[10][14][15] Kotz joined the Peace Corps in 2002, and worked there until 2007, during which time he handled labor arbitrations, employee grievances, and prosecutions of rapes, sexual assaults, and other violent crimes against volunteers.
[10] In December 2007, Kotz next became the Inspector General at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), following the resignation of his predecessor, Walter Stachnik.
[22] In September 2009, Kotz issued a 477-page report that described numerous failures on the part of the SEC in failing to uncover Madoff's Ponzi scheme, despite three examinations and two investigations.
[25] Speaking of the Madoff victims, Kotz observed: "People's lives are destroyed, but they can find some solace in knowing there was change as a result.
[27] One of his findings in his Madoff-related investigations was that the SEC's General Counsel, David M. Becker, had a conflict of interest, as his family had invested $2 million with Madoff.
[34] In March 2010, Kotz issued another report finding the SEC also failed to uncover a $7 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Allen Stanford.
Postal Service found that Kotz himself "appeared to have a conflict of interest" and shouldn’t have opened the investigation, because one of the lawyers involved was a personal friend of his.
Kotz recommended that disciplinary action be commenced against Linda Chatman Thomsen, the Director of the Division of Enforcement for the SEC.
[42][43][44] At least two formal complaints were filed against Kotz by SEC staff members (including Linda Baier, acting Branch Chief of Acquisition Policy, and Nancy McGinley, an enforcement attorney, in April 2011), with the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE).
[45] Kotz similarly sent a criminal referral to federal prosecutors regarding trading by McGinley, but the Justice Department declined to act.
[45] Kotz denied the allegations, but ultimately left the SEC in the midst of a scandal concerning ethics and potential conflicts of interest.
[3][7] In November 2012, after he was terminated by the SEC, Weber filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the Madoff and Stanford cases might have been compromised by Kotz's personal relationships with some of the people involved.
[7][53][56][57] One conflict of interest for which Kotz was criticized was his decision to buy three box-seat tickets to a Philadelphia Eagles football game from a financial adviser who had interviewed him for a radio program.
[8] Commenting on the matter, Professor Geoffrey Hazard, a legal ethics specialist, said that "However passionate a fan you might be of the Eagles, it's just imprudent" to take the tickets.
[58] Kotz called the incident: "an insignificant matter," saying that he paid face value for the tickets and got approval from the ethics office before he made the purchase.
[8] Among other things, he emailed her in 2008 a suggestion that she buy a "short skirt or two," and as to the dress code he indicated that she would qualify for a “Special exemption for after work get togethers.”[8] Kotz stated he didn't think he had said anything inappropriate, and denied having a personal relationship with the woman.
"[21][60] In late January 2012, Kotz joined Gryphon Strategies, a small New York corporate fraud investigation firm, as its Washington representative and managing director.
[61][62] In August 2012, Kotz joined the anti-corruption team as a director in the Financial Institutions practice at Berkeley Research Group.