An Allegedly Well-Placed Tipper

A Goldman director named Gupta
Was looked upta but turned out corrupta;
He tipped from inside,
Said the Feds, who then tried
To disrupt that which Gupta was upta.

Federal prosecutors have indicted Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta on charges of engaging in an insider trading scheme with hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, who has already been convicted. In a novel twist, the prosecution acknowledges that Mr. Gupta did not directly profit from the tips he provided on Goldman Sachs and P&G (of which he is also a director); rather, Mr. Gupta's motivation was seen to be the cultivation of influence and favor with his far richer friend, with whom he also invested. For his part, Mr. Gupta found it serendipitous that his indictment coincided with Diwali, the Indian "Festival of Lights" and start of the new year, as he felt that this would offer a measure of divine protection.
Regardless of the outcome of this case, may all those kindling the festival lights have a Happy Diwali and a prosperous New Year!

Insider Trading: Is It Bad?

If A buys a company share
From B, who remains unaware
Of the info that A
May not give away,
Well then, this is rather unfair.

The sentencing of hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam to 11 years in prison for his insider trading conviction highlights once again the seriousness of this offense in the US legal system and, for some, revives the debate over whether it should be so.  Mr. Rajaratnam, who will soon rub shoulders with Bernie Madoff in the Butner, NC federal prison, used a network of experts in selected industries to "find an edge" in his investments.  Such experts really comprised a network of well-placed tipsters, US Attorney Preet Bharara convinced a Manhattan jury.  To those who would argue that insider trading is a victimless crime, one could point out that every inside trade has a counterparty unaware of the underlying material, non-public information, who is thus cheated out of the full value of the traded stock; in Mr. Rajaratnam's case, the defrauded values were in the millions.

An Alleged Violation of the Securities Act of 1934

"Find an edge!" bellowed Raj Rajaratnam,
To the geeks at his hedge fund in Gotham.
But a Galleon tipper
Informed on her skipper;
Crowed the SEC: "Ha! Now we've gotten 'im!"