SEC Watchdog's Data Request Snags on Fee Fight
From the Wall Street Journal:
A government watchdog may get the SEC records it wants -- but may have to pay millions of dollars for them.SEC Insight Inc., a Plymouth, Minn., firm that monitors the Securities and Exchange Commission, filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act for SEC records into possible investigations of 26 companies. The SEC denied the request and the firm sued the regulator in late 2004 in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. . .
. . .In a court filing last month, the regulator informed SEC Insight that it will be charged "at least $2 million" to review the requests. The SEC says it would take 30 attorneys a year to review "tens of millions of pages" of case records. The SEC made its estimate using its standard fee of $28 an hour to research FOIA requests by commercial firms. . .
. . .At issue is whether the SEC can pass on the expense as a standard FOIA review fee, or whether the SEC is responsible for the costs because of the court order. As part of the broader case, the court is expected to rule on that narrow question in weeks.