• 06 Jun 2008 at 9:34 AM

The Best Insider Trading Case Ever Closes

By John Carney

We’re perilously near the end of what must be our favorite insider trading case. Back in 2004, a group of young bankers got together in a spa near the Fulton Fish Market and concocted a scheme that seemed based on every insider trading case that ever existed. They’d trade on their own M&A deals. They’d steal Business Week. (Really. Business Week.) They’d front the trades through Eastern European grandmothers. Basically, it’s your best ideas when you are drunk. And they did it.
Now a federal court has entered final judgments against four of the defendants. The Commission charged 17 people in connection with an international scheme that netted nearly $7 million in illicit gains.

SEC Closes Case on Jail-Bound Insiders [CCH Wall Street]

Comments (13)

  1. 1
    Posted by guest | June 6, 2008 at 10:11 AM

    The only crimes you hear of are those committed by either dumb or extremely unlucky criminals. This should definitely be catalogued under ‘dumb.’

  2. 2
    Posted by guest | June 6, 2008 at 10:36 AM

    “The judgment orders Eugene Plotkin, Stanislav Shpigelman and Elvis Santana to repay ill-gotten gains of $12,000 and $475,000, respectively. The two men, along with Jason Smith, have been ordered enjoined against future violations”
    Respectively, eh?

  3. 3
    Posted by guest | June 6, 2008 at 10:40 AM

    Line up in a circle!

  4. 4
    Posted by John Carney | June 6, 2008 at 10:44 AM

    Yeah. We cleaned that up because it made no sense. Who the hell is this Elvis character? That’s the first time we heard of him. Presumably he doesn’t exist.

  5. 5
    Posted by counterclockwise | June 6, 2008 at 10:47 AM

    The original plotters, Plotkin and Pajcin, worked for Goldman Sachs as traders. They brought in Shpigelman, a mergers & acquisitions guy from Merrill Lynch. It all went downhill from there.
    The names sound like they were dreamed up by Mel Brooks for a musical about crazy times on Wall Street.

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | June 6, 2008 at 10:57 AM

    The guy only made $12k? What sort of half assed deal was this?

  7. 7
    Posted by guest | June 6, 2008 at 11:10 AM

    And you wonder why Eastern European economies still suck! How the hell do you even pronounce their names? Plotkin sounds like a Kremlin bodyguard

  8. 8
    Posted by guest | June 6, 2008 at 11:20 AM

    Can you imagine the conversation around a dark table at Ulysses around 11pm?
    “Guys, guys, guys…seriously…listen up. I’ve got this idea that NOBODY has thought of. There’s NO WAY that anybody will catch on! But before I spill the beans, someone get another round of vodka.”

  9. 9
    Posted by guest | June 6, 2008 at 11:56 AM

    The guys made much more than $12K. The main conspirators got beaucoup jail time, which made up for their low fines.

  10. 10
    Posted by guest | June 6, 2008 at 12:21 PM

    It’s too bad they were brought down before getting a chance to run some dumbass mutual fund after-hours trading scheme.

  11. 11
    Posted by guest | June 6, 2008 at 1:55 PM

    The “spa” must have been Spa 88. I love that place. The Russian ladies working there are super hot.

  12. 12
    Posted by guest | June 9, 2008 at 11:20 AM

    @1:55 Do you get happy ending ?

  13. 13
    Posted by guest | June 9, 2008 at 11:28 AM

    @12:21 top hedge funds ran that scheme. what have YOU done lately that is so sharp?

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