NEW YORK: Fox Business Network is suing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to respond to an expedited request for information under the Freedom of Information Act, the news franchise alleged.

The initial request, filed on Feb.26, 2009, sought records of potential securities violations by Stanford Financials Group, its affiliates and its chairman, R. Allen Stanford. The request included the commission’s response to complaints and tips, and any resulting actions.

The SEC charged Stanford last month with running an $8 billion Ponzi scheme.

“It is unacceptable that titans like R. Allen Stanford or Bernard Madoff were able to operate such massive financial frauds under the nose of institutions like the SEC,” Fox News executive vice president, Kevin Magee, stated. “As a news organization, we believe it is the public’s right to know how these economic atrocities were committed as part of our continued quest to demand government accountability on behalf of the American taxpayers.”

The U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve were also cited by Fox with FOIA failure over the use of bail-out money. The bull-dogging comes two weeks after Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart excoriated Jim Cramer for CNBC’s lack of rigor leading up to the current global economic collapse. -- Deborah D. McAdams