Bruce Carton

Last year at Securities Enforcement Forum 2013 in Washington, D.C., SEC Chair Mary Jo White announced her goal for SEC enforcement to be–or at least appear to be–“everywhere.” She compared her enforcement approach to the “Broken Windows” strategy that was employed in the 1990s by then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, under which […]

SAC Capital’s alleged insider trading that led to a $602 million settlement with the SEC is discussed in detail in the excellent piece in The New Yorker that I recommended earlier this week. Now the SEC is faced with another question: what should it do with that $602 million? The size of the trading involved has brought […]

The October 13, 2014 issue of The New Yorker includes a terrific piece by Patrick Radden Keefe that provides a fascinating look at the workings at SAC Capital, the high-profile prosecution of former SAC trader Mathew Martoma, and the government’s intense pursuit of SAC founder Steve Cohen.   The piece focuses on the insider trading scandal that culminated in […]

On August 28, I discussed a report that the FBI was investigating a possible “significant breach of corporate computer security” at JPMorgan and up to four other banks. JPMorgan confirmed at the time that it was taking “additional steps” to protect confidential information and working with law enforcement to determine the scope of the attack. […]

The scourge of the so-called “revolving door” between the SEC and the private sector is always a favorite topic of critics of the agency. To recap, the revolving door refers to SEC officials leaving the agency to go work in lucrative positions in private law practice or for Wall Street firms. This practice is presumed […]

In two cases filed this week as the SEC’s fiscal year 2014 comes to a close, the SEC delivered a sharp reminder to financial analysts (and their friends!) that market-moving ratings changes by financial institutions need to remain confidential until they are publicly announced. The cases, filed in a span of 48-hours, both involved traders who […]

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that Sam Wyly and the estate of his late brother, Charles, must pay $187.7 million in disgorgement following the SEC’s May 2014 jury verdict against them. On May 12, 2014, a federal jury in Manhattan found that the Wyly brothers were liable for fraud and violations of the reporting […]

At the very end of summer, when nobody was really paying much attention to the securities enforcement world, I noted here that the FBI had arrested a man named Michael A. Lucarelli on 13 counts of insider trading. While this ordinarily would have been just a small blip on my, and the media’s, summer radar, […]

The SEC brought an interesting case this week against Wells Fargo Advisors LLC for failing to maintain adequate controls to prevent an employee from engaging in insider trading based on a customer’s nonpublic information. The SEC said the case was the first it has brought against a broker-dealer for failing to protect nonpublic information conveyed […]

Is an insider trading conviction from January 2003 “irrelevant?” In the U.K., the answer appears to be that it is–at least for purposes of the EU’s new “Right to be Forgotten” directive. In 2003, a U.K. man named Tim Blackstone (identified by The Telegraph as “a former porn star and brother of Baroness Blackstone”) was found guilty […]