SEC Names Prosecutor to Head Pacific Office

The Securities and Exchange Commission appointed Valerie Caproni, chief of the criminal division for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, N.Y., head of its Pacific regional office in Los Angeles. The regional office, the SEC’s second-largest after New York, is responsible for investigations and prosecutions in nine states. Caproni, 42, replaces Elaine Cacheris, who left recently after her marriage to Bruce Hiler, a securities lawyer in Washington. Caproni will begin at the SEC in early September. Caproni, a graduate of the University of Georgia Law School, prosecuted Crown Heights, N.Y., natives Lemrick Nelson and Charles Price last year for the murder of Hasidic scholar Yankel Rosenbaum. She also prosecuted Louis Malpeso Sr., a member of the Colombo crime family, for conspiracy to commit murder. Both cases ended in convictions and prison sentences.