SEC Porn Probe: Workers Viewed Sex Materials as Economy Tanked

The Securities and Exchange Commission didn't get high marks as a watchdog during the recent economic crisis, and it turns out that some SEC employees occupied themselves at the time by viewing and downloading pornography on government computers.

The SEC's Office of Inspector General says 33 employees and/or contractors used their computers while on government time to access pornography, sexually explicit and sexually suggestive images, CNN reported. The activity violated SEC rules and policies as well as government-wide Standards of Ethical Conduct, the Inspector General said.

More than half the accused workers were very well paid -- making between $99,000 and $223,000 annually.

One unnamed regional staff accountant tried to access pornographic websites nearly 1,800 times in a two-week period, the IG report said. Another unnamed worker, a senior attorney, admitted to downloading porn for up to eight hours a day -- so much that "he exhausted the available space on the computer hard drive and downloaded pornography to CDs or DVDs that he accumulated in boxes in his office," the Inspector General's report said.

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said it was "disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at pornography than taking action to help stave off the events that brought our nation's economy to the brink of collapse." According to CNN, Issa said the "stunning report" raised questions about plans in a financial reform bill to "give regulators like the SEC even more widespread authority."