Friday, November 30, 2012

Two Former Peter Schiff Brokers Arrested

Two former brokers at Euro Pacific Capital Inc were arrested on Thursday for the non-crime of insider trading. The two are accused of trading ahead of a $1.2 billion acquisition by IBM Corp based on a tip from one broker's roommate, allegedly referring to the deal among a circle of friends as "our horse."

WSJ has the details:
In a criminal indictment unsealed Thursday, federal prosecutors in Manhattan alleged that law-school classmates Thomas C. Conradt, 34 years old, and David Weishaus, 32, were among a group of friends who allegedly bought shares of analytics software firm SPSS Inc. ahead of its acquisition by IBM in 2009. Mr. Conradt's roommate at the time allegedly learned of the acquisition from a lawyer working on the deal at a brunch in Manhattan in May 2009, according to the indictment.

In July 2009, Mr. Conradt allegedly urged Mr. Weishaus to keep the deal quiet, saying in an instant message "we gotta keep this in the family," prosecutors said. Mr. Weishaus allegedly responded "i don't want to go to jail" and referred to insider-trading investigations involving homemaking maven Martha Stewart and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, according to the indictment. Mr. Weishaus later allegedly wrote, "we need spss to run up i need that lexus."

The Securities and Exchange Commission in a separate but related civil lawsuit alleged Messrs. Conradt and Weishaus and three other brokers made more than $1 million trading shares and options of SPSS ahead of the public announcement in late July 2009.

Mr. Conradt, of Denver, and Mr. Weishaus, of Baltimore, were arrested Thursday, said a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New York office.

9 comments:

  1. "I need that lexus..."

    What a damning thing to say lol. How dare he.

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  2. blue horseshoe loves anacott steel.

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  3. As far as I'm concerned, "insider trading" is just another market indicator.

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  4. In essence, it's really a "thought crime" isn't it? I guess you're supposed to "un-know" information?
    Better turn off Bloomberg, msnbc, etc.
    And why hire financial analysts? If they're any good, they will provide info that's "not available to the public". Wouldn't that constitute a crime?
    What a joke.
    Now if they could and did ***manipulate*** the stock price, that might be plain old fraud and a clean charge. But that isn't the case here, obviously.

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  5. Why is schiff mentioned , he had nothing to do with these acts?can you say smear job!

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    1. Oh puhleez, it's a damn news story. Wenzel isn't smearing anyone.

      In fact, he says in the post it's a non-crime.

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  6. Ok , I got in wrong . Thought the Wall Street journal was headlining schiff name and then describing the indictment...

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  7. did those congress critters get indicted for insider trading yet?

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  8. I personally don't care for stocks. Why would I want to own something I have no control over?

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