YNOT – While the global economy tanked, dozens of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff members spent time they could have used to staunch the financial hemorrhaging watching internet porn instead, according to an internal report released over the weekend.An SEC investigation found 33 employees spent hours on the federal payroll using SEC computers and internet connections to surf porn sites. The infractions occurred over the past two and one-half years. Seventeen of the offenders were senior staff members earning between $100,000 and $222,000 annually, according to ABC News.

Among the most egregious of the offenses were those committed by a senior attorney in the SEC’s Washington headquarters. According to the report, he spent as many as eight hours daily downloading porn. Eventually he filled up not only his SEC computer’s hard drive with explicit images, but also several file boxes of CDs and DVDs that he stored in his office.

One SEC accountant reportedly attempted to access explicit websites 1,800 times in one two-week period and accumulated 600 images on her official computer’s hard drive. Another accountant accessed porn 1,600 times in a month.

A regional supervisor in Los Angeles accessed porn sites as often as twice a day during working hours, according to the report.

One employee who was denied access to porn sites by the SEC’s internal firewall bypassed the filters with the assistance of a flash drive. Spokesman John Nester told The Washington Post the agency employs Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway software and McAfee SmartFilter to block inappropriate sites.

The report was prepared by SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz after an investigation requested by Sen. Charles E. Grassley [R-Iowa]. Ten of the investigated incidents occurred in 2009, 16 in 2008, two in 2007 and one each in 2006 and 2005, according to the Post. Only three occurred during 2010.

The SEC currently employs about 3,800 people. Those who were caught surfing porn either have been disciplined or will be, Nester told the Post.