Top Spitzer investigator expects to move on

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The chief investigator behind New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's probes into the mutual fund and insurance brokerage industries said on Tuesday he expects to leave his job, as his boss prepares to move to the governor's mansion.

"I think I'm going to move on," said David Brown, chief of the investment protection bureau in Spitzer's office, at the Reuters Investment Banking Summit. "I really would love to stay with Spitzer. I've let him know that. My first choice would be to stay with Eliot, so I hope something will pan out."

Brown joined Spitzer's office in May 2003 and became investment protection chief five months later.

He has led many of Spitzer's biggest investigations, extracting billions of dollars of fines and reimbursements over such matters as illegal mutual fund trading, and brokerages' improper steering of business to favored insurers.

Spitzer, a Democrat, will become New York's governor in January, replacing Republican George Pataki.

Andrew Cuomo, a former U.S. secretary of housing and urban development under President Bill Clinton and a son of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, will become attorney general.

Before joining Spitzer's office, Brown was a lawyer at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Bankers Trust and the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell. He received his bachelor's and law degrees at Harvard University.

Brown's predecessor as investment protection chief, Eric Dinallo, left to become Morgan Stanley's (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) chief compliance officer. In March 2006, he was named general counsel at Willis Group Holdings Ltd. (WSH.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), an insurance brokerage.