Former Adobe software engineering leader convicted of insider trading A former Adobe software engineer was this week sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in an insider trading scheme that earned him millions before the feds caught on. Srinivasa Kakkera, who is only described in the original indictment as "the head of engineering for a large publicly traded software company," will have …
It’s also a bit of a victimless crime, it’s financial jaywalking.
I’m annoyed people get rich doing it, but who is hurt? Another bunch of dickheads who are “making” money by gambling the public’s money, and in the grand scheme of things I couldn’t give a fuck.
Yes, please continue to prosecute, but would I tell on someone I knew who did this? I wouldn’t tell on someone for jaywalking.
If this comment is part of an investigation of me in future, to be clear: I’m not saying I would or wouldn’t disclose, I’m saying I don’t know the future :)
Jaywalking isn't victimless, albeit most of the victims are jaywalkers.
A large proportion of the ".. bunch of dickheads who are “making” money by gambling the public’s money .." are pension schemes, so your retirement income will potentially be adversely affected by these shenanigans.
Not sure I agree on Jaywalking; If I take an action and I am hurt, am I a victim? Victim implies innocence, I think. If I jump in front of a train, am I a victim or are the traumatized driver and inconvenienced passengers (to a much lesser degree)? Sure, I would surely be suffering, but I’m not sure I can be a victim of my own action.
Nonetheless… should pension schemes be gambling my money buying volatile stocks, or investing in long term successful business and getting dividends? Again, if an insider trader makes a trade, that might increase the value of stocks already held by a pension scheme (great! Still no victim), or it might reduce a stock held by a pension scheme if they sell sell sell… in that case, is that impact short term or long term? Is my pension scheme reliant on selling that stock in the short term? If so, dickheads.
Clearly plenty of people disagree with me but I still fail to see how anyone other than rich fucks and bankers gambling on short term price differentials are impacted by this. This doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s wrong. I do think it’s wrong, and selfish, similar to jumping in front of a train or jaywalking (both actions taken by people who think their own reasons/motivations are more important than their impact on others)
Presumably, no, not all inside traders are caught. And we don't know how many investigations don't end in prosecution because enough evidence couldn't be found, and of those how many are actually guilty. We could find out how many prosecutions fail (if we want to do a lot of poking around in Lexis or WestLaw or something), but again we don't know how many are actually guilty. And we have no way of knowing how many escape investigation entirely.
That's easy to forget when reading stories about really stupid inside-trading schemes like this one — oh yes, telling your family is a great idea, no way anyone will notice that — or this.
An aspect of inside trading, as a crime, is that the barrier to entry is very low for those who are handed an opportunity. So plenty of fools will try it, and some of them will be caught. That skews the perception of how easy or difficult it is to get away with.
That's not to say it shouldn't be prosecuted; I'm in favor of that. But, yeah, the most probable world is the one where a large portion of inside trading, quite likely the majority of it, is successful and not prosecuted.
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