If you are in an insider trading ring and your ring-buddies are using a “nickname” of any kind for you or others involved, it is all but certain that the nickname is going to be prominently mentioned when the SEC issues its press release about the case.

Today’s case involving the so-called “Octopussy” was a good reminder of that. In case you missed it, the SEC was quick to note in its announcement of the case today that a key defendant in the case, Zvi Goffer, “was known as ‘the Octopussy’ within the insider trading ring due to his reputation for having his arms in so many sources of inside information.” Enforcement Director Rob Khuzami reportedly brought that up again at the press conference today, stating that the SEC had “caught Octopussy.”

Today’s “Octopussy” case reminded me of the “Golden Goose” case.  As you may recall, in December 2008, the SEC sued Matthew Devlin for trading on and tipping his clients and friends with confidential, nonpublic information about 13 impending corporate transactions that allegedly led to $4.8 million in illegal profits. In this case, which remains the only known example of a Code Red, Betrayal Level: Severe (”Hell Hath No Fury”) on my “Familial Betrayal Advisory System,” Devlin allegedly obtained the information from his wife, a partner in the New York City office of an international public relations firm (Brunswick Group) that was working on the deals. The betrayal allegedly began just four months after the two got married in 2003, and went on for more than four years. Devlin’s wife had no idea her husband was doing this.

In its press release on the Devlin case, the SEC made sure to mention that because the information from his wife was so valuable, Devlin and his friends dubbed Ms. Devlin the “Golden Goose.” In fact, at one point, Devlin reportedly told a co-defendant whose girlfriend was once a Playboy Playmate that “[your girlfriend] may be amazing at some things, but none of them are like the golden goose.”