Former Goldman executive jailed for insider trading

You know, I posted a thread yesterday about a French Trader who stole over 4 billion Euros from his bank and now I check my YouTube feed page and see a Goldman executive is also going to jail. What do these 2 men have in common besides working and stealing from the financial sector? They both receive LAUGHABLE sentences for their crimes.

Former Goldman executive jailed for insider trading

Fmr. Goldman Sachs Executive Sentenced For Insider Trading

newyork.cbslocal.com...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - A former Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble Co. board member convicted of insider trading will serve two years in prison, it was announced Wednesday afternoon. He was also fined $5 million.

Prosecutors had sought up to 10 years in prison, while the defense had argued for a sentence of community service.

Rajat Gupta was sentenced for his role in a mammoth insider trading case that prosecutors say was the largest in history. Already, former billionaire hedge fund owner Raj Rajaratnam – a onetime close friend of Gupta originally from Sri Lanka – is serving 11 years in prison for earning up to $75 million illegally.

Nothing like the smell of fresh scapegoat for public consumption!

reply to post by Swills

Convicted on 3 counts... and got 2 years.

Insider trading is wrong... unless youre in Congress, then its fine.

Kinda like Obamacare. YOU have to abide by it, but Congress is exempt...

All of them should be in jail. Every person who was involved in the scandal should be charged.

really, all insider trading is information. its not theft or fraud.

its like having a friend in a factory tell you not to buy that t.v., because a better one is coming out in 3 weeks.

do you think you should spend 2 years in prison for buying a t.v.

what they should do is revoke these guys trading licences for 10 years and fine the companies that benefit from this trading, $50-100 million on each count.

just like if a mcdonalds employee pisses on your big mac, mcdonalds corp. is held liable, if one of your stock traders acts illegally, the whole corp. is held accountable.

they only difference is that powerful people have a vested interest in financial institutions and a $100 million fine comes out of their profits. while they still profit on insider trading that isn't detected.

they are having their cake and eating it, while the individual stock trader is the patsy who goes to jail if caught.

so nothing will change.

what's funny is that warren buffet became the second richest man in history on trading stocks and information, and they're telling me that in all those decades of 1v1 meetings with ceos, consultations, conferences, board meetings, dinner parties, fundraisers and golf rounds he never got or received information that was not available to you.

ya right. its because he's the "oracle" of omaha and eats cheeseburgers like the rest of us.

reply to post by randomname


You make it sound like insider trading is no big deal.

www.mystockoptions.com...

What are the criminal penalties for insider trading?

It is the Justice Department and local United States attorneys' offices, not the SEC, that have the authority to bring criminal prosecutions. Under Section 32(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, individuals face up to 20 years in prison for criminal securities fraud and/or a fine of up to $5 million for each "willful" violation of the act and the regulations under it. Only fines, not imprisonment, apply if the defendant can demonstrate "no knowledge" of the rule or regulation that is violated. Corporations face penalties of up to $25 million.

In addition, violators are usually charged with mail and wire fraud (which can lead to a sentence of up to 20 years in prison), more general "securities fraud" (up to 25 years in prison), and possibly even racketeering, tax evasion, and/or obstruction of justice. You can also expect civil penalties to result from the SEC's enforcement action.

Prison terms for insider-trading convictions have lengthened in recent years. According to The Wall Street Journal, from 2009 to 2011 the median jail sentence was 30 months, up from a median term of 18 months during the 2000s. From 1993 through 1999, the median length of prison terms was only just under a year.

Not that all of these traders are being tried in America but the point is insider trading I always thought to be a big No No, something you definitely didn't wanna get caught doing. Hell, I was shocked to learn that members of Congress incomes increased greatly since they've arrived in Washingon DC and that's because they were legally allowed to inside trade. But I digress...

... these men are clearly being given the lightest sentence possible and I promise you more could be convicted but they won't be. The cases will end with these stooges and their light sentences. Case closed. These fall guys are the justice we get? Isn't the world in great financial turmoil and these are the best sentences they can dish out?

We the world are F'd.

Originally posted by randomname
really, all insider trading is information. its not theft or fraud.

its like having a friend in a factory tell you not to buy that t.v., because a better one is coming out in 3 weeks.

do you think you should spend 2 years in prison for buying a t.v.

what they should do is revoke these guys trading licences for 10 years and fine the companies that benefit from this trading, $50-100 million on each count.

just like if a mcdonalds employee pisses on your big mac, mcdonalds corp. is held liable, if one of your stock traders acts illegally, the whole corp. is held accountable.

they only difference is that powerful people have a vested interest in financial institutions and a $100 million fine comes out of their profits. while they still profit on insider trading that isn't detected.

they are having their cake and eating it, while the individual stock trader is the patsy who goes to jail if caught.

so nothing will change.

what's funny is that warren buffet became the second richest man in history on trading stocks and information, and they're telling me that in all those decades of 1v1 meetings with ceos, consultations, conferences, board meetings, dinner parties, fundraisers and golf rounds he never got or received information that was not available to you.

ya right. its because he's the "oracle" of omaha and eats cheeseburgers like the rest of us.

edit on 24-10-2012 by randomname because: (no reason given)

DING DING DING!!! We have a winner!!!


See, the thing is, in Amerika the corporation is a person. But only when there is benefit to be had. Otherwise, the corporation is shielded by the humans who make it up. So Gupta, the individual, paid for corporate crimes.

Now, should he go to jail? Well, we can obviously agree that tv's are not 75mil. So I will leave it up to others to decide if there should be "degrees" of guilt here. But it is obvious that he was not the one benefitting, solely (or in the majority) from his insider trading tips. The ones who benefitted truly are laughing all the way to the bank.