Whistleblower exposes insider trading program at JP Morgan

[Ichingcarpenter]

JP morgan bought Bears Stearns



KEVIN WILSON, MARIA CHRISTINA PADRO, JULIAN ASSANGE & staff
Monday March 17, 2008

A confidential memo obtained by Wikileaks shows that not only has the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission created an insider trading loophole big enough to drive a truck through, but that Wall Street is taking full advantage of it, establishing 'how-to' programs and even client service divisions to help well-heeled clients circumvent insider trading regulations.

Most of us think of insider trading as illegal. It allows those with inside knowledge to tilt the playing field, with the small investors invariably losing to the privileged few. Unfortunately for the small investor, the big boys get to play by different rules, and it has all been made legal, thanks to the SEC.

In 2000 the SEC promulgated Rule 10b5-1. The new Rule was designed to address the confusion caused by a series of court decisions that had left investors uncertain about what constitutes insider trading. Rule 10b5-1 was designed to "clarify" what constitutes illegal insider trading.

But top Wall Street houses were not to be deterred from advantaging their big clients at the expense of their small ones. Wall Street firms like JP Morgan found loopholes in Rule 10b5-1 that allowed them to continue trading on inside information "legally." Indeed, JP Morgan has gone so far as to set up an entire 'selling program' within its Securities division to help their clients profit from the loophole.

Documents obtained earlier this month by Wikileaks from JP Morgan Private Bank, which subtitles itself as "World class solutions for wealthy individuals and families", show the firm has a dedicated '10b5-1 Selling program,' along with a 'dedicated 10b5-1 team' to help its clients take advantage of the loophole.

Here's how it works:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Whistleblower_exposes_insider_trading_program_at_JP_Morgan?=dugg

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. If you work hard and play by the rules

The rich will screw you every time.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. It is not overheated...

To expect that JPM was not the only investment house in possession of this information. The Street is a crucible where the fires are fed by psychology and the latest fashion in investment vehicles. If JPM was doing this, you can bet others were as well.

[seafan]

3. Remember former SEC atty Gary Aguirre's testimony that insider trading investigation was squelched

I wonder what happened with this information??


From the American Prospect article at this thread:


February 9, 2007

In a December hearing of the Judiciary Committee, just before Congress changed hands, Grassley and the panel's then-chairman, Specter, uncovered further evidence of Justice Department collusion in efforts to thwart congressional inquiry and intimidate whistleblowers. This involved the unheard-of step of subpoenaing confidential discussions between a whistleblower and congressional staff.
That hearing focused on charges, by former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney Gary Aguirre, that an investigation into insider trading by one of the largest hedge funds was squelched by SEC officials. Aguirre had wanted to take testimony from a prominent Wall Street figure, who was also a major fundraiser for President Bush. When he pressed the point, he was not only prevented from doing so -- he was fired.

After Aguirre wrote a letter to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in September 2005 exposing these events, the Inspector General of the SEC, Walter Stachnik, conducted a cursory investigation into Aguirre's accusations. Without even questioning Aguirre, but only talking to the SEC officials he had accused, the IG dismissed the allegations. Last week, in an interim report on their investigation into the entire matter, Grassley and Specter castigated the IG for a "seriously flawed" investigation.
After the IG's whitewash investigation, Aguirre went to the Senate Judiciary and Finance Committees, which began a serious investigation. Committee staff reviewed thousands of pages of material and questioned numerous witnesses. Under intense congressional scrutiny, the SEC reopened its inquiry into the hedge fund and the Inspector General renewed his review of SEC officials.
But the IG went further, much further, than merely reopening his investigation into SEC actions. He issued a subpoena to Aguirre, which went beyond a request for documents supporting his charges. It included an extraordinary demand, unheard-of by Grassley and his staff, for communication between the whistleblower and Senate investigators.
The Justice Department, acting as the IG's lawyer, attempted to enforce the subpoena. They did that even after Aguirre had provided 250 pages of details supporting his allegations.

.....

Grassley and Specter raised "constitutional objections" to the subpoena with the Justice Department. They saw it as a direct attack on Congress's role as watchdog over the executive. Grassley told the Prospect that "if whistleblowers know that we would give out information that came to us, we're not going to have any whistleblowers come to us anymore. They have to trust us."
And Aguirre says the subpoena also punished whistleblowers -- he says he has "had to spend thousands of dollars on an attorney."
Specter, in releasing the interim report on the SEC investigation, labeled the subpoena a "preposterous" action. He emphasized that Congress has "constitutional oversight responsibilities, and we obviously cannot conduct those responsibilities if the information we glean is going to be subject to somebody else's review," He and Grassley made clear they intend to pursue it further.

.....

And from today:

Whistleblower exposes insider trading program at JP Morgan, March 18, 2008

A confidential memo obtained by Wikileaks shows that not only has the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission created an insider trading loophole big enough to drive a truck through, but that Wall Street is taking full advantage of it, establishing 'how-to' programs and even client service divisions to help well-heeled clients circumvent insider trading regulations.

.....

And what about the suspicious trading going on one week before the sale of Florida East Coast Industries (FEC) to Fortress Investment Group LLC in 2007?

What's very interesting about that is that when Jeb Bush was still governor in 2006, he worked with DOT to grease the skids for his former business partner, Armando Codina, to facilitate a major merger of The Codina Group with Florida East Coast Industries (owners of the FL East Coast Railway system). Then, in May of 2007, FEC was suddenly bought by a group of private equity investors with Fortress Investment Group. Interestingly, in the week before this deal, there was a flurry of activity in FEC options trading. (See article at link.)

And when this sale was finalized, Armando Codina, Jeb's former business partner, walked away with $255 Million from the sale of his FEC stock.


From the story at the link:

In another example, Tuesday’s purchase of Florida East Coast Industries, a railway and real estate company, by Fortress Investment Group, was preceded by soaring options trading almost a week earlier. As many as 16,747 options contracts on Florida East Coast were traded last Wednesday alone – almost 27 times the average daily trading volume for April of just 623 contracts.

Did this get any attention?

[Octafish]

4. It's not inside trading when a plutocrat does it.

Plus, they've got the signing statement pretzeldunce from HARKEN Energy on their side.

[superkia]

5. Our lives have been sold to the highest bidder, will we ever turn...

this around or is it too late. The corruption is everywhere in this country, if you have money to defend your crimes, you are okay to proceed, if you don't have that money, you will pay the price. Welcome to Amerika!