Bill Singer on the Galleon Indictments

My pal Bill Singer of Brokeandbroker.com brings us up to speed on the massive hedge fund insider trading ring and the status of some of the players involved.  Bill is a regulatory reformer and securities law veteran who calls ’em like he sees ’em.

In his experience and estimation, there has been a blurring of the line between the unsavory reputation of Wall Street and the once-esteemed world of Corporate America…

From Forbes:

Sure, the old-guard Wall Street was filled with fraudsters, scamsters, fast-talking con artists and a whole host of unsavory stock jockeys. However, we never really applied such pejorative labels to what was once reverentially called Corporate America, the Fortune 500, the Blue Chips. Whether wishful thinking or fantasy, America’s public companies and those who ran them escaped the full wrath that befell Wall Street–but, my, how times have changed. If one believes the allegations in Galleon, there is little difference between boiler-rooms and highly capitalized international hedge funds, between penny stocks and the elite publicly traded shares. Everyone is swimming in the same cesspool.

I tend to agree with his estimation.  The fact that certain disreputable hedge funds now have the influence and financial muscle to manipulate Fortune 500 c-level executives means the game has changed.  The scams are more threatening and detrimental to a fair market than ever before.

Get over to Forbes to read the rest…

Galleon Gets No Casablanca Ending (Forbes)

Read Also:

Insider Trading Cards – Collect ’em All (TRB)