The papers reported over the weekend that the SEC, FBI and the office of Manhattan U.S. attorney Preet Bharara are readying insider-trading charges against numerous financial professionals.
The targets of the three-years-in-the-making civil and criminal probes range from consultants to investment bankers to mutual and hedge fund traders and analysts. According to the Journal, which broke the story, "One focus of the criminal investigation is examining whether nonpublic information was passed along by independent analysts and consultants who work for companies that provide 'expert network' services to hedge funds and mutual funds. These companies set up meetings and calls with current and former managers from hundreds of companies for traders seeking an investing edge."
Separately, the investigators are looking at whether (apparently low-level) bankers at Goldman Sachs leaked information about mergers. The Times compared hard-liner Bharara to his predecessor Rudolph Giuliani, who vigorously prosecuted Wall Streeters when he was the Manhattan U.S. attorney in the 1980s. The Post reports that the investigators "are up against new challenges in detecting, investigating and prosecuting abuses given the speed and complexity of the financial markets and a burst of new electronic media over which traders can communicate."
Marc Hochstein writes for American Banker.
