Wall Street's Courtoom Showdown

Charlie Gasparino The Daily Beast March 7, 2011

by Charlie Gasparino Info

Charlie Gasparino is a senior correspondent for Fox Business Network. He is a columnist for The Daily Beast and a frequent contributor to the New York Post, Forbes, and other publications. His latest book, Bought and Paid For, is about the Obama administration and Wall Street.

The huge insider-trading trial beginning tomorrow is a diversion from the U.S. failure to nail anyone for the meltdown—and a battle for the future hedge funds.

The conventional wisdom is that Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge-fund billionaire set to go on trial tomorrow in the biggest insider-trading case since Michael Milken, is going down. The prosecution is armed with wiretaps, cooperating witnesses like Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, and the public's outrage at Wall Street, not to mention an imposing track record: Around 90 percent of such cases end in guilty verdicts, or plea agreements (including Milken’s).

The hedge-fund business, which has grown exponentially over the past 15 years, and now manages around $2 trillion on behalf of rich people, has already internalized that outcome. Some of the biggest and, until recently, most reputable funds have revised their compliance systems, foisted crash courses in securities law upon their money managers, and hired lawyers to shield them from emboldened prosecutors looking elsewhere for their next target. I am told that SAC Capital, the most high-profile hedge fund in the world, run by legendary investor Steven A. Cohen, is even considering banning business activities over private email accounts and private cellphones. (SAC has no comment.)

In other words, a lot is at stake for the increasingly less-lightly regulated hedge-fund business, and top executives know it: Hedge funds have been able to beat the market because they enjoyed an information edge over the average investors for years now—probably forever—simply because they trade so much through Wall Street firms and supply traders their with gazillions in commissions that the big banks have every incentive to pay the hedge funds back with information and research not available to the general public. More recently, the hedge funds have gained an additional edge by hiring expert networks that funnel sales data and performance information on companies that prosecutors believe often crosses the line into passing illegal inside information, igniting a new probe that has grown out of the Raj case.

As one senior-level law-enforcement official told me: “We now believe insider trading is baked into the business models of many hedge funds.”

“We now believe insider trading is baked into the business models of many hedge funds.”

Galleon hedge fund partner Raj Rajaratnam (L) is escorted by FBI agents after being taken into custody in New York . Credit: Newscom

That belief may translate into action if the Justice Department wins the Raj case and Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District, is emboldened to hunt other big targets, including additional players at Steve Cohen's firm, or even the man many suspect is Bharara’s ultimate target: Cohen himself.

A spokesman for SAC has said the firm, which boasts one of the best compliance systems in the hedge-fund business, is fully cooperating with government investigators and received, like other funds, only a single wide-ranging subpoena demanding information about its trading activities.

Even so, I hear the government is feeling pretty cocky about its burgeoning investigation. The new probe has already resulted in a slew of recent arrests (including two former SAC fund managers who managed to evade the firm's great compliance system) and the closing of one large hedge fund as investors yanked their money even before the fund or its management was charged with anything, not to mention the indictment last week of Rujat Gupta, accused of passing tips to Raj Rajaratnam while a director of Goldman Sachs. "The prosecutors think this insider-trading case is like shooting fish in the barrel," a prominent attorney who deals with the Justice Department recently told me.

In many ways, the Raj case is just the government’s attempt to change the subject. Insider trading had nothing to do with the bubble that caused the 2008 financial collapse that ignited a bailout of the big banks, led to the Great Recession, and has the general public demanding Wall Street accountability. Not a single Wall Street executive has gone to jail over the excesses that led to the collapse. For all the millions spent on examining the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the collapse that sparked the broader meltdown, the government is having a difficult time even coming up with a civil case against its senior executives where they can avoid jail but simply pay fines and possibly face a bar from doing business in the securities industry. Prosecutors are coming to the conclusion that it's difficult, maybe impossible, to put people in jail for greed and irrational exuberance.

Because the Raj case is the sideshow, not the main event, I'm skeptical it will be a layup. What's known as insider trading was created through court precedent that has evolved over the past 30 years of the government trying to level the playing field between sophisticated investors who have access to tips and non-public information and regular folks who have to rely on ill-informed stock brokers for advice.

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I say throw them all in jail until one or more start talking. These fat cats wouldn't last a week in a no-frills real federal prison. Enough already with these monsters making billions while children in this country are homeless and starving.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 3:32 am, Mar 7, 2011 Samatic

These hedge funds are parasites on the system we should use cyber weapons against them to stop their deal making, stock trading, bullshit running asses!!

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 8:10 am, Mar 7, 2011 Samjon

THESE VICIOUS MONSTERS WHO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY MUST BE PUT OUT IN BUSINESS. THEY BELONG IN JAILS AND THROW THE KEYS AWAY. NO DEAL MAKING FOR THESE BLOOD SUCKERS. WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THESE CROOKS. BUT YOU KNOW MONEY TALKS THEY WILL BE IN STREETS VERY QUICKLY MAKING DEALINGS AND WHEELINGS AND STEALING. WE THE PEOPLE HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THESE CROOKS AND DEAL MAKERS.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 9:46 am, Mar 7, 2011 Castigator

Gibbets. That's what we need. I suppose we could use streetlights in a pinch though. Hundreds of gibbets festooned with investment bankers from Wall Street all the way to the Upper East Side.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 9:56 am, Mar 7, 2011 $('#c_total span').html('4'); $('#c_total').show(); Share this comment on Facebook

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These hedge funds are parasites on the system we should use cyber weapons against them to stop their deal making, stock trading, bullshit running asses!!

Gibbets. That's what we need. I suppose we could use streetlights in a pinch though. Hundreds of gibbets festooned with investment bankers from Wall Street all the way to the Upper East Side.

Please log in to leave comments.

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Wake Up, Huck: Obama Didn't Grow Up in Kenya!

Everybody Hates Natalie

Joyce Tang is outreach editor for The Daily Beast. Her work has appeared in Mother Jones and The Miami Herald.

Wisc. Dems Ask Walker to Meet

Discuss union bill on the state line.

Gaddafi's Forces Launch Air Attacks

Bomb rebels in the coastal town of Ras Lanuf on Monday.

Fox News May Dump Glenn Beck

When his contract expires in December.

Why Andrew Cuomo Will Run for President

Will Egypt Rock Our Economy?

Volcker Rule Is a Sad End to a Brilliant Career

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Wall Street's Courtoom Showdown

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