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Husband of Amazon employee sentenced to prison for insider trading Amazon stock

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Re: Husband of Amazon employee sentenced to prison for insider trading Amazon stock

#71

Post by 10x-dev »

Having worked at Amazon, I know the employees are fully aware of blackout periods. There is no way to claim plausible deniability there.

It is easier for clueless household members to get a hold of the earnings statement or unknowingly trade AMZN during blackout periods, so in some cases I can see how an honest mistake could happen.

However, this guy traded 1.5M 11 times during blackout periods ahead of earning statements. There is just no way to claim ignorance there. He had to have known that it's illegal.

I can't even begin to imagine the hubris or the stupidity. If they put Martha Stewart in prison for insider trading, they'll obviously put the husband of an Amazon employee without blinking. What was he thinking?

Re: Husband of Amazon employee sentenced to prison for insider trading Amazon stock

#72

Post by brewdad »

runawaybottle wrote: post #6

How do they prove this? A lot of people play earnings. Amazon is not an obscure stock. In fact, making an earnings play on Amazon is probably one of the more reasonable safer things to do compared to what the world is up to now days.

Well for starters, his wife was forbidden to trade AMZN during the dates in question. When they find an account owned by her spouse, and possibly jointly, doing such trades it's not hard to figure it out.

Also, had he done this once or twice, they might not have found it but 11 quarters in a row is going to get noticed eventually.

Re: Husband of Amazon employee sentenced to prison for insider trading Amazon stock

#73

Post by [deleted] »

refurb wrote: post #56
agotterer wrote: post #38

How does this even end up on the SEC or IRS radar? $1.4M seems like a blip in the grand scheme of things.

I have no doubt the SEC has a bunch of rules they use to flag suspicious transactions. The data analysis spits out a few names and they follow up in person to see who lawyers up and who cracks under pressure. It's also why Matt Levine's "rules of insider trading" includes "Don’t do it by buying short-dated out-of-the-money call options on merger targets". Certain transactions are suspicious as hell, especially when t…

[deleted]

Re: Husband of Amazon employee sentenced to prison for insider trading Amazon stock

#74

Post by ycombobreaker »

ALittleLight wrote: post #12
samfisher83 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the plea deal, but why. I am assuming they had evidence she gave him the data. Why let her off?

May be they would have to risk a trial to convict both but he would plea guilty to protect his wife. If the state believes he was the most responsible then they may judge a guaranteed conviction without the cost of trial to be worth it. The wife (and family) lost 2.6 million, plus her job, and the husband - so it's not like she got away with something, just avoided the worst of the punishment.

disgorged 2.6 million, that means just losing the ill-gotten gains. It's not fair to call that "lost".

Re: Husband of Amazon employee sentenced to prison for insider trading Amazon stock

#75

Post by mbg721 »

mrandish wrote: post #36
runawaybottle wrote: post #6

How do they prove this? A lot of people play earnings. Amazon is not an obscure stock. In fact, making an earnings play on Amazon is probably one of the more reasonable safer things to do compared to what the world is up to now days.

They look for accounts that make consistently "lucky" large trades during blackout periods before earnings but at or just after the close of the quarter. Then they run the SSN/address/bank accounts/phone # associated with the trading account and compare to lists of insiders supplied by companies of who has access to their financial info. I think they also have separate flags on insider's tax returns to look for any u…

> They look for accounts that make consistently "lucky" large trades

Sounds like how casinos ban card-counters.

Re: Husband of Amazon employee sentenced to prison for insider trading Amazon stock

#76

Post by DevKoala »

alexatalktome wrote: post #50
DevKoala wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This 100%. For example, Nancy Pelosi should be named the Wolf of Wall Street. Look at that amazing trade she made on cyber security companies right before the hacks on the government were announced. Source: https://housestockwatcher.com/summary_by_rep/Hon.%20Nancy%20...

Can you name the companies and a source? I recall a few weeks ago there was a HN post about congressman but I didn’t recall seeing cyber security in the list.

https://housestockwatcher.com/summary_by_rep/Hon.%20Nancy%20...

Crowdstrike on September of 2020. I remember I went for it too, and it paid really well once the news the government had been hacked came out.

Re: Husband of Amazon employee sentenced to prison for insider trading Amazon stock

#78

Post by nzrf »

lilyball wrote: post #63
DevKoala wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This 100%. For example, Nancy Pelosi should be named the Wolf of Wall Street. Look at that amazing trade she made on cyber security companies right before the hacks on the government were announced. Source: https://housestockwatcher.com/summary_by_rep/Hon.%20Nancy%20...

Nancy Pelosi’s story is her husband does the stock trading without her involvement (or even her knowledge prior to her regular reports to Congress about trading activity). If true (and assuming she’s not giving privileged info to her husband), that means no insider trading. Having said that, I really think Congresspeople should be prohibited from trading in individual stocks entirely, and restricted to just investing…

Wish we could see something like that happen, but you are going to need some representatives to vote against their best interest. Kind of like why run off voting will never see the light of day.

Re: Husband of Amazon employee sentenced to prison for insider trading Amazon stock

#79

Post by camjohnson26 »

alexatalktome wrote: post #50
DevKoala wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This 100%. For example, Nancy Pelosi should be named the Wolf of Wall Street. Look at that amazing trade she made on cyber security companies right before the hacks on the government were announced. Source: https://housestockwatcher.com/summary_by_rep/Hon.%20Nancy%20...

Can you name the companies and a source? I recall a few weeks ago there was a HN post about congressman but I didn’t recall seeing cyber security in the list.

They made a killing on Tesla calls for one, million dollar investment. https://newsthud.com/disclosure-fillings-reveal-pelosi-purch...
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