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It is almost a cliche now to expose the open and breathe-taking corruption of the present Rethugs, still somebody has to do it. This time it is the Rethugs best bet for accountability free theft, short of becoming president: "insider trading".
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Check here is the original story.
Slate reports: The NYT hired a company to analyze trading patterns for companies that experienced billion dollar mergers over the last year. The study found that 41 percent of companies being bought out showed "abnormal and suspicious trading" prior to the sale's announcement, indicating that insider trading may be much, more common that previously believed. The SEC says it believes the New York Stock Exchange does a fine job of self-regulating, but the paper points out that unlike some foreign exchanges, the NYSE is primarily concerned with catching individual inside traders, as opposed to brokerage firms and the like
As much as I like to bash Repugs, this pattern is long term and probably bi-partisan. Money knows no party. I will leave bondad to do the economics of all this, but I think it is all summed up in this factoid: Martha Stewart goes to jail, but the connected insiders keep on raking in the dough. If they get caught, they just have to give back their ill gotten goods.
LINK
Brokerage firms contend that barriers within their operations keep deal information from seeping out. But regulators at the Financial Services Authority in Britain are challenging these assertions.
In a July 7 speech, Hector Sants, managing director of wholesale and institutional markets at the F.S.A., described why his focus was shifting to institutions. "Our spotlight will shine in particular on relationships between investment banks and their clients," he said, "because we believe the risk of market abuse is highest where a client can be made an insider on a forthcoming deal."
The fast and furious pace of deals this year is increasing the opportunities for mischief. In each of the last three months, according to Thomson Financial, the value of announced mergers has exceeded $100 billion -- the longest stretch of such volume since 2000.
So , while the underlying rot may be bipartisan, leave it to the Repugs to ratchet up the greed to the level of the obscene. And , of course, leave it to them to turn enforcement, except for Martha Steward, into a game of chance , where the worse a crook can do is break more or less even.....
LINK "The probability of detection appears small, based on the number of cases brought in the United States, and the penalty for insider trading is often a negotiated settlement that may not involve much more than giving up the gains.
Of course, that presumes that any enforcement is undertaken at all:
LINK Regulators on the front lines also seem to be spotting more irregularities. Officials in the market surveillance unit of New York Stock Exchange Regulation Inc. have made more referrals to the S.E.C. this year than they did in the comparable period last year. As of last month, those regulators had referred 76 cases for possible investigation, up from 60 a year earlier. In 2005, the surveillance unit referred 111 cases, 63 percent more than the previous year.
The number of insider-trading cases filed by the S.E.C., though, has been relatively static. Walter G. Ricciardi, deputy director of enforcement at the S.E.C., said that 9 percent of the cases filed by the commission since Feb. 1 have been based on insider trading, which can encompass merger or any other news that would affect a company's market price. On a percentage basis, the cases have ranged from 7 percent to 12 percent of the agency's total since 2000.
And, if any of our public watchdogs gets too vigilant, they simply fire him, straight up, no apologies, no need for subtlety :
LINK The S.E.C.'s handling of one insider-trading investigation is the subject of scrutiny by Congress after the firing last September of Gary J. Aguirre, a former staff attorney at the agency. Mr. Aguirre contends that his investigation into possible insider trading by Pequot Capital Management, a prominent hedge fund, was thwarted for political reasons by his superiors. He was fired after complaining, even though he had just received a merit pay increase.