A recent Forbes Opinion piece argues that by using something called the “Dark Web” (a.k.a. the “Deep Web”), tech-savvy insider traders can avoid being caught. The author, Jesse Atlas, asserts that “insider trading has moved into another realm and only those too antiquated to use new evasive technology are caught, almost like a form of […]
Bruce Carton
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Please Join Me at the ‘West Coast SEC Directors Roundtable’ — May 8 in San Francisco
On Thursday, May 8, 2014, I will be in San Francisco to host an historic “West Coast SEC Directors Roundtable” that will feature a panel of six current and former Directors from the SEC’s San Francisco and Los Angeles Regional Offices: Jina L. Choi, Director, SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office Michele Wein Layne, Director, SEC’s Los Angeles Regional […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Madoff Staff Roundup: Jury Convicts All Five Defendants on All 31 Counts
After four days of deliberations, the 11-person jury hearing the marathon criminal trial against five former members of Bernard Madoff’s staff returned its unanimous verdict, finding all five defendants guilty on all of the 31 combined counts. Here are the key facts you need to know: The defendants in the case were operations chief Daniel Bonventre; […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Juror No. 6 in Madoff Staff Trial Goes Down After One Day of Deliberations
However bad your week is going, I’m betting it is still going better than that of Juror No. 6 in the marathon criminal trial of five former associates of Bernard Madoff. To recap, Juror No. 6, a teacher from Westchester, New York, was one of 400 prospective jurors in the Madoff staff trial who were summoned […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
SEC Says Insider Ring Ate Napkins, Created Phony Documents to Hide Scheme
The SEC today announced an insider trading case that allegedly flowed from information obtained by a managing clerk at law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. The clerk, Steven Metro, allegedly used a tactic previously employed by several other defendants who worked in law firms to obtain inside information about upcoming corporate deals: accessing confidential documents in the law firm’s […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Six Months Later, Case Against Madoff Staff Finally Reaches the Jury
In October, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York summoned over 400 jurors in an effort to find 12 jurors and six alternates to hear the criminal allegations against five former associates of Bernard Madoff. Jurors were told that the case was expected to last more than five months, which would make it the […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
SEC Strikes Again at S.A.C. Capital Affiliate With New Insider Trading Case
Almost exactly one year after the SEC announced a record $600 million insider trading settlement with hedge fund advisory firm CR Intrinsic Investors, an affiliate of S.A.C. Capital Advisors, it announced today that it has charged a former former analyst at CR Intrinsic with insider trading based on nonpublic information that he obtained about an unrelated […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Jury Returns Mixed Verdict in SEC’s Twelfth Trial in FY 2014
In my February 2014 column for Compliance Week, I laid out the SEC’s nine trials to date in FY 2014 (which began on October 1, 2013), and the results in each case. Last week, the SEC announced that after a six-day trial in the case of SEC v. Jacobs, a federal jury in Ohio returned […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Behind the Myth of Insider Trading by SEC Employees
Last month, a new academic study led by an Emory University accounting professor on trading habits by employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission got lots of coverage in the financial press, with blaring, dramatic headlines such as: “The Incredible Stock-Picking Ability of SEC Employees;” “Study Finds SEC Staff Sold Shares Before Cases Made Public;” […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
SEC Sues Five From Dewey & LeBoeuf for Allegedly Fraudulent Bond Offering
Yesterday, the Manhattan D.A.’s office brought shocking criminal charges against three of the former leaders of law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP. The Dewey firm went under in 2012 after over a century in business. Manhattan D.A. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., announced the indictments of Steven Davis, Stephen DiCarmine, and Joel Sanders, who were, respectively, […]
