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Former Equifax CIO Sentenced to 4 Months in Prison for Insider Training (cnet.com) 85

An anonymous reader quotes CNET: A former Equifax executive who sold his stock in the consumer credit reporting firm before it announced a massive data breach has been sentenced to four months in federal prison for insider trading. Jun Ying, former chief information officer for the company's US Information Solutions, was also ordered to pay about $117,000 in restitution and a $55,000 fine, the US Attorney's Office said Thursday... Ying sold all his shares in Equifax, making more than $950,000. Ying's insider trading happened 10 days before Equifax publicly announced its breach.

Ying, 44, is the second Equifax employee convicted of insider trading related to the data breach. Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu, a former Equifax software development manager, pleaded guilty in 2018 to using the insider information to make more than $75,000 on the stock market. Bonthu was ordered to serve eight months home confinement, pay a $50,000 fine and forfeit the proceeds from the stock sale.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Byung J. Pak said that Ying had "thought of his own financial gain before the millions of people exposed in this data breach even knew they were victims."
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Former Equifax CIO Sentenced to 4 Months in Prison for Insider Training

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 30, 2019 @04:40PM (#58851354)

    Oh no! Not insider training!!

    • Did he tell his family or friends any insider tips on training?

      E

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Because as read, he came out almost 800k ahead. Which might not be enough for a high living guy to retire, but is the kind of money the majority of us would consider our retirement nest egg.

        • That's more than most trainers make, he must have high end clients.

      • don't drop the soap!

  • Wow, barely a damn thing happened to him. Even the Fyre festival guy got six years (should have probably been 8~10 considering all the damage he did, but 6 is at least reasonable.

    Insider Trading can generate a lot of quick wealth, and harm everyone else in the company. That plus the entire way they handled the breach is disgraceful.

    • Judges are generally wealthy people too. The wealthy need to keep an eye out for each other.

    • Insider Trading can generate a lot of quick wealth, and harm everyone else in the company.

      It generally generates about as much harm as the CEO getting his yearly bonus. While I agree it's a slap on the wrist, it's hardly comparable to the Fyre festival which outright defrauded thousands at best, and left them to rot in an unsafe squalor at worst.

  • Pretty flagrant in this case, but I'm wondering how much "real value" there is for any insider trading by human beings these years. The stock prices are basically determined by what high-speed trading programs "think" the next price will be. If the computer predicts the price will go up, then it buys and if other computers agree, then sure enough, the price does go up. The real threat to the market is what happens when all the computers agree that the prices are going to fall and they all "decide" they need

    • by gtall ( 79522 )

      There's no relationship between Trump's mumbles and what come out of his fingertips. Both are entirely random.

      • by shanen ( 462549 )

        I feel like I've been misinterpreted, but I did write rather firmly. No, I'm NOT saying that you can trust anything he says, even something about what he is planning to tweet where he could be telling the truth. However I don't want to reduce it to a purely probabilistic argument, which would take me back to how the pump-and-dump stock scams worked so well...

        However if Trump says angry things in a private phone call (which is perhaps being monitored by someone else) about a particular company and you know t

    • I'm wondering how much "real value" there is for any insider trading by human beings these years.

      It's how politicians get rich.

    • the high speed traders are just algorithms reacting to the human buyers and sellers and try to jump in between to fleece both.

      look, you can edge a maybe lets say a 0.5% advantage with the high speed algorithm on it right on the uplink of the exchange. the algorithm has no idea that the stock would be plunging 20% next week . it can try to sell it at when it's plunging at 5% down on it's way to the 20% of course, but that doesn't really determine the stock price. ultimately it's humans who do that, who o

      • by shanen ( 462549 )

        I partly agree with you, but I think you are underestimating the influence of the computers playing games with technical analysis.

        On the solution side, I think a transaction tax is a better general-purpose solution. The metaphor I would use is to describe the current system as a friction-free engine that keeps accelerating without any governor. At some point it's going to reach its limit and explode.

      • the high speed traders are just algorithms reacting to the human buyers and sellers and try to jump in between to fleece both.

        That's not how it works.

        If there's a buy order from A, and a matching sell order from B, the order system will make a trade between A/B right away. There's no way for a 3rd party to wait for those orders to appear in the book, and then steal the order for a better price.

        The only way that a high frequency trader can get A's order is by submitting his own order before B's, which is completely fair.

    • The real threat to the market is what happens when all the computers agree that the prices are going to fall and they all "decide" they need to sell.

      Somebody may cause a drop because they sell a large order, but if there's no accompanying bad news for that company, others will view it as a buying opportunity, and bring the price back up.

      High speed trading is mostly used for arbitrage, not speculation. There's not much benefit to high speed for regular trading.

  • Or lack of...
  • Yes, it's a typo in the title (should be "Insider trading") but it made me think: how many CxOs actually do any training, as in, give parts of their accumulated wisdom to the colleagues that will eventually take over from them?

    My guess is, none. It's just such a cutthroat environment.

    • maybe he was just training to be an insider trader
    • Yes, it's a typo in the title (should be "Insider trading") but it made me think: how many CxOs actually do any training, as in, give parts of their accumulated wisdom to the colleagues that will eventually take over from them?

      My guess is, none. It's just such a cutthroat environment.

      Yes a good thing. Just as a poker game where everyone knows the dealers cards but you.

      It sounds unjust at face value but really my above description talks about why it is illegal.

  • Sentence is weak, still have all credit bureaus frozen, and its difficult to manage that, and the specter of having a stolen identity is ever present At least with those convictions their future job prospects are somewhat diminished
  • Where is deterence? (Score:4, Informative)

    by manu0601 ( 2221348 ) on Sunday June 30, 2019 @06:22PM (#58851758)
    So he wins 950 kUSD and have to pay back 117 + 55 kUSD? That is still good business.
    • Well he faces a 4 month sentence.... who knows how much of that he will actually serve... at club fed - minimum security, with hotel like amenities.

      And he will still net over $750k.

      Sign me up.

      • by TXJD ( 5534458 )
        He's a convicted felon? That's a lot more problems too. Can't vote in most states, jobs become an issue, etc.
        • by mea2214 ( 935585 )
          Felonies on executive class applications are far less important as they are for the proletariat class.
    • by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Sunday June 30, 2019 @07:53PM (#58852170) Journal

      I know that SOP here does not include reading the actual article, but how about reading the summary:
      " and forfeit the proceeds from the stock sale."

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        how about you read the summary?
        the second person mentioned in the summary is who had to forfeit the proceeds (Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu) not Ying who this summary is actually about...

        so 950-(177+55) (+/- 4 months in club fed) still sounds like a sweet sweet deal..

        So who should read the summary again?

        • how about you read the summary? the second person mentioned in the summary is who had to forfeit the proceeds (Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu) not Ying who this summary is actually about...

          Well of course. Ying was an executive, Bonthu was just a software development manager. Got to keep the proles in line.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Per TFS that was the other person (Bonthu) convicted over this. I'd be surprised if Ying didn't also have to forfeit the proceeds but that detail isn't in there.

      • " and forfeit the proceeds from the stock sale."

        Did YOU read the article? The statement above relates to another insider trading event/person. Here is the quote from the article, see if you can read and comprehend it this time around:

        Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu, a former Equifax software development manager, pleaded guilty in 2018 to using the insider information to make more than $75,000 on the stock market. Bonthu was ordered to serve eight months home confinement, pay a $50,000 fine and forfeit the proceeds from the stock sale.

    • The fact that he went to prison AT ALL is the punishment. I see you are unfamiliar with how the law works for elites. If any of us pulled this, we'd have the assets stripped as the results of a criminal enterprise. Try getting stopped with drugs in your car, the government takes your car. One law for me, another harsher law for thee.
  • Sold his stock, 950k, only pays 117,000 fine & 55k in restitution. 120 days in a (most likely) "country club" prison.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    I was part of the Equifax breach. Other than a year of free credit monitoring, I got nothing in return. Equifax was never held accountable.
    Now even when this CIO of Equifax was personally held accountable, it was not for the breach itself but only because he profited off it.

    But even then, this CIO of Equifax still comes out ahead: $950,000-($117,000+$55,000)=$778,000.
    I'm sure he had legal fees. But would you accept upwards of $778,000 for serving four months in "country club" prison?

    There is still no jus

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