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The SEC’s Quiet Insider-Trading Loss

Publisher: Bloomberg
Author: Jonathan Weil

Last week, the SEC© scored a big victory in the success conviction of former SAC Capital Advisors LP fund manager Mathew Martoma.

It followed a string of highly publicized successful criminal convictions of insider-trading allegations targeting SAC Capital Advisors LP Fund, run by billionaire Stephen Cohen. However, the SEC’s pursuit of civil insider-trading cases has been much less successful and less heralded then their more publicized criminal trial success. Two days before the Martoma trial, the SEC© quietly announced the result of a civil insider-trading case against an Illinois farmer and his three sons. When the SEC© announced its original complaint against the men, the agency issued a news release with the headline “SEC© Charges Family Insider Trading Ring In Million-Dollar Scheme.” However, on January 27th, 2014, the federal jury in Chicago ruled in favor of the defendants, rejecting the SEC’s claim that the defendants “exploited their personal and family relationships for monetary gain.”

For full access to the article, please click here. What are your thoughts on the SEC’s dogged pursuit of inside trading for both civil and criminal cases? Do you believe the SEC’s tenacity in pursuing cases is misguided?

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