As chief counsel, Ferdinand Pecora personally examined many high-profile witnesses, who included some of the nation's most influential bankers and stockbrokers.
Among these witnesses were Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange; investment bankers Otto H. Kahn, Charles E. Mitchell, Thomas W. Lamont, and Albert H. Wiggin; and celebrated commodity market speculators such as Arthur W. Cutten.
Given wide media coverage, the testimony of the powerful banker J. P. Morgan Jr. caused a public outcry after he admitted under examination that he and many of his partners had not paid any income taxes in 1931 and 1932.
Hearings began on April 11, 1932, but were criticized by Democratic Party members and their supporters as being little more than an attempt by the Republicans to appease the growing demands of an angry American public suffering through the Great Depression.
Historian Michael Perino argues that Pecora's investigation "Forever Changed American Finance by its impact on the financial laws of the New Deal.