Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

 

 

 

 

BROWSE BY TOPIC

ABOUT FINANCIALISH

We seek to provide information, insights and direction that may enable the Financial Community to effectively and efficiently operate in a regulatory risk-free environment by curating content from all over the web.

 

Stay Informed with the latest fanancialish news.

 

SUBSCRIBE FOR
NEWSLETTERS & ALERTS

FOLLOW US

Archive

Can Wall Street Relax After Gupta Conviction?

June 18, 2012
[ by Melanie Gretchen ] Wall Street, watch out: Preet Bharara is not done with you.  After securing the biggest conviction in the government's case against insider trading on Wall Street, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York has no intention of stopping. The Gupta Trial: Aftermath. With almost 5 years of investigations and 60 convictions of hedge fund traders and corporate executives, Mr. Bharara set a precedent in winning the case based on almost entirely circumstantial evidence.  However, not everyone carries on after a big win, and insider trading seems to take a specific toll. Christopher Garcia, who headed the U.S. Attorney's Office's Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, left for private practice in February.  Jonathan Streeter, the lead prosecutor in the case against Raj Rajaratnam, departed the cause earlier this year, as did Andrew Michaelson, who was instrumental in bringing and prosecuting the Galleon case. Mr. Bharara's own colleague, U.S. attorney Reed Brodsky, who also prosecuted Mr. Gupta, has announced that trial was his last. Cybercrime Focus? In the last few months, Mr. Bharara has mentioned cybercrime in articles and speeches, as he once did with insider trading – prompting speculation that financial fraud has taken a backseat.  Case in point: his op-ed article in The New York Times, in which he said that he had "come to worry about few things as much as the gathering cyberthreat," before at a cybersecurity conference in January, he listed it as his top concern: "Of all the issues I face as United States attorney — and there are many, many things that I have to deal with that are scary — cyberthreat in all of its breadth, variety and complexity is what worries me the most, the absolute most." -- Mr. Bharara, to attendees. The War on Insider Trading. Regardless of what direction Mr. Bharara decides to take, insider trading isn't going away.  Several outstanding cases include the prosecution of Anthony Chiasson, a co-founder of the once-prominent hedge fund Level Global Investors, alongside examinations of other hedge funds as the feds track the Rajaratnam investigation web throughout Wall Street. The FBI could pursue insider trading for the next 5 years, according to top investigators.  Following years of working on Wall Street, authorities plan to follow an extensive network of sources embedded throughout the upper echelons of high finance.  For its own part, the SEC is committed to bringing civil cases to address insider trading. Post-Gupta. As far as Mr. Bharara is concerned, his track record is stellar, and it's not likely he's going away anytime soon.  The multiyear investigation into Rajaratnam conducted during the beginning of his tenure fed into many of the charges he brought against Mr. Gupta, after which Time Magazine featured Mr. Bharara with the headline, "This Man Is Busting Wall Street." From the horse's mouth: Mr. Bharara has said he has the best job in the world and intends to keep it. Should he follow his colleagues to a corporate law firm, where a multimillion-dollar salary would be waiting for him, or replace Eric H. Holder Jr., the United States attorney general, if President Obama is re-elected and Mr. Holder leaves, as colleagues in the U.S. attorney's office have speculated, he will be replaced. Within the city that never sleeps, Wall Street must also not sleep. For further details, go to [Dealbook, 6/15/12].