new $21 million "Tips, Complaints and Referrals" or TCR Database, which the agency later fully deployed in March.
The communities on the frontline of climate change are best placed to make complaints or give tip-offs.
"We also clearly realize our complaints are the tip of the iceberg," said the group's spokesman, Teitur Torkelsson.
