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THE HEALTH-CARE "DEBATE" HAS SUCKED SO much oxygen off Capitol Hill that our lawmakers have ceased burning Wall Street's dark wizards at the stake. Let's hope this damping of the fires of outrage is merely temporary. The ash heap seems far too small in proportion to the global financial destruction wrought by the financial coven.

Our legislators' tongues hardly have singed the culprits responsible for what is likely to reign as the grandest case of mass financial negligence of the 21st century. If this were China, the land of hasty judicial outcomes, several revolvers would be empty by now.

Congress started roasting CEOs, traders, analysts, rating agencies and regulators in 2008. It was ardent for a while, fanned by public anger. The list of stakeholders appearing on the congressional menu is long, but there is one notable omission: accountants, who have played a leading role in every major financial crisis since 1929.

THE BUMBLING SECURITIES AND Exchange Commission, which effectively oversees accountants through its supervision of the PCAOB, or Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, has had several turns on Congress' rotisserie. Just last week Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, grilled the agency again, this time for failing to uncover Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. The SEC's pathetic, Clouseau-like investigation of Madoff's operation is painfully detailed in a 477-page report prepared by the agency's independent inspector general.

A perennial excuse for the SEC's bouts of ineptness is "underfunding." Dodd's opposition in 1994 to a bill by fellow Democrats that would have let the SEC keep the fees it collects from the companies it regulates arguably is responsible for this. In 2007 the agency collected $1.5 billion in fees and got back $882 million in funding from Congress, according to Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, this year's champion of letting the agency retain its loot for recruitment of more qualified personnel.

At least angry investors who lost money in the Wall Street crack-up haven't lowered the heat on the accountants. KPMG, auditor for infamous subprime-mortgage lender New Century Financial, is being sued by the bankrupt company's trustee for $1 billion. KPMG also audited Countrywide Financial, now part of Bank of America (ticker: BAC). Countrywide's former boss, Angelo Mozilo, is the reigning pinup for the subprime disaster.

There are now 199 subprime-mortgage and class-action lawsuits, 57 of which were filed in 2007, according to Kevin LaCroix, a specialist in directors' and officers' liability for OakBridge Insurance Services, headquartered in Bloomfield, Conn. In a recent blog (http://www.dandodiary.com/), LaCroix noted: "One of the characteristics of many of these subprime- and credit-crisis-related lawsuits is the extent to which the plaintiffs are seeking to impose liability on the gatekeepers of the target companies. The gatekeepers named as defendants include not only the directors and officers of the target companies, but also the companies' auditors and offering underwriters, as well as the rating agencies that provided rating[s] on the companies' securities offerings."

The SEC might be trying to compensate for its investigative shortcomings by engaging in legal experimentation. In one case, the sad-sack agency is seeking compensation from Maynard Jenkins, the ex-CEO of CSK Auto. That company had to restate earnings because of alleged misconduct by some employees, even though Jenkins wasn't involved in any financial hanky-panky. The SEC action will test the reach of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law's clawback provision, says Gregory Bruch, a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Willkie Farr & Gallagher. The clawback provision, which lets the agency seek damages from individual executives, has never before been employed in the absence of wrongdoing by the defendant, Bruch adds.

IF THE CASE IS UPHELD, JENKINS would be out $2 million in bonuses and more than $2 million from stock sales that he made in the 12 months following the restatement. Criminal cases are pending against CSK's former chief financial officer and chief operating officer. A former controller and a former supervisor pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, but not to cooking the books.

Bruch says the SEC has a good shot because the clawback statute simply says the restatement must be a result of "material noncompliance of the issuer." But the agency might have to show that one of Jenkins' co-workers engaged in misconduct. CSK was bought by O'Reilly Auto Parts (ORLY) after the events at issue allegedly took place.

Restatements resulting from material misstatements in SEC filings aren't rare. CFO.com, citing a report by Audit Analytics, says public companies filed 869 restatements in 2008 and 1,235 in 2007. In fact, public companies -- including 64 of the Fortune 100 -- often have bylaws triggering clawbacks, to avoid being hit by costly, time-consuming SEC actions. Others must beware of the SEC's claw!