Enforcement: SEC's Gerlach to Move to Sidley & Austin

Paul V. Gerlach, an associate director in the SEC's enforcement division who has played a key role in the SEC's yield-burning case against Dain Rauscher Inc., is leaving the commission to become a partner at Sidley & Austin in the District of Columbia.

No one has been named yet to replace him, the Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday when it announced his departure. Gerlach, 45, became an associate director of enforcement at the SEC in June 1995, after having served in various posts in the division for about seven years. Before that, he was an associate at the law firms of Jenner & Block and Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.

Gerlach has played a key role in the SEC's only court case involving yield-burning, which is still pending against Dain Rauscher in a federal court in Phoenix. The SEC filed a broad range of securities fraud charges against the firm and a former senior vice president in January 1998 -- including allegations that it excessively marked up escrow securities sold to Arizona in connection with a $129.6 million refunding of certificates of participation in 1992. Rauscher has been fighting the charges, but also discussing a possible settlement.

Gerlach received numerous awards while at the commission, including the Chairman's Award for Excellence in 1996 and the Stanley Sporkin Award in 1998. SEC chairman Arthur Levitt said yesterday that his contributions to the SEC's mission of investor protection "have been significant and invaluable."