The Crackdown on Insider Trading
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-05-16/crackdown-insider-trading
Over the last 18 months, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office has charged 47 individuals with insider trading crimes. Last week, Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam was found guilty of fourteen counts of conspiracy and securities fraud, in the largest hedge fund insider trading scheme in history. It was the first insider trading prosecution to use wiretaps, a method usually reserved for mobsters, drug dealers and terrorists. We discuss the crackdown on white collar crime and what it could mean for Wall Street as well as individual investors.
Guests
Solomon Wisenberg
former federal prosecutor, currently a partner and co-chair of the white collar crime practice group for the law firm Barnes & Thornburg.
Joan McKown
partner in the law firm Jones Day and former chief counsel of the SEC's Enforcement Division
Scott Friestad
associate director of the SEC's division of enforcement.
Peter Lattman
reporter, New York Times Deal Book
Comments
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Every now and again there's a crackdown on illegal insider trading. Fine. But it's little more than a token which distracts from the far more extensive financial dealing and trickery that's shady but not illegal.
The people who cost millions of Americans their homes and much of their life's savings since 2008 not only escape sanctions of any kind; they are rewarded with bonuses and preferential tax treatment.
This crackdown on the epidemic of white collar crime is an interesting counterpoint to the ongoing, rampant anti-government rhetoric of the last 20 years. This investigative vigilance in the private sector by our government is every bit as important to our nation’s democracy and security as our constitutional checks and balances between branches of government.
Couldn't statistical software be used to flag suspicious trading?
I ideas that no one loses due to insider trading is totally wrong. If I had the same information the insiders have, I might choose to sell another stock and keep the one that is the subject of the insideer issue.
I am a public school teacher, and want to comment about the wider picture of justice in our country. African american students in our urban schools have fathers in jail for crimes that are real, but when you look at the economic differential between these two areas of crime it borders on the ridiculous in relation to the impact on the individuals involved. It is hard for me to listen to people who claim that "no one was hurt as a consequence". This sounds like incredible justification, and if they want to use it, walk in the shoes of a young black man without money for generations first.
Why are they going after this one hedge fund manager and not all the other criminals on Wall Street?
Because Rajaratnam is Tamil and supposedly contributed millions to the Tamil Tigers in their civil war efforts. This investigation started because of joint "terrorist" investigations between the US and Sri Lanka.
The Tamil are the Palestinians on Sri Lanka, the native people that have now been snuffed out by the Hindus that control the country.
I was shocked that Diane used the word "Gypped" on the Diane Rehm Show. This ethnic slur has no place in a publicly sponsored radio program. But I also hope she would not use the bigoted synonyms "Jewed" or "Welshed" in place of that word in her phrasing. Why not "cheated" or even "screwed"?