It’s not easy to beat the market - part II
“Donald L. Johnson had a privileged role at the Nasdaq Stock Market.
When companies that trade on Nasdaq wanted to understand how impending news would affect their share prices, they would consult with Mr. Johnson, who was a senior executive on the exchange’s so-called market intelligence desk.
Over a three-year period, Mr. Johnson took that secret corporate information and, from his work computer, traded in an online brokerage account in his wife’s name, reaping illegal profits of about $750,000.
On Thursday, Mr. Johnson pleaded guilty to the brazen insider-trading scheme in Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va. He was also sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 56-year-old Mr. Johnson, who lives in Ashburn, Va., faces up to 20 years in prison. (…) Mr. Johnson’s case is the latest in the government’s far-reaching investigation into insider trading, which has not only rattled Wall Street but reached beyond its canyons to ensnare doctors, management consultants and railroad workers. Last month, the Justice Department brought criminal charges against a longtime Food and Drug Administration chemist and his son for using sensitive information about drug approvals to earn millions of dollars in profits. Another case was brought against a corporate lawyer, who was accused of feeding confidential data about merger deals to traders over a 17-year period.”
(Via Former Nasdaq Executive Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading | NYTimes.com .)
