Obama picks ex-prosecutor to lead SEC

Mary Jo White, former U.S. attorney in Manhattan, has an extensive record of prosecuting white-collar crime, won convictions in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1998 terrorist attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa, and put away crime boss John Gotti.

If confirmed, she will have the job of enforcing complicated regulations written in response to the worst financial crisis since the Depression.

"You don't want to mess with Mary Jo," the president said at the White House with White at his side. "As one former SEC chairman said, Mary Jo does not intimidate easily, and that's important because she's got a big job ahead of her."

White would take over at the SEC from Elisse Walter, who has been interim chairwoman since Mary Schapiro resigned in December.

Obama also renominated Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created after the financial meltdown. The president used a recess appointment last year to circumvent Congress and install Cordray. That appointment expires at the end of this year.

White, 65, was the first woman to be named U.S. attorney in Manhattan, one of the most prestigious jobs in law enforcement.

Colleagues and politicians describe her as tough, no-nonsense and fiercely competitive. And she brings a wealth of legal bona fides to an agency that, critics say, failed to act aggressively to charge top individuals at the nation's largest banks who may have contributed to the financial crisis.

Under Schapiro, the SEC brought civil charges with record penalties against Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, among others. But those settlements left top executives at the banks free from blame.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, called White "a fearless, tough-as-nails prosecutor." He said she will easily win Senate confirmation.

Mary Jo White

Led prosecution of crime boss John Gotti, convicted in 1992 of murder and racketeering; he died in prison in 2002

Demanded the plane carrying Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trace Center bombing, land within the Southern District so she could prosecute him in Manhattan. A defendant extradited to the U.S. must be tried in the first jurisdiction in which the plane sets down.

In 2000, led the prosecution of more than 100 people -- including members of all five New York Mafia families -- accused of strong-arming brokers and manipulating prices of penny stocks, in one of the biggest crackdowns on securities fraud in U.S. history at the time.