Can you believe this! The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating its own employees. It's gotten so bad that the SEC had to establish new rules for employee trading. Right now the SEC has at least two employees under investigation for possible insider trading. The FBI had to be notified and may also be called in to conduct investigations of possible insider trading.
Would you believe that employees can trade the stocks of companies they are investigating? Yes, as of now that's true. So guess what the SEC is doing to correct the problem? They will employ an outside firm to track employee trading in real time. Another new rule will be that employees cannot trade stocks of companies under investigation and will require them to get clearance before making any trade. From this we can infer that employees have been trading stocks of companies under investigation right along.
So here are with the the supposedly most sacred of our compliance agencies, the SEC, and look at the mess that's going on. Where is the integrity? Where is the honesty? Where is the trust?
For goodness sake, instead of trying to a new flim-flam, just prohibit trading by employees altogether. How can we ever trust an agency that allows its own employees to trade at all. If they want to trade, let them get a job as a trader at bank or hedge fund, but not at the SEC. Why not clean up this mess once and for all? Stop pussyfooting around.
Should the SEC allow its employees to trade at all?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-24-2009 @ 12:49PM
Yon said...
Our esteemed Senators and Congressmen do insider trading too and do quite well at it, knowing what industry their laws or riders are going to help or sink. Ethics is our best product.
5-24-2009 @ 1:32PM
Mitch said...
I believe "insider trading" is one of the Harvard MBA requisite classes, isn't it?
5-25-2009 @ 12:21PM
Bubba said...
So, what was the SEC Inspector General and his/her staff of investigators and auditors doing these past several years? On the telephone with their trader or banker buddy? What a system...$$$ truly is the root of ALL evil.
5-26-2009 @ 7:57AM
Nappy Headed White Boy said...
I once filed a complaint with the SEC about a company that was promoting a certain stock that in reality the company owners and the promotion company were collaborating to drive the price of their stock up and then when they got enough suckers like me to buy in,they sold their shares and the stock plummeted.Come to find out after I filed the complaint,this company hired a SEC Lawyer to do their filings.In my opinion the SEC should be shut down and just give the FBI more staff to put these crooks in jail.
6-05-2009 @ 4:01PM
Insider Guy said...
"Can you believe this!"
Yes. Of course I believe this.
"I hereby assign to you the function of the President under section 13(b)(3)(A) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended."
A trip to the statute books showed that the amended version of the 1934 act states that "with respect to matters concerning the national security of the United States," the President or the head of an Executive Branch agency may exempt companies from certain critical legal obligations. These obligations include keeping accurate "books, records, and accounts" and maintaining "a system of internal accounting controls sufficient" to ensure the propriety of financial transactions and the preparation of financial statements in compliance with "generally accepted accounting principles."
...'Nuff said