The Washington Post published a story using Congressman John Dinghell as an example of the ethics issues involved when you have an investor lawmaker: Dingells and GM illustrate limits of congressional conflict-of-interest rules. Kimberly Kindy and Robert E. O’Harrow Jr. use Congressman Dinghell because of his financial connection with General Motors. This connection was one [...]

Ethics of Congressional Stock Ownership

Insider Trading Debates
Insider trading is back in the news. The SEC has shown heightened interest in prosecuting these cases, evidenced by the high-profile arrest of Galleon hedge fund manager, Raj Rajaratnam, on civil and criminal charges. One thing to keep in mind is that insider trading is not defined in the federal securities laws. The SEC has [...]
Insider Trading Enforcement
Either the Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up its enforcement of insider trading or it’s doing a better job of publicizing its enforcement. Earlier this week, the SEC announced its case against Raj Rajaratnam and his New York-based hedge fund advisory firm Galleon Management LP. On September 23, they charged Reza Saleh with insider [...]
SEC Case Against Mark Cuban is Dismissed
The SEC alleged that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was involved in insider trading when he sold shares in an Internet search engine company, Mamma.com Inc., after receiving confidential information about a private offering in 2004. The SEC said Cuban avoided a loss of $750,000 by selling his 600,000 shares, which represented a 6.3 percent [...]
SEC Implements New Compliance Program (On Itself)
After the embarrassing news that two of its attorneys are accused of insider trading, the SEC has decided to strengthen its internal compliance program to guard against inappropriate employee securities trading. “It only makes sense that we have a world-class compliance program – just as we expect from those we regulate,” said Chairman Schapiro. “The [...]
Insider Trading at the SEC
A report from the SEC’s Inspector General has publicized that two attorneys at the Securities and Exchange Commission are under “active” criminal investigation by the FBI for trading stocks based on inside information. Bad news for an agency that is still under fire for missing the Madoff fraud. Besides the salacious news, there are some [...]
Insider Trading on Credit Default Swaps
The Securities and Exchange Commission brought its first insider trading enforcement action involving credit default swaps. Renato Negrin, a former portfolio manager at hedge fund investment adviser Millennium Partners L.P., and Jon-Paul Rorech, a salesman at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., are charged with insider trading in credit default swaps of VNU N.V., an international holding [...]
Trading in Distressed Debt
Richard G. Mason, Steven A. Cohen, Ian Boczko, Sarah A. Lewis, and David Gruenstein of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, have prepared a memorandum concerning the possession and use of information when buying and selling distressed debt (an abridged version of which was published in The New York Law Journal): Trading in Distressed Debt . [...]
Insider Trading by Congress
Apparently members of Congress and their staff can make trades using non-public information obtained through their official positions. House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise M. Slaughter, D-N.Y., and Brian Baird , D-Wash., are sponsoring what they call the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (HR 682) that would prohibit Members of Congress and their staffers from [...]
What Is Insider Trading?
The SEC.gov website has a blurb on Insider Trading. They start off with legal insider trading, when officers, directors and employees buy and sell stock in their own companies. Corporate insiders are required to report their trades. Illegal insider trading “refers generally to buying or selling a security, in breach of a fiduciary duty or [...]
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