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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

#161
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people simply don't appreciate that it's an easily caught crime. Most illegal things that one might do won't ever be caught, eg you break into someone's house and it would take the police to bother investigating and then put enough effort into that one case. Or to stay in white collar you might forget to report some income, how's the tax man to know unless you are already in focus? With insider trading the in…

How do they know his wife worked for Amazon? Is this recorded? Or do you need to declare stuff like that? I don't know anything about trading; in naïve view would be that unless they have quite a bit of information about you that's not necessarily all that easily obtainable, it's not always so easy to detect?

If you looked at the timing of his trades combined with his success, that alone could be suspicious, which could lead to a quick investigation determining he was married to the insider employee.

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

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Millions of investors do that with no problems. Err, example please? I'm totally blanking here, not gonna lie.

If you are an insider at a company you work at, they tell you and you have to adhere to additional rules and blackouts around announcement and earnings time. This is not common. In the story, the guy's wife worked in finance so had confidential info about earnings. The rank and file can trade whenever the hell we want with whatever stock we want, including our employer's. No one bats an eye.

I have been on insider list and subject to blackouts just for being a mobile developer. I don't know if all employees were considered insiders but at least all developers were.

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

#163

I love how no one on Wall Street was convicted of anything criminal even though they almost destroyed the entire global financial system. There was even text messages of fraud being committed and nothing happened. Not even clawbacks or fines or anything. The government just let them go. That was so disappointing, and one of the first signs of how Obama was going to betray the progressives and let Bush's status quo re…

What law they violated? I'm curious, I really don't know.

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

#164

Stories like this boggle my mind. How do such people think that they are going to get away with this? If I were going to try something like this I would at least make some attempt to obfuscate my activities; trading through proxies, mixing in losing trades, something.

> How do such people think that they are going to get away with this? Many Americans think insider trading is l common than. If everyone is getting away with 70 mph, you can too. (Exhibit A: this thread.) In reality, insider trading enforcement is effective. The SEC looks for unusually profitable trades ex post facto . Their verification is easier than the insider trading. Wall Street doesn’t insider trade because it…

> In reality, insider trading enforcement is effective.

This is impossible to know just like many other crimes.

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

#165
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the pandemic became a pandemic in March and they sold stocks in February, your question reads as loaded.

It was becoming fairly obvious by February even to people outside of Congress (such as myself) that a global pandemic was likely impending. I didn't attend any secret briefings. What nonpublic information about a publicly traded company do you think they received?

Representatives of the US government sold stocks, meanwhile many Americans only received “it’s the flu”, “this will be over in a few months guaranteed”. I didn’t assert anyone received info about a company. I’m only pointing out to the parent comments author that stocks were being dumped by congress prior to there being a pandemic. I don’t know what information was given in a secret report, if I did, it wouldn’t be a secret.

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

#166

Does anyone honestly care about a million dollar trade by some employee's husband? The bar for insider trading is hilariously low - this seems like a total waste of time and resources when you could be chasing whales like you should be.

> Does anyone honestly care about a million dollar trade by some employee's husband?

It is not just random million dollars trade. Money are not created out of thin air, money are taken from someone. In this case, money was taken from Amazon shareholders. 0.000001 of each shareholder approximately.

Generally, insider trading hurts trust in financial system, and when it happens unpunished, each american citizen is hurt.

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

#167
post #2

>he obtained from his wife, an Amazon finance employee, to place trades in Amazon stock–making a profit of $1,428,264 >Bohra engaged in illegal insider trading in advance of 11 straight earnings announcements.” >He and his family members have paid $2,652,899 in disgorgement, interest and penalties. And 26 months in prison! This is why if you're going to do any kind of trading yourself -- never touch the company you w…

If simply being husband of a woman who works for Amazon can help you acquire such information on which you can perform insider trading. What stops from former workers at intelligence agencies from starting a hedge fund and employing all methods they learned while at work, to acquire such valuable information, trade based on that and offer others money management services?

> What stops from former workers at intelligence agencies from starting a hedge fund and employing all methods they learned while at work, to acquire such valuable information, trade based on that and offer others money management services?

That wouldn't be insider trading. Indeed hedge funds are known to use intelligence data like satellite photos etc.

If they use illegal monitoring devices, hacking for info etc, they may fall afoul of federal espionage, wiretapping or CFFA, but it would still not be insider trading.

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

#168
I am wondering if there could be a way to outsmart the system. Perhaps trades are monitored automatically and once flagged for suspicious timing and returns, they are reviewed manually.

What if someone was trading in a smart way, e.g. purpusfully accepting losses on the same stock/derivate, trading during non-blackout periods, focusing on more than one stock excessively. This could reduce the risk for automatic detection. And finally, when you are reviewed manually, you should be able to present some fancy excel models that you pull out your ass to support your "buying decisions" when you made the insider trading moves.

The biggest thing would be, however, to keep your partner in crime at distance so there is not obvious evidence that you spoke about trading.

I wonder how hard it is to outsmart the system and I can imagine that there are many people out there who play it very well.

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

#169

This man sent to jail. How many politicians were sent to jail for covid insider trading? What about the billions Jeff Bezos fleeced in taxes? It's the rich man's world, where justice is only onto the poor.

> How many politicians were sent to jail for covid insider trading? What is covid insider trading? > What about the billions Jeff Bezos fleeced in taxes? I believe Jeff Bezos did no violate the law, but that's really offtopic here. > It's the rich man's world, where justice is only onto the poor. Tell that to all the rich guys went to jail. Or if you have some statistical evidence, I'd love to read it.

Jeff leverages trillions in infrastructure, the maintenance of which costs billions. Taxpayers subsidize that. You aru not being genuine with your words, but this I will clear up.

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

#170
post #2

>he obtained from his wife, an Amazon finance employee, to place trades in Amazon stock–making a profit of $1,428,264 >Bohra engaged in illegal insider trading in advance of 11 straight earnings announcements.” >He and his family members have paid $2,652,899 in disgorgement, interest and penalties. And 26 months in prison! This is why if you're going to do any kind of trading yourself -- never touch the company you w…

I wonder if he would have been caught if instead of buying Amazon directly, he bought an index fund that has them? I think Amazon makes up something like 3% of some of the Vanguard index funds.
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