You know that 450 Fifth Street 100 F Street probably has all kinds of juicy secrets inside about companies being (or about to be) investigated. You’d just like to think they would all stay there until such time they would be publicly divulged to everyone, but apparently not.

The SEC is now investigating… well… insider trading by employees of the SEC:

The FBI is investigating possible insider trading by two enforcement lawyers at the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a report by the regulator’s inspector general.

H. David Kotz, the SEC’s inspector general, studied two years’ worth of e-mails and brokerage records from the two lawyers, which he said revealed “suspicious activities, appearances of improprieties and evidence of possible trading on nonpublic information”.

In a report sent to Mary Schapiro, SEC chairman, in March, Mr Kotz said his findings were so serious he had referred them to the FBI and the US attorney’s office of the District of Columbia’s fraud and public corruption section, who were investigating.

Both lawyers, whose names were stripped from the report, deny wrongdoing and remain in their jobs.

“Although the SEC … is charged with prosecuting cases of violations of securities laws, including insider trading … [it] has essentially no compliance system in place to ensure that commission employees, with the tremendous amount of non-public information they have at their disposal, do not engage in insider trading themselves,” it said.

Emphasis mine. The article goes on to suggest we have no idea if this kind of conduct is commonplace or widespread. Of the individuals being investigated, one swears that stocks (like ballet and snacks) are her passion, and thus this is perhaps just a massive co-inky-dink. I think the other (it is hard to tell to whom this refers from the context of the article) actually sent out stock tips from his or her SEC email account, and is thus looking somewhat more like a contender for a Darwin award.