10 years in prison and $250,000 fine? A bit harsh considering the money was never allowed to be wired out. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014808877_investigation19m.html SEC just killed a man and his career. The punishment is worse than murder. 'Professional' insider traders never get busted. He was an amateur with zero experience in the streets. His broker even block his wire transfer. Impossible to make big profits and rob wall street investment market makers. They only steal from you and get away with it.
The man killed himself, due to his inability to deal with the repercussions of his decision to engage in illegal activity. His psychology was his downfall, both in deciding to commit the crime and to not bear the consequences. Has nothing to do with the S.E.C. or anyone else. The law exists, can be changed through a democratic process if it is unjust, and should be enforced equally whenever someone is found breaking that law.
The punishment is too harsh. Same thing as death penalty. BTW: wonder all the crooked hedge funds/ operators use Goldman Sachs as their broker? Cause Goldman Sachs never rat on ther best clients when do insider trades and the SEC can't touch Goldman Sachs. $250,000 fine is peanuts if you made 100 million profit on the robbery. Ameritrade locks up the profits and he can't even wire out his profits. Goldman Sachs has never been charged or convicted with insider trading or market manipulation. Insider trading and securities are not enforced equally. Insider trading is one of those grey area of the laws in which if you have enough money and connections it's never get convicted. Only a small percentage is charged and convicted. Many walk free. There are far more sinister criminal activity in wall street than insider trading. Insider trading is a serious as card counting in Las Vegas or cheating in a casino.
That is the maximum penalty, Dumbo. He would have got probably 2 years. Also what we learnt here is that if your insider trade is successful, get ride of the money right away, and hide it. This idiot left the money at the broker for 6 months.... And if you have relatives in another country, don't jump, but FLY...
I don't know what the penalty would have been, but I do often scratch my head when I read about some of these penalties. I agree 10 years in prison doesn't make sense. These types of offenses should require giving back all ill-gotten gains, plus maybe 25%, with some time doing community service or something. The idea is to discourage this stuff from happening. Also, it's not hard for me to imagine if I had been at that firm and everyone is telling me 'this is the kind of thing that happens all the time', ''everybody's doing it'...I might be tempted to do the same thing. I really don't know. OP, good topic for discussion. thanks
Poor bugger. If you're going to insider trade you have to at least cover your tracks enough to allow time to receive the funds! This guy was obviously a first timer.