The Washington Post in “DC lawyer charged in multimillion-dollar insider trading scheme” on April 6, 2011 discussed a diagram that was displayed on an alleged scheme to trade inside information during an FBI news conference in Newark, New Jersey. A New York trader, age 43, and a Washington DC lawyer, age 50, at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati were arrested for insider trading that went on for around 17 years. The attorney and the trader faced criminal prosecution by the New Jersey US Attorney and civil charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The attorney, a senior associate, made $290,000/year at his law firm, and previously worked at two other well known New York based law firms, as a summer associate in one firm, and then an associate in another, where he allegedly pilfered secrets from the firms’ clients. Some of the clients were not his own. The men often met in Atlantic City, NJ, where they concealed the cash they made from the trades since in a gambling there was little reason to give for having a lot of cash. There was a period of time in the 17 years when the insider trading stopped while the attorney worked in house, but it began again when he started at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
The news story shows that life has its ups and downs. Some days, people could be dining in fine restaurants in Atlantic City, NJ, and other days, people could be facing trial for years in prison. This means, we must all enjoy the moments when we can work from home in comfy pajamas.
People get into legal troubles that may lead to bankruptcy when they look too much at what is missing in life rather than the worn tennies out front. It is like crying over unemployment when it could lead to becoming a trial lawyer for one of the behemoths in the insurance industry. Once we lose sight of what we have, we end up losing it to poor decisions like the attorney in the news article who made a big firm salary in poor economic times when many just prayed for extended unemployment benefits. He did not think the big firm salary was enough and had to waste it away stealing client secrets for personal gain. He will soon see that his own finances troubled into bankruptcy from hefty defense bills.
But we will never know how it ends when it ends. His defense team may not offer much of a defense except to convince him to plea guilty and say he’s sorry. To pay a lot of money to resolve disputes is not expected. Rational people accept efforts to make amends and move on. When someone thinks a proposed settlement is not enough, let them justify the money demanded. If they are bent on revenge, they will make mistakes. The court system records irrational behavior to set the appropriate amount.
When in bankruptcy, remember that it could happen to anyone. It does not matter how a person looks or what kind of job the person has. Getting through bankruptcy, or any legal problems, has to do with character, integrity, emotional tendency. The media highlights people who live double lives -high paid senior associate at law firm who steals, married lawmaker on family matters committee boasting about lobbyist mistresses, doctor with $150K/month salary overdosing celebrity client, diligent lab technician murdering a co-worker. It’s not education, family upbringing, or affluence that motivates people to cross the lines. Everyone is a mystery, changing at every meeting, transforming from kindness to hatred. There are assumptions from prior conduct, but memories do not define people in the moment. People try to define the future by looking at the past, but just like investments, past performance does not guarantee future outcomes.
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Posted April 29, 2011 by Imogen Lay under Credit Report