Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
Stocks, Bitcoin and Crypto Markets Breaking Bad on Donald Trump Pump - 21st Nov 24
Gold Price To Re-Test $2,700 - 21st Nov 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks: This Is My Strong Warning To You - 21st Nov 24
Financial Crisis 2025 - This is Going to Shock People! - 21st Nov 24
Dubai Deluge - AI Tech Stocks Earnings Correction Opportunities - 18th Nov 24
Why President Trump Has NO Real Power - Deep State Military Industrial Complex - 8th Nov 24
Social Grant Increases and Serge Belamant Amid South Africa's New Political Landscape - 8th Nov 24
Is Forex Worth It? - 8th Nov 24
Nvidia Numero Uno in Count Down to President Donald Pump Election Victory - 5th Nov 24
Trump or Harris - Who Wins US Presidential Election 2024 Forecast Prediction - 5th Nov 24
Stock Market Brief in Count Down to US Election Result 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Gold Stocks’ Winter Rally 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Why Countdown to U.S. Recession is Underway - 3rd Nov 24
Stock Market Trend Forecast to Jan 2025 - 2nd Nov 24
President Donald PUMP Forecast to Win US Presidential Election 2024 - 1st Nov 24
At These Levels, Buying Silver Is Like Getting It At $5 In 2003 - 28th Oct 24
Nvidia Numero Uno Selling Shovels in the AI Gold Rush - 28th Oct 24
The Future of Online Casinos - 28th Oct 24
Panic in the Air As Stock Market Correction Delivers Deep Opps in AI Tech Stocks - 27th Oct 24
Stocks, Bitcoin, Crypto's Counting Down to President Donald Pump! - 27th Oct 24
UK Budget 2024 - What to do Before 30th Oct - Pensions and ISA's - 27th Oct 24
7 Days of Crypto Opportunities Starts NOW - 27th Oct 24
The Power Law in Venture Capital: How Visionary Investors Like Yuri Milner Have Shaped the Future - 27th Oct 24
This Points To Significantly Higher Silver Prices - 27th Oct 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

A U.S. Court Practically Declared Insider Trading Legal

Politics / Market Regulation Dec 15, 2014 - 11:49 AM GMT

By: Money_Morning

Politics

Shah Gilani writes: Wednesday, December 10, 2014, was a big day for insider trading.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned insider trading convictions of former hedge fund managers Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson.

Not only did the appeals court reverse the much-publicized guilty verdicts against the two traders, its 28-page decision effectively rewrites the meaning of insider trading.


The immediate outcome of the decision not only affects the two hedge fund executives, other traders convicted of insider trading, and charged individuals who pled guilty, it will also change how traders use inside information to their benefit in the future.

The court decision is as surprising as it is profound…

This Changes Trading Forever

Because the surprise unanimous appeals court decision immediately vacated the May 2013 judgments of conviction against Newman and Chiasson on charges of conspiracy to commit insider trading and insider trading in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, sections 10(b) and 32 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, SEC Rules 10b‐5 and 10b5‐2, and 18 U.S.C. § 2.

Adding insult to injury for Preet Bharara, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney who oversaw the six-week jury trial, which was heard in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District and presided over by Judge Richard J. Sullivan, the appeals court dismissed the entire suit with prejudice.

According to IllinoisLegalAid.org, "In the formal legal world a court case that is dismissed with prejudice means that it is dismissed permanently. A case dismissed with prejudice is over and done with, once and for all, and can't be brought back to court."

Now, not only won't there be any re-trial based on the appeals court decision, the only way similarly derived convictions will stand up on appeal will be if the matter makes it to the Supreme Court.

What happened – and how it happened – matters.

An Impossibly High Bar Is Set

The bottom line: As far as the appeals court's ruling, Judge Richard Sullivan gave the jurors hearing the case against both traders erroneous instructions. The appeals court said that he set the bar too low, which made it easy for jurors who deliberated for two days to reach a guilty verdict.

But the real bombshell in the Appeals Court decision is what it says is required to prove insider trading.

Insiders at Dell Inc. (formerly Nasdaq: DELL) and Nvidia Corp. (Nasdaq: NVDA) passed along information about what was going on in their companies to some contacts, which made its way through some fuzzy Wall Street "intelligence networks" (in reality, glorified gossip channels papered over with research notes) to analysts, who transmitted the information to analysts who worked for Newman and Chiasson. They traded on the information and made about $72 million.

While Judge Sullivan told jurors it was enough to show the traders knew the information they traded on resulted from a breach of fiduciary duty on the part of the tipsters at Dell and Nvidia, it didn't matter if the tipsters received benefits as a result of their tips. The appeals court wholeheartedly disagreed.

The new interpretation of what constitutes insider trading effectively says, a prosecutor must prove that the "tip-ee" knew that the "tipster" committed a breach of their fiduciary duty in disclosing inside information, and that the "tip-ee" knew that the "tipster" would gain a tangible reward of "some consequence."

Only one of the tipsters in the case received any gain. And that was merely "career advice." As such, the appeals court determined that there was no gain of any consequence, and further, that the traders didn't get the information first-hand.

Experts Despair of Ever Fixing the Problem

I spoke to New York securities attorney Bill Singer – editor of the widely followed BrokeandBroker.com site, who was formerly on the regulatory side of securities lawyering but now represents broker-dealers, brokers, traders, and their customers – for his reaction to the decision.

"This is one of those rare cases that is actually historic," Singer said. "The appeals court decision largely eviscerates any further or future prosecution of similar cases."

The bar for the burden of proof has been raised Singer told me. "Now there are two hurdles," he explained. "It has to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the tipper knew he was breeching his fiduciary duty and would benefit, meaning probably receive compensation, and it must be proved beyond that elusive reasonable doubt, that the tip-ee knew the tipster was breeching his duty and knew that the tipster would benefit through some tangible reward. All that, beyond a reasonable doubt."

So, if the bar to prove insider trading has been raised, I asked the securities expert, is there an easier way under it now?

"Here's my cynical response," Singer replied, "This provides a roadmap to tipsters and tip-ees on how to distance themselves from bumping into the existing statutes."

He's not alone in recognizing the fuzzy legal ramifications of many of the statutes governing Wall Street.

Judge Barrington D. Parker, writing the appeals court decision on behalf of the panel that included Judge Ralph K. Winter Jr. and Judge Peter W. Hall, said, "Although the government might like the law to be different, nothing in the law requires a symmetry of information in the nation's securities markets."

As if there wasn't enough asymmetry already dividing the haves from the have-nots, there's now a higher bar for fleet-footed, "in-the-know" traders to waltz right under.

Source : http://moneymorning.com/2014/12/15/a-u-s-court-practically-declared-insider-trading-legal/

Money Morning/The Money Map Report

©2014 Monument Street Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the world wide web), of content from this website, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Monument Street Publishing. 105 West Monument Street, Baltimore MD 21201, Email: customerservice@moneymorning.com

Disclaimer: Nothing published by Money Morning should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized investent advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication, or after the mailing of printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended by Money Morning should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

Money Morning Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in