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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 was

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.

tech-historian 5y ago
It's interesting to think about the incentives. Look at the press they're getting. It's at the top of HN and will be fodder on all major news outlets. It was probably an easy slam dunk case for the prosectors.
- brewdad 5y ago
  Considering he did this 11 quarters in a row, this might be the most rim-shaking slam dunk in the history of slam dunks.
catillac 5y ago
About one person, probably not. I think this one hits close to home for a lot of us that have stock in many of these large companies from being employees. Granted, this situation seems particularly egregious, trading off of insider financial information not even available to most employees, but still. I believe the intent was to provide a chilling effect on regular people at FAMGAN-type companies who may have some access to insider information and were perhaps toying with the prospect of acting on it.
- sebmellen 5y ago
  I was sure the acronym was FAGMAN...
crispyambulance 5y ago
> ...this seems like a total waste of time and resources when you could be chasing whales like you should be. That's what the Bohra's thought! It's what a lot of insider trading criminals think. They think the SEC has "thresholds" and only go after "whales". They don't, they look for patterns and go for it. Low hanging fruit is irresistible for them, it's not a "waste of resources." What's ironic is the that typical insider trading criminals are well-compensated exec level staff. These people pull in Nx100K total comp. The thing is, at those level their peers have wildly variable net-worth. Some come from dynastic wealth, others clawed their way up from ordinary backgrounds. Tragically the ones who clawed their way up tend to suffer from envy when they look at the toys some of their old-money peers have-- they end up looking for "shortcuts" to keep up with the Joneses. Envy can lead to ugly things.
- egman_ekki 5y ago
  > They think the SEC has "thresholds" and only go after "whales". They don't, they look for patterns and go for it. So you think if someone earns 50 bucks for beer with insider trades each year, they will go after them? I mean why not, but I guess there has to be a line somewhere.
  - crispyambulance 5y ago
    That “line”, if it exists, is not something that is publicized. I suppose it could be inferred by looking at cases, but someone could still be busted for any activity during the blackout period, I think. The people who do insider trading, however, do it for greed. 50 bucks once a year isn’t going to cut it for them.
sellyme 5y ago
> Does anyone honestly care about a million dollar trade by some employee's husband? Yes. > this seems like a total waste of time and resources I'm willing to bet that the investigation and prosecution cost less than the ~$1.2 million in excess fines Bohra had to pay. Not really a waste of resources if it's a profitable endeavour.
Hamuko 5y ago
>The bar for insider trading is hilariously low I've personally never considered a million dollars a low-ball figure.
lightgreen 5y ago
> 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.
- gher-shyu3i 5y ago
  There is already no trust in the financial system (it's based on usury after all).
  - lightgreen 5y ago
    There's a lot of trust in financial system. A lot of people invest in stocks and store their pensions in 401k.

tech-historian 5y ago

It's interesting to think about the incentives. Look at the press they're getting. It's at the top of HN and will be fodder on all major news outlets. It was probably an easy slam dunk case for the prosectors.

brewdad 5y ago
Considering he did this 11 quarters in a row, this might be the most rim-shaking slam dunk in the history of slam dunks.

catillac 5y ago

About one person, probably not. I think this one hits close to home for a lot of us that have stock in many of these large companies from being employees. Granted, this situation seems particularly egregious, trading off of insider financial information not even available to most employees, but still. I believe the intent was to provide a chilling effect on regular people at FAMGAN-type companies who may have some access to insider information and were perhaps toying with the prospect of acting on it.

sebmellen 5y ago
I was sure the acronym was FAGMAN...

crispyambulance 5y ago

> ...this seems like a total waste of time and resources when you could be chasing whales like you should be. That's what the Bohra's thought! It's what a lot of insider trading criminals think. They think the SEC has "thresholds" and only go after "whales". They don't, they look for patterns and go for it. Low hanging fruit is irresistible for them, it's not a "waste of resources." What's ironic is the that typical insider trading criminals are well-compensated exec level staff. These people pull in Nx100K total comp. The thing is, at those level their peers have wildly variable net-worth. Some come from dynastic wealth, others clawed their way up from ordinary backgrounds. Tragically the ones who clawed their way up tend to suffer from envy when they look at the toys some of their old-money peers have-- they end up looking for "shortcuts" to keep up with the Joneses. Envy can lead to ugly things.

egman_ekki 5y ago
> They think the SEC has "thresholds" and only go after "whales". They don't, they look for patterns and go for it. So you think if someone earns 50 bucks for beer with insider trades each year, they will go after them? I mean why not, but I guess there has to be a line somewhere.
- crispyambulance 5y ago
  That “line”, if it exists, is not something that is publicized. I suppose it could be inferred by looking at cases, but someone could still be busted for any activity during the blackout period, I think. The people who do insider trading, however, do it for greed. 50 bucks once a year isn’t going to cut it for them.

sellyme 5y ago

> Does anyone honestly care about a million dollar trade by some employee's husband? Yes. > this seems like a total waste of time and resources I'm willing to bet that the investigation and prosecution cost less than the ~$1.2 million in excess fines Bohra had to pay. Not really a waste of resources if it's a profitable endeavour.

Hamuko 5y ago

>The bar for insider trading is hilariously low I've personally never considered a million dollars a low-ball figure.

lightgreen 5y ago

> 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.

gher-shyu3i 5y ago
There is already no trust in the financial system (it's based on usury after all).
- lightgreen 5y ago
  There's a lot of trust in financial system. A lot of people invest in stocks and store their pensions in 401k.