THE STREET'S HEW CLEAHUP CREW

摘要

In his seven years as director of Utah's Securities Div., S. Anthony Tag-gart has gone after Ponzi schemes and penny-stock hucksters. But he has never given much thought to Wall Street. That's about to change. In the wake of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's May 21 settlement with Merrill Lynch & Co., Taggart is part of a 40-state probe into how the conflicts of interest between brokerage firms' research and investment banking divisions affect investment advice. He has been tapped to lead the investigation of Goldman, Sachs & Co., one of the most sophisticated securities firms around. How did someone who readily admits he knows little about Wall Street end up with this assignment? "It was more coincidence than anything else," he admits. "The bigger states wanted the firms better known to small investors."