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SEC charges former Amazon finance manager and family with insider trading

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Re: SEC charges former Amazon finance manager and family with insider trading

#121

Post by s1artibartfast »

woeirua wrote: post #82
kortilla wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are not the same laws so it’s dumb to compare them. If Musk was caught front-running the market with trades before earnings them you would have a point.

I understand that these are not equivalent violations. That said it's not dumb to say that the SEC sure seems to be very selective in which laws they actually enforce with teeth versus which ones they seem to just let slide. If any other CEO had done what Musk has done, they would have been fired by their board, and hopefully the SEC would have fined them, and prevented them from serving as an executive in a publicly…

>If any other CEO had done what Musk has done, they would have been fired by their board, and hopefully the SEC would have fined them, and prevented them from serving as an executive in a publicly traded company again. It's absurd.

Do you have any evidence to back up you assertion that the SEC would have come down on others harder?

Re: SEC charges former Amazon finance manager and family with insider trading

#122

Post by [deleted] »

coliveira wrote: post #30
justchilly wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And their trades are typically scheduled in advance and public. Their job and fiduciary duty is to maximize shareholder value, and they make decisions so that happens. If that means allocating $ and rewarding people that will attain that goal, then what should be considered illegal?

There is an obvious conflict of interest between the long term stability of the business and the actions necessary for the huge stock/options grants become profitable in the next few quarters. For example, when mergers and acquisitions should be approved, layoffs be announced, dividends increased, etc.

[deleted]

Re: SEC charges former Amazon finance manager and family with insider trading

#123

Post by boulos »

gavinray wrote: post #89
ununoctium87 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Options are non-linear and highly leveraged (usually 100:1)

And it has become clear to me now that I have dipped well out of my wheelhouse. Thanks for the attempt at explanation at least haha. (Though to me, this sounds like a monopoly-money game, really odd concept).

Amusingly, this is part of why some folks are deeply terrified of Robinhood: with a few clicks here and there, you’ve just bought yourself 10-15x leverage.

I actually think it’s a great thing to let someone easily try out “let me try out options trading, I’ll start with $100”. The write ups about r/wallstreetbets though are sometimes heartbreaking.

So like you said, at least you know what you don’t know!

Re: SEC charges former Amazon finance manager and family with insider trading

#124

Post by pixl97 »

acchow wrote: post #87
woeirua wrote: post #59

This family will likely be ruined by these charges. Even if they successfully defend against these charges, the lawyer fees will wreck them financially. Meanwhile, Mr. Musk has literally gotten a slap on the wrist for multiple flagrant violations of securities law. There are definitely two justice systems in the US. The ultra-rich do not play by the same rules that you and I do.

But Mr. Musk wasn’t trading on the price swings that his tweets created.

Instead he was forced to buy stock, that later shot up in price making him millions.

Re: SEC charges former Amazon finance manager and family with insider trading

#125

Post by syspec »

These kind of things just make me laugh, I mean the lifetime earning potential for someone in this persons position is so high, and they blew it to make a quick 1M.

Reminds me of the Apple compliance lawyer busted for insider trading, I believe last year[0]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/10/24/app...

Re: SEC charges former Amazon finance manager and family with insider trading

#126

Post by reitzensteinm »

pixl97 wrote: post #124
acchow wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Mr. Musk wasn’t trading on the price swings that his tweets created.

Instead he was forced to buy stock, that later shot up in price making him millions.

He wasn't forced to buy stock. It was a PR move so that he was injecting cash equivalent to Tesla's portion of the fine. However, he got stock in return, diluting the rest of the shareholders, so it was quite bizarre.

Foregoing reimbursement for private jet travel for a few years would have made actual sense, if his intent was to not punish Tesla for his actions.

Re: SEC charges former Amazon finance manager and family with insider trading

#127

Post by notnap »

boulos wrote: post #123
gavinray wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it has become clear to me now that I have dipped well out of my wheelhouse. Thanks for the attempt at explanation at least haha. (Though to me, this sounds like a monopoly-money game, really odd concept).

Amusingly, this is part of why some folks are deeply terrified of Robinhood: with a few clicks here and there, you’ve just bought yourself 10-15x leverage. I actually think it’s a great thing to let someone easily try out “let me try out options trading, I’ll start with $100”. The write ups about r/wallstreetbets though are sometimes heartbreaking. So like you said, at least you know what you don’t know!

What are you talking about. Loss porn on r/wsb is great entertainment and scratches the “cautionary tale” itch very well. You can’t say that Robinhood users do that to themselves without consent at this point in time

Re: SEC charges former Amazon finance manager and family with insider trading

#128

Post by kraavi »

dboreham wrote: post #115
ratata wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The query string is sent in plain-text in the URL parameters. https://www.google.com/search?q=AMZN

Which goes down a encrypted transport connection. The t in https.

Corporate proxies MITM all https traffic

Re: SEC charges former Amazon finance manager and family with insider trading

#129

Post by disown »

Topgamer7 wrote: post #7

1.4M in profits? Doesn't that seem like chump change? Like if you had insider information couldn't you buy options a make much more? Assuming your info was guaranteed to play out predictably. And if it wasn't is it really any better than general speculation?

> 1.4M in profits? Doesn't that seem like chump change?

$1.4 million within a few weeks/months for clicking a few buttons? No. It seems like a great deal.

> Like if you had insider information couldn't you buy options a make much more?

Yes you could make a lot more. But if you open an extraordinarily large OTM position, everyone and their grandmother would pick up on it.

Re: SEC charges former Amazon finance manager and family with insider trading

#130

Post by bredren »

refurb wrote: post #114
jschwartzi wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that when you report the income the IRS wants to know where it came from. If you can't rightly say that's a red flag of its own. So you either admit(or strongly imply) that you run a criminal enterprise or you evade taxes. Hidden option 3 is buying a laundromat and a couple of video game arcades.

I’ve always heard the IRS doesn’t care where your income comes from, just that’s it’s reported. IRS website even talks about how to report “illegal income” and “bribes”. And the IRS has no authority beyond tax collection. They can’t do a (non-tax) criminal investigation. Now, could they flag it for the FBI? Sure.

The IRS accepts payments from those living illegally in the country. Not sure how it is now iirc proving a history of paying taxes was part of a successful naturalization process.
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