SpaceX Engineer Pleads Guilty To Selling Insider Trading Tips On Dark Web

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: An engineer working for Elon Musk's SpaceX pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiracy to commit securities fraud by selling insider tips on the "dark web," the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Thursday. The case was the first in which the SEC has brought an enforcement action alleging securities violations on the dark web, it said. James Roland Jones of Redondo Beach, California, faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison, the Department of Justice said. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

According to the agencies, from 2016 until at least 2017, Jones conspired with another unnamed person to access various dark web marketplaces, including a website claiming to be an insider trading forum, in search of material, non-public information to use for his own securities trading. Jones also devised a scheme to sell what he falsely claimed were insider tips on the dark web, the agencies said. Several users paying in bitcoin purchased these tips and ultimately traded based on the information Jones provided, they said.

So the info was fake

[WoodstockJeff]

and he sold it to people who thought they were breaking the law.

So he was running an SEC sting?

Re:

[rmdingler]

Like Aaron Schwartz then, a hack in search of a crime?

Cheese and rice kids, just because it's really not a crime will ill protect you if you upset the wrong asshats.

Re: So the info was fake

[uhvuhvuhv]

I guess defrauding fraudsters is still fraud, like, say, robbing a robber is still robbery right? I mean, if you hold me up in a dark alley and take my watch, then Jane holds you up and takes it for herself.... I mean, she still has the watch....

Darkweb + Cryptocoin and STILL got caught?

[heretic108]

If someone runs a racket via the Darkweb, and draws payment via a cryptocurrency, but still gets caught, they deserve to do time.

Didn't actually sell insider secrets

[monkeyxpress]

A more insightful article on the situation here [financefeeds.com]

Interestingly he did not actually sell insider secrets (his employer, SpaceX is not publicly traded anyway). He sold fake secrets that the people buying thought were real secrets. The charges seem to be based on fraud.

I have to say it's a pretty odd situation. Obviously he shouldn't have been involved in that scene, but it must really suck to get a conviction for ripping off actual criminals.

Anyway, that's his career over.

Re:

[inode_buddha]

What really sucks is that it's legal for congress to engage in insider trading. For anyone else, its risking jail time.

Re:

[GuB-42]

It is not odd, it is fraud, and ripping off criminal is as illegal as ripping off anyone else.

Another example is that if you you can go to prison for selling fake drugs. Obviously, the guy you sold a bag of flour as cocaine to is unlikely to tell the police, but if he was an undercover cop, you are in trouble...

Re:

[comodoro]

It is still illegal, but it is less immoral. Laws are supposed to protect the innocent. If you are buying insider trading tips on the dark web, you kind of do it at your own risk. Every crime should have a victim; could people buying insider trading tips from a stranger really be classified as victims?

Re:

[GuB-42]

Laws are supposed to protect everyone.
And scamming a scammer is just as immoral as scamming an innocent. If you think about it, the money you got from the crook is money he stole from someone else, and that money should go back to the original victim. If it goes into your pocket, it is as if you stole it yourself.

Re:

[comodoro]

A quote comes to mind:

We have a saying here: thief that steals from another thief is pardoned for a hundred years:-)

But seriously, even though I do not completely endorse the above, I perceive a clear difference between scamming a scammer and scamming an innocent person.

Hi

[iamzakaria]

Geart ðY'OE

Re:SEC?

[Rei]

What he's charged with has nothing to do with SpaceX. Bringing up his unrelated employer is just a cheap way to get clicks.

classic irrelevant clickbait

[anonimouser]

This has nothing to do with SpaceX (as someone else noted it isn't publicly traded anyway). If SpaceX were not listed in the title nobody would bother to read this. And after you read it you realize there is no news here.

SpaceX is a private company ...

[quenda]

So I'm confused.
How can he be involved in insider trading when he is "inside" a private company? (not publicly traded)

Is his employer of any relevance here, or is it just there to add clicks?

Re:

[quenda]

That's weird. I could swear the above comment from monkeyxpress (which answered my question) did not load before I posted, even though 2 hours old!?
mod parent redundant :-)