[twoodfin]

The hn title claims more certainty than the article does.

An equally plausible version of this story is that a very rich fund exec came to the personal conclusion that VMware was a great buy & bought, then had some part in convincing his firm of same, because that kind of judgment is what he’s there for. None of that is illegal.

As the article makes clear, it’s only front-running if the employee has reason to believe his firm will be making an investment, not simply that it’s under consideration. There was an attempt to make consideration the standard, but it was beaten back as impractically vague.

[hongspike]

The chief investment officer has ultimate decision making power to approve or reject trades. If he wanted his firm to invest in VMWare, it was going to happen.

[rexer]

The stock purchase occurred in 2015. Hoeft wasn't CIO until 2021 it seems:

https://www.dodgeandcox.com/financial-professional/us/en/new...

[blackeyeblitzar]

He also does not have ultimate decision making power. The article notes that all decisions by their investment committee were a group vote.