Ex-Microsoft manager: 2 years for insider trading

[Tom_ZeCat]

How much do you want to bet this kind of thing is rampant, and I don't just mean w/ ex-Microsoft employees, but all over corporate America. I suspect these guys got caught only because they're relative peons pulling off a 415K set of insider trading deals. I'd bet the mega-rich pull this off all the time. Peons like you and I study the markets hoping to make some kind of educated guess that might yield us some small return while the megoliths manipulate them to their own advantage.

The story:

Ex-Microsoft manager: 2 years for insider trading

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ex-mic...034656299.html

[Snowhog]

Of course. It's even worse in Federal Government. The little people always get screwed. Convictions the like of Bernard Madoff only happen because the amount of money involved is just SO enormous. I think that anyone, regardless of position, who is involved in insider trading should loose everything they have and go to prison for life.

[NickStone]

Notice that it was a former manager in Microsoft who was convicted. What's the betting that if that manager was still working for Microsoft they won't have even been to court?

[NickStone]

I think that anyone, regardless of position, who is involved in insider trading should loose everything they have and go to prison for life.

That's a bit extreme isn't it? The person who makes a few million illegaly by insider trading hasn't killed anyone. I think a better punishment for anyone who commits fraud should be forced to work for nothing for a few years, that'll teach them.

[GreyGeek]

You fellows are forgetting the biggest group of insider traders -- our elected "representatives" in Washington. They passed the laws against insider trading but graciously included exemptions for themselves. Thus, when they have a closed hearing with corporate big wigs after the meeting adjourns they immediately contact their brokers ... if they don't leave the meeting while it is in session to make the calls. They, too, should be stripped of their offices and jailed for both insider trading AND for violating their oath of office.

[SteveRiley]

Notice that it was a former manager in Microsoft who was convicted. What's the betting that if that manager was still working for Microsoft they won't have even been to court?

Actually, Jorgenson was employed when he tipped his friend, and then got fired for it. Quoting from the article (emphasis mine):

Brian Jorgenson, 32, was a senior manager in Microsoft Corp.'s Treasury Group when he provided the information to his friend...

When Jorgenson was charged last December, Microsoft said in a written statement that the company has no tolerance for insider trading. "We helped the government with its investigation and terminated the employee," the statement said.

Microsoft doesn't mess around with stuff like this; the corporate policies are crystal clear. An employee cannot make any MSFT stock transactions without the company knowing. Trades above certain threshholds and within certain dates trigger the alarms, the finance department flags violations, and HR gets a phone call.

At Riverbed, we're even more stringent. Everyone who's a director level or higher must follow the trading window. We can't buy or sell RVBD shares starting 15 days before the end of a quarter until two days after we release our quarterly statement. Any attempts by affected employees to trade within the window are automatically blocked.