Insider Trading: The United States V. Newman Case

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Money and fair play are two words that do not normally go together when it comes to how it is received. Scamming is always present, in many different forms and carried out in many different ways. One of these ways is called "insider trading". This method of cheating the system is commonly found in the world of stocks, which is a huge factor in the economy. Using information one acquires from their status in society, in benefit towards themselves, without the outside world knowing is considered not only illegal but unethical by many. The seriousness of insider trading was not brought to light until some time after the stock market crash of 1929. This specific event can be summed up as a day where many investors traded around 16 million shares …show more content…

Newman case. Strader says that "the Newman decision is one important step in reconceptionalizing insider trading as a form of common law fraud" (1424). Summarized, the case consisted of two defendents who had invested into DELL and NVIDIA, earning 4 million and 68 million dollars respectively. However, the two defendents had come across information from a few friends who worked in said companies. These friends had leaked nonpublic information to the defendents, which lead to them investing into the comapanies and earning the large sum of money. The main contrevesary that this case brings to the world of insider trading is that the "insiders" who spilled the information were not punished in any way by the Government, since they technically gained no private value from it, while the two defendents serve prison time. The Second Circuit, who were in charge of said case, argued that the ones who leaked the information are equally as responsible and should take credit for participating in the insider trading. As a result, it was ruled that friendship is not enough of a benefit to sentence "insiders" into …show more content…

The first way the public is affected is through an increase in the wealth gap. Those who are placed high on position of a popular company only get richer with insider trading. It is unfair because the public are missing out on the opportunity to reap the same benefits simply because they do not have the same access. The second way is that the confidence of investors is heavily diminished through insider trading. If a handful of investors are successful in the stock market because of the information they obtain, it leaves space for foul play to be assumed. Other investors in the market can accuse the whole thing of not being fair, and that is exactly what the Government is trying to avoid with the laws they have passed to restrict the unfairness in the stock

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