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by rayiner 4754 days ago
Selling stock based on private knowledge of the company's deteriorating finances while trumping up the company publicly is not your run of the mill "everybody breaks the law" selective enforcement situation.

The SEC brings tons of insider trading cases (the page you linked to points out that the ones on the page are just "examples"). See: http://www.mofo.com/files/Uploads/Images/130116-Insider-Trad... (Page 3.). The SEC and DOJ together brought 86 insider trading cases last year. Two recent convictions were Raj Rajaratnam (hedge fund manager) in 2011, and Raj Gupta (former chief executive of McKinsey) in 2012. It's a favorite go-to for the SEC because it's relatively easy to prove as far as financial crimes go.
1 comments
salem 4754 days ago
"The SEC brought 58 insider trading actions in FY 2012 against 131 individuals and entities."

Seems like a small number to me considering the size of the market. The chances of being caught seems to be small indeed, unless someone is really looking.

Speaking of Raj Gupta, he was connected with Raj Rajaratnam, who was funding a group with alleged close ties to the Tamil Tigers.

I'm not saying there was no wrong doing, but something fails the smell test.

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tptacek 4753 days ago
Raj Gupta was a huge Democratic Party fundraiser, so much so that his status within the party was the lede in many stories written about the case. Yet it was a Democratic administration that he helped put into power that took him down.
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rayiner 4753 days ago
Note that the SEC tends to focus on public-company stuff, so the industry isn't that big. How many F500 c-suite execs are there?
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