BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

We haven't had to wait long for confirmation that the Securities and Exchange Commission will take no prisoners as it seeks to reestablish its reputation as an aggressive regulator dedicated to protecting the interests of investors. Today's "message case" is a case in point.

In a complaint filed in Federal District Court in Dallas today - and purposely splashed across the web and the front pages - the SEC accused Robert Allen Stanford, the chief of the Stanford Financial Group, along with other executives and affiliates, of fraud in the sale of about $8 billion of high-yielding certificates of deposit. The CDs were held in the firm' s bank in Antigua.

The SEC' s language is telling. The Commission' s action is designed to interdict what it calls "massive ongoing fraud." The Commission' s actions are also telling: not only assigning a receiver, but freezing assets, and demanding that the passports of the accused be relinquished.

It' s not hard to interpret Stanford as an opportunity for the SEC to begin redeeming its purported failure to protect investors from Bernie Madoff.  In fact, according to reports, the ongoing inquiry into Stanford actually began many months ago but was stepped up directly after the Madoff storm broke.

The collaborative efforts with local police and other law enforcement officials are likewise portentous - and they make very good pictures for CNBC and CNN with agents in raid jackets carrying boxes of documents out of the building. So too is the asset freeze, affecting not only the accused individuals but their offshore bank as well. Clearly, the SEC wants to show that it' s on the job throughout the hemisphere so that future Madoffs have nowhere to hide.

One lesson for financial services is to exercise an abundance of marketing caution. Expect public education initiatives with banners like "if the opportunity sounds too good to be true, it probably is." Expect renewed regulatory interest in anyone who promises such robust returns in a battered market.

The government has a lot to prove and the wherewithal to prove it.