Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes? "A whistleblower claims that over the past two decades, the agency has destroyed records of thousands of investigations, whitewashing the files of some of the nation's worst financial criminals."
posted by homunculus on Aug 18, 2011 - 45 comments

Insider trading laws do not apply to members of US Congress. And it shows, an academic study found members of House beat the market by 6% annually from 1985 to 2001, outperforming hedge funds, not to mention Raj Rajaratnam and Martha Stewart. [more inside]
posted by stbalbach on May 27, 2011 - 51 comments

Dallas Mavericks owner, celebrity dancer, Dairy Queen manager, and bloviating billionaire Mark Cuban has been accused of insider trading. In its complaint, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Cuban of selling his entire stake in Momma.com (since renamed) to avoid a $750,000 loss in 2004. But not even the government has a gag big enough to cover Cuban's mouth. On his blog, Cuban says the SEC is picking on him and presented an excerpt of a deposition of Mamma.com's CEO. And Cuban would like you to believe that he's being politically persecuted for his support of the 9/11 conspiracy film, "Loose Change." Cuban's Magnolia Pictures, which redacted Redacted, was said to be interested in a distribution deal.
posted by up in the old hotel on Nov 19, 2008 - 42 comments

There are 65,000 contracts @ $750.00 for the SPX 700 calls for open interest. That controls 6.5 million shares at $750 = $4.5 Billion. Not a single trade . But quite a bit of $$ on a contract that is 700 points away from current value. No one would buy that deep in the money calls. No reason to. So if they were sold looks like someone betting on massive dislocation. Lots of very strange option activity that I haven't seen before. I've been doing this about 25 years. The entity or individual offering these sales can only make money if the market drops 30%-50% within the next four weeks. If the market does not drop, the entity or invidual involved stands to lose over $1 billion just for engaging in these contracts! Clearly, someone knows something big is going to happen BEFORE the options expire on Sept. 21.via
posted by Huplescat on Aug 25, 2007 - 119 comments

Newsfilter: Emilia DiSanto, chief investigator for Chuck Grassley was attacked at her home. Was the attack connected to the Finance Committee's investigations into Medicare Fraud, drug secrets and insider trading, or the Abramoff scandal? (via)
posted by pandaharma on Nov 7, 2005 - 22 comments

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hires a huge U.S. legal team to defend them against the landmark $1 trillion lawsuit on behalf of the victims of 9-11 (msnbc link)

Baker Botts is the lawfirm representing the Saudis.
I find it interesting that this lawfirm boasts former secretary of State James Baker as one of its senior partners. Its recent alumni included Robert Jordan (Jordan, a corporate lawyer in the Dallas office of Houston-based Baker Botts, defended Bush in a probe of insider trading allegations in 1990. Bush was cleared of wrongdoing), the former personal lawyer for President Bush who is now U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
posted by bureaustyle on Apr 21, 2003 - 10 comments

Space-time continuum abused for financial gain Federal investigators have arrested a Wall Street whizz who made $350 million from an initial investment of just $800 in two weeks. The man has confessed to insider dealing, explaining that he travelled back from the year 2256 in his 'time craft' specifically to make a killing on recorded past stock plunges. The kicker? There's no record of the man's existence prior to December 2002.
posted by skylar on Mar 28, 2003 - 41 comments

Oooh, Martha's in trouble... Looks like her ex-boyfriend may have tipped her off to some insider information (and subsequently got popped). News of the incident has caused Martha Stewart Omnimedia stock to drop. Not a Good Thing.
posted by shecky57 on Jun 12, 2002 - 13 comments