By PETER LATTMAN, NY Times, U.S. in Late Stages of Insider Trading Investigation
Excerpt:
Federal authorities are at an advanced stage of an insider-trading investigation that could result in criminal charges or significant civil fines against Wall Street traders and executives, a government official said Saturday.
“We are far along in investigations of insider trading,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is incomplete.
Goldman Sachs is among the firms under scrutiny, according to a person briefed on the investigation who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The person said the inquiry involved several low-level Goldman employees, not executives.
Both the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission have taken an increasingly aggressive — and public — stance in pursuing insider-trading on Wall Street. Among the government officials taking the hardest line is Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan.
“Illegal insider trading is rampant and may even be on the rise,” said Mr. Bharara in a speech last month. “Disturbingly, many of the people who are going to such lengths to obtain inside information for a trading advantage are already among the most advantaged, privileged and wealthy insiders in modern finance. But for them, material nonpublic information is akin to a performance-enhancing drug that provides the illegal ‘edge’ to outpace their rivals and make even more money.”
Read more here: U.S. in Far-Reaching Insider Trading Inquiry – NYTimes.com.
