IBM, Intel Execs Arrested Over Insider Trading 198
An anonymous reader writes to share a report from The Register stating that executives from IBM and Intel have been arrested as a part of insider trading allegations. "According to a report from the Associated Press, six people were arrested today as part of an insider trading case, including Bob Moffat, senior vice president and general manager of IBM's Systems and Technology Group; Rajiv Goel, director of strategic investments at Intel Capital; Anil Kumar, a director at management consultancy McKinsey & Co; and Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of the $7bn Galleon Group hedge fund."
Re:Well now... (Score:5, Insightful)
No it's not interesting. It takes time to move through all the documents and prepare for the arrest. The word you were looking for is routine.
Re:Well now... (Score:2, Insightful)
Probably nobody cared to investigate it until last January or February.
Honestly though... (Score:4, Insightful)
No, they are guilty of the ONLY crime in business (Score:5, Insightful)
It's called, 'getting caught.' You see, when you get caught, everyone else in business has to pretend they don't do it, and that they are shocked! Shocked and appalled at the bad apples ruining the barrel. By 'bad apples,' they mean, 'people just like me except they got caught' and by 'ruining the barrel,' they mean, 'drawing the attention of the peons to our utter corruption.'
Re:No bad or worse (Score:2, Insightful)
OOOHHH! HATE SPEECH!
We have laws to deal with those who think as you do! Never forget: Corporations are persons [wikipedia.org] and have all the rights of personhood, as enshrined (entombed?) in law. You are a hate-criminal, [wikipedia.org] and probably therefore a violent extremist. [wikipedia.org]
Re:Corrupt Complete. (Score:5, Insightful)
Will somebody please flush the elitist toilet?
Elitist is a loaded term used by useful idiots, seeking to lump together people of above-average intelligence, (supposedly) more highly refined culture, and (very, very secondarily) the wealthy into a political target group that can be exploited by the right wing populist. Unfortunately, this normally results in the demise of smart people (who cannot defend themselves), while leaving in place the wealthy (who can). In doing so, the right wing defang a properly targeted populist revolt that might actually change the system, which is based on economic class/power differences rather than on cultural/IQ differences. Doing this ensures that the fundamental class system, determined by power structures dictated by economics and wealth are never changed, leaving the idiots in the lower class forever subservient. Wash, repeat.
So have a ball flushing your elitist toilet and wave back from the sewer outlet as you try to figure out why that doesn't change a damn thing.
Re:Corrupt Complete. (Score:1, Insightful)
No, elitist is a term used to refer to people who think that due to to talent, money, or power, they possess a higher moral value than people without those talents/money/power/&c. A low-level government employee who thinks he shouldn't have to pay parking tickets is an elitist, a president who thinks he's got a moral obligation to take a bullet for a homeless man isn't. It's about perception, not position.
Re:Well now... (Score:5, Insightful)
There are victims of this crime. Those who bought or didn't buy shares at the 'wrong' price because they didn't have the information that the insiders did. Insider trading causes the honest people to A) lose money or B) not make as much money. So there are victims and injuries.
The drug thing is a whole different debate that I do not wish to even start with.
Re:Well now... (Score:5, Insightful)
You think that there are no victims and no injuries caused by insider trading? How about the people at the other end of those trades? What about the former shareholder who sold stock early, not having had access to information showing that the stock was undervalued? Or how about the new shareholder who did not have the information to know that the stock was overvalued? Those who have access to proprietary information, or who are in a position to manipulate the value of an organization, have a fiduciary duty of loyalty to shareholders. Insider trading violates that duty and is a subtle, but very real, method of stealing from them. For another perspective, click here [gbcnv.edu].
Re:No, they are guilty of the ONLY crime in busine (Score:4, Insightful)
It's really a tossup. +5 insightful, or +5 cynical. Ironic that cynicism and insight are so much alike, isn't it?
Re:Well now... (Score:4, Insightful)
Nope. Most people don't realize it, but financial crimes in the US are punished pretty severely. Enron's Skilling got 24 years in jail for conspiracy to defraud investors. You can get less than that for killing somebody. Martha Stewart got six months for lying to an investigator (while she wasn't under oath) about something that wasn't a crime. As with drunk driving for awhile people have this idea the penalties are light, but in the meantime legislators are reacting to public anger and jacking up the sentences. It takes awhile for reality to sink in to the public consciousness. From here [nytimes.com]:
I think the drug laws are pretty stupid, too, but where I live first time offenders never get jail time for possession. You can usually avoid jail on the second conviction as well if you don't have a bunch of other stuff on your record. By the third one, well, you're an idiot who's going to jail for being an idiot. But only for a few months.
Re:Bob Moffat et al (Score:3, Insightful)
What you fail to understand is that it would not be the hedge fund managers who were involved in insider trading who would be shot in the public stadium, no they have far too much power and influence (read as money).
It would be the drug dealers and other relatively insignificant criminals who would find themselves in a stadium preparing to be shot on national television.
Re:So is this why (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Corrupt Complete. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Bob Moffat et al (Score:3, Insightful)
"The Chinese method for dealing with political corruption is better, final, and satisfies the public right to vengeance against those who betray them."
And a dozen lucky people on various transplant lists get new organs.
While they're at it ... (Score:3, Insightful)
they can arrest everyone who has ever worked for Goldman Sachs or any of those other bankster firms who are now heaping lavish bonuses on their people, paid for by taxpayers who are becoming unemployed and homeless.
These IBM/intel guys are small potatoes. Make Geithner and Paulson do the perp walk.
Re:Insider trading is only for board members (Score:5, Insightful)
This part is especially worthy of note:
"The U.S. real economy suffers from critical shortages of employees with strong mathematical, engineering, and scientific backgrounds. Graduates in these three fields all too frequently choose careers in finance rather than the real economy because the financial sector provides far greater executive compensation. Individuals with these quantitative backgrounds work overwhelmingly in devising the kinds of financial models that were important contributors to the financial crisis. We take people that could be conducting the research & development work essential to the success of our real economy (including its success in becoming sustainable) and put them instead in financial sector activities where, because of that sector’s perverse incentives, they further damage both the financial sector and the real economy."
Re:Well now... (Score:2, Insightful)
Blah blah blah. Where did I praise Clinton? Where?
Quote me.
The days when you assholes like you can get away with that shit are long over. We've got the Google now. Anybody can just go find the truth. You have no excuse.
Put on some pants, you freak.