From the Top: insider trading may be rampant, from relatively low rungs to the top.

[groovedaddy]

This week brought news that Rajat Gupta, a longtime senior executive at McKinsey & Company and a former director of Goldman Sachs, is accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of providing illegal information to Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund who is scheduled for trial next week.

If the charges are true, then the rampant wrongdoing that many suspect in the financial world will have reached one of the most elite boardrooms.

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney who is prosecuting Mr. Rajaratnam for an alleged insider trading scheme, has not charged Mr. Gupta. Since late 2009, he has secured guilty pleas from 29 people for insider trading and charged 17 others. They include high-profile traders, midlevel executives and relatively minor players involved in “expert network” firms that have carried information between traders and companies.

Mr. Gupta and Mr. Rajaratnam met a half-decade ago through their common interest in the Indian School of Business. The S.E.C. alleges that in his role as a Goldman Sachs director, Mr. Gupta learned in September 2008 about Berkshire Hathaway’s not yet public $5 billion investment in Goldman. The morning after, according to a S.E.C. document, “Gupta and Rajaratnam very likely had a telephone conversation.” Shortly after, Galleon tech funds bought more than 80,000 Goldman shares.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/opinion/04fri3.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211

[HereSince1628]

1. It was a political protest against the SEC, so it is protected as speech.

It's at least as good as the twinky defense

[Zoeisright]

2. Wall Street is the Ponzi scheme.

Those banksters and Wall Street execs are criminals - every single one of them.

[Frustratedlady]

3. But, whatever happens to them? How many see the inside of a prison?

Martha served time, but unless I've missed it, others haven't. A fine, slap on the wrist and they are back to their bonuses.

Prove me wrong. Please!

[groovedaddy]

4. They are. The ones working in the White House should be FIRED first, prosecuted next! n.t

[StarburstClock]

5. Illegal trading is just another manifestation of an entirely illegal way of life

in a country that tortures, lets war criminals and domestic terrorists go free, allows rigged elections, has a massive propaganda network and has a government that actively works against the people.

[SharonAnn]

6. "May" be rampant? I think "Is" rampant is more accurate.

[somone]

7. Wall Street is nothing but a giant scam

[cognoscere]

8. Who would have ever thought it possible, especially after they

threw Martha Stewart in the slammer for lying about it?

[plumbob]

9. MAY be rampant? MAY be rampant? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Whoo! That's a good one!