How To Tell If You're Starring In A Poorly Shot Video About Insider Trading
You're an investment professional and have been making some trades that would fall under the umbrella of 'securities violations' for some time. Your colleague and co-conspirator has been acting a little weird (whenever you talk to him, he's been asking detailed questions about how exactly you've obtained inside information, what you did with it, etc) and you start to wonder if perhaps he's flipped, is cooperating with the government and has been recording conversations with you in order to get a better deal. If he's started wearing a cravat and asking you to lean in "closer, closer" while chatting or to slow dance in the office kitchen, you may want to back slowly out of the room and lay low for a while.
David Slaine, the stock picker turned stoolie whose trail led investigators to hedge-fund titan Raj Rajaratnam, spent months making secret videos of friends and colleagues allegedly engaged in an insider-trading scheme. Slaine affixed hidden video cams to his hat, cravat and briefcase, helping investigators build their case against Zvi Goffer, an ex-Galleon trader, his brother Emanuel Goffer, and his partner Michael Kimelman.
Far from dramatic, the videos show shots of walls, a bookcase, Slaine's checkered shirt and people's foreheads, according to sources familiar with the tapes. While some tapes are expected to be entered as evidence, they will undoubtedly reveal the trickiness of surveillance when using informants. For instance, the government may show a videotaped conversation between Slaine and Goffer eating at a diner, but mainly for the audio, because the video only shows the corner of Goffer's face, said a person close to the case.
