Jessica Mang, who traded material non-public information based on tips obtained by her Mizuho investment banker boyfriend, Thomas Ammann, because he promised to take her on vacation afterward and also because she thought his entrusting her with such a high level task was a sign he wanted to get serious, was cleared by a jury today, as was Christina Weckwerth, Thomas Ammann's other girlfriend/execution trader.

You know what has got to suck? When you decide to start charging stuff that doesn't fall under "business expenses" to your corporate card and engage in a few other amateur hours scams that probably wouldn't have been found out (or, if discovered, not taken to the authorities because your boss had high tolerance for fraud) but then they are because the CEO of your firm had to go and engage in the largest Ponzi scheme on record, which shone an uncomfortable light on company personnel and all of the cheese, popcorn, and salsa of the month clubs you joined (for example).  Craig Kugel knows what we're talking about. The son of a longtime trader for convicted Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy and other criminal charges Tuesday, but denied any involvement in the decades-long fraud. Craig Kugel, the son of David L. Kugel, a former supervisory trader in Madoff's proprietary-trading operation, admitted to filing false forms that claimed people were on the Madoff payroll when they didn't actually work for the firm and to not declaring as income personal expenses charged to the firm's corporate credit card. Those individuals were paid salary and benefits, but weren't actual employees, he said. "I am sorry for my lapses in judgment in committing these federal crimes, but I want to make clear I had nothing to do with the Madoff Ponzi scheme and I was never involved in the Madoff trading operation," Craig Kugel said at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan. Ex-Madoff Employee Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy [WSJ]