Maigret of the SEC

His name is Irving M. Pollack, but to his staff he is "Irv." He often answers his own phone. His clothes appear to come from off the rack at Macy's. Peering into a legal brief through smudged spectacles, he looks like a bookkeeper on his way to nowhere. But he has long been the Securities and Exchange Commission's top cop as head of its tough Division of Enforcement and previously chief of its Division of Trading and Markets. Last week President Nixon promoted Lawyer Pollack (magna cum laude, Brooklyn Law School) to become one of the SEC'S five commissioners.

He had been passed over for a commissioner's job two or three times before in his 27-year SEC career, largely because he has not built a political base by cultivating Congressmen or influential Wall Streeters. Now, with the Administration struggling to restore confidence in Government and the SEC striving to revive faith in the securities markets, Pollack's moment has come. Says an SEC staffer: "Because of Watergate, the Administration had to come up with a completely honest guy."

Pollack, 55, never accepts even a free lunch from anyone in the securities business. He lives in a modest house that he bought in 1956 for $18,500. If he left Government, he could easily multiply his salary of $36,000; as a commissioner, he will get a raise--of $2,000.

Knack for Nailing. Pollack has been centrally involved at the commission in moves to reform the market system and protect investors. Instead of wasting resources trying to track down small-time securities sharpies, he has concentrated on nailing the big operators, and he has shown a knack for it that would be worthy of the fictional Inspector Maigret, another unprepossessing sleuth. He was active in or headed the SEC investigations that led to charges being filed against such celebrated operators as Lowell Birrell, Eddie Gilbert. Louis Wolfson, Robert Vesco and Bernard Cornfeld.*When tremendous pressure was brought on the SEC to allow Cornfeld to sell mutual funds in the U.S., Pollack said no--and likely saved countless millions for American investors.

Recently Pollack directed the SEC'S investigation of Financier C. Arnholt Smith, Nixon's longtime friend and financial backer, who has been charged with fleecing $100 million from the stockholders of a San Diego-based conglomerate, Westgate-California Corp. Pollack did not know about the Nixon connection until he read about it in the newspapers when the investigation was well under way. Casually, Pollack asked his staff: "Is this guy the C. Arnholt Smith?" Told that he was, Pollack simply shrugged and went back to work.

* Cornfeld, now in a Swiss jail awaiting trial on fraud charges, had his bail reduced last week from $2.5 million to $1.5 million. He was still unable to post it.

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