NYT/AP: Merrill and Goldman Workers Charged in Insider Trading Scheme

[DeepModem Mom]

Merrill and Goldman Workers Charged in Insider Trading Scheme
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 11, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- Two Goldman Sachs employees made more than $6.7 million insider trading in a conspiracy with a Merrill Lynch analyst and a forklift operator who leaked a market-moving magazine column, authorities said Tuesday.

The men allegedly even tried to enlist exotic dancers to coax stock tips from investment bankers with inside knowledge of pending mergers and acquisitions....Mark Schonfeld, regional director of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which brought civil charges against 13 people....said the insider trading case was discovered by regulators who noticed unusually high trading volume before a merger announcement. A closer look showed that a 63-year-old retired seamstress in Croatia -- the aunt of one of the defendants -- had made more than $2 million.

Schonfeld said she was "either the most successful investor in the history of Wall Street or something more nefarious had taken place."

U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia told a news conference it was one of the most extensive insider trading cases in decades, showing two of Wall Street's most important firms had workers "who, motivated by greed, are willing to place their careers and their liberty in jeopardy."...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Insider-Trading.html

[BeyondGeography]

1. I'm shocked, absolutely shocked

that there is insider trading going on in this establishment.

[TomInTib]

2. What a story..

They would have gotten away with this except for good old Greed.

If they would have just gone slowly, they could have done it forever.

[fshrink]

3. Please!

Don't try to make me believe that these are more criminal than "any" other traders or people in power. Their methods, their motivations and all the rest are direct expressions of the republican "American Dream". Is the US DA going to run after Cheney for his dealing the public energy with business partners? No. Is any of the Idiot in Chief's shady deals going to be investigated? No. Will Rice be considered as the exotic dancer that she is? No.
A sprinkle of lawfulness is used to justify the wide-scale crookery that rules this country. Once in a while, little fish get drawn at random for the spectacle of it. Don't count on me for the applause.