Analyst who leaked Apple sales projections arrested, charged for insider trading
A research analyst who allegedly obtained secret information about Apple and sold it for hundreds of thousands of dollars has been arrested and charged with securities fraud, conspiracy and insider trading.
John Kinnucan was charged with two counts of securities fraud and two counts of conspiracy on Friday in a U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon, Reuters . A civil case filed by the Securities Exchange Commission filed in the U.S. District Court of Manhattan carries the insider trading charge.
Kinnucan, who was arrested on Thursday, is accused of leaking tips that he received from Apple suppliers such as SanDisk and Flextronics to hedge funds managers. According to the report, a source close to the government probe claims that the analyst had received tips from former SanDisk executive Don Barnetson, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to divulge company secrets on Friday.
"I conspired with a consultant to provide confidential information with respect to my employer at the time, SanDisk Corp," Barnetson said.
Investigators allege that Kinnucan paid sources between 2008 and 2010 to obtain confidential information, including sales trends for the iPhone, for his firm Broadband Research. Kinnucan gained notoriety in 2010 when it was revealed that he had alerted former and current clients about the insider-trading probe after refusing to cooperate with an FBI investigation.
He defended his actions in a 2010 interview by claiming that his clients were not "some scummy fly-by-night hedge funds." Kinnucan's clients are believed to have made approximately $1.58 million off of illegal trading based on tips he provided, while he allegedly made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling the information.
"John Kinnucan used financial incentives, fancy meals and other inducements to curry favor with public company insiders so they would serve up their employers' secrets," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
The federal probe, called Operation Perfect Hedge, has resulted in 60 people pleading guilty or being arrested, according to the report. Several former executives at Apple suppliers have been caught up in the probe. The former senior director of business development at Flextronics has been charged for providing "highly confidential" sales forecasts and details for an unreleased iPhone. A former Samsung manager testified last year that he had provided early information about Apple's iPad project to a hedge fund manager a month before it was announced.
In 2010, it was revealed that a number of analysts covering Apple were being investigated by the SEC for their "channel checks" with Apple's Asian supply chain. Analysts defended the practice as an industry standard, but the probe alleged that some had crossed the line into insider trading through their research.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
? Probably not.
Will this make other analysts think twice about being morons or just lying outright?
? Probably not.
You mean if prosecution acts as a deterrent? I'm sure it does. But I think there will always be unscrupulous traders out there.
How do they manage to get wrong all the time, then ? I suggest to charge them twice : one to steal protected information, another to lie, knowing that information !
I think they're smart enough not to make themselves look good if they do have the inside scoop!
He defended his actions in a 2010 interview by claiming that his clients were not "some scummy fly-by-night hedge funds."
No one wants to believe they did bad things, but if your defense is "I'm not as bad as X", you should double check your rationale.
If this is how you react, then who is really going to sympathize?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...s-says-1-.html
Is "fancy meals" another term for hookers?
I think "fancy meals" is slang for cocaine. "Other inducements" are the hookers. I think.
Will this make other analysts think twice about being morons or just lying outright?
? Probably not.
But those aren't crimes. Leaking out what you are told is secret info is. Even if that info turns out to be lies.
They also deserve to get roughed up a bit and maybe raped every once in a while when they're in jail. These people are simple thieves who are stealing money from lots of honest people.
It's funny how poker is illegal online, yet the shadiest and most corrupt gambling scheme of all, the stock market, is fully legal. I used to play a bit of poker and things that were illegal in poker are all legal in the stock market, like bots. In poker, using a bot will get you banned for life from a site. In the stock market, using a bot is perfectly fine and totally legal.
[...] Investigators allege that Kinnucan paid sources between 2008 and 2010 to obtain confidential information, including sales trends for the iPhone, for his firm Broadband Research. [...]
And how many other analysts pay their sources for insider information? What, exactly, are the "checks" that analysts keep citing? As in "our checks indicate that Apple will blah blah blah..."
Analysts are all wannabe rock stars. Each looking for their big break in the industry. Shooting for their first big hit to establish their name. Amazing to me that more of them aren't busted for insider trading or industrial espionage.
Will this make other analysts think twice about being morons or just lying outright?
? Probably not.
It's the age-old temptation ... people lured by the the prospect of making big bucks the easy way, thinking that they can get away with it without anybody finding out. It's the same reason people keep on embezzling, despite the danger of serious prison time. There are still the otherwise smart people like the Bernie Madoffs who go for 30 years on Easy Street while they delude themselves that they can escape spending the rest of their lives in prison.
And how many other analysts pay their sources for insider information? What, exactly, are the "checks" that analysts keep citing? As in "our checks indicate that Apple will blah blah blah..."
Analysts are all wannabe rock stars. Each looking for their big break in the industry. Shooting for their first big hit to establish their name. Amazing to me that more of them aren't busted for insider trading or industrial espionage.
The enforcement division of the SEC is too small to really clean up all the corruption. They get just enough funding to bring a few cases a year to make it appear that they are enforcing the law. The legislators in Congress keep the purse strings pulled tight for this and other regulations which make things inconvenient for their patrons on Wall Street. Everybody enjoy your small government.
So who would think that you can DO that and not get caught?
My guess is that the vast majority of the time, people do not get caught. Likely the whistleblower had an extreme incentive presented to them by the prosecutors. Otherwise, why kill the golden goose?
The enforcement division of the SEC is too small to really clean up all the corruption. They get just enough funding to bring a few cases a year to make it appear that they are enforcing the law. The legislators in Congress keep the purse strings pulled tight for this and other regulations which make things inconvenient for their patrons on Wall Street. Everybody enjoy your small government.
Yeah, big government is what we need??
Maybe he should just run for congress, since insider trading is legal there.
Maybe he should just run for congress, since insider trading is legal there.
They should definitely investigate some of those bastards too, because there is a lot of shady and illegal stuff going on there that some of them are participating in. Those bastards shouldn't even be allowed to own any stock, not even a single share!
The enforcement division of the SEC is too small to really clean up all the corruption. They get just enough funding to bring a few cases a year to make it appear that they are enforcing the law. The legislators in Congress keep the purse strings pulled tight for this and other regulations which make things inconvenient for their patrons on Wall Street. Everybody enjoy your small government.
Exactly.
They do seem to be rather selective in their news output.