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U.S. federal prosecutors have charged two Brazilian nationals with insider trading in connection with 3G Capital’s $3.26 billion acquisition of Burger King in 2010. The complaint announced Monday alleges that Waldyr Prado, a 43-year-old former Wells Fargo financial adviser, and one of his brokerage clients, Igor Cornelsen, illegally profited from insider information about the Burger King deal after Prado learned about it from another client who had invested in private-equity firm 3G. …

House Republicans are no longer a part of negotiations to end the standoff in Washington, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said Sunday. “We’ve reached the point where House Republicans and their leadership have stepped to the sidelines,” the Illinois Democrat said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” knocking the House GOP for what he characterized as shifting demands. “They’re not part of this,” he said. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), meanwhile, blamed President Barack Obama for the standoff over reopening the government and raising the debt limit. “The president has refused to negotiate,” Portman said. “It’s unbelievable.” Portman also echoed other Republicans...

For many, it was a period of financial turmoil as banks failed, stock markets tumbled and millions lost their jobs. However, billionaire Warren Buffett kept on doing what he does best and began investing in a handful of blue-chip companies during the financial crisis. Five years on and the value of those deals are clear for all to see, America’s second-richest man earning another $10 billion thanks to his choice investments. … The fall of 2008, when the market was shaky and confidence was low, a number of stocks of companies that had decent reputations were at record lows, including...

Martha Stewart. Raj Rajaratnam. Albert H Wiggin. Dennis Levine. Jeff Skilling. Do any of these names ring a bell? They're all people who've been accused of insider trading. Some of them have been convicted, while others have not (there were no laws against insider trading when Wiggin made his money). Today, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) publishes a running total of the insider trading cases it pursues. But should insider trading even be a crime? In a word: no. In some cases, the SEC takes action based on a combination of breach of contract and insider trading. In these...

Ever since the financial crisis, U.S. regulators have been hard at work putting away Wall Street financiers who play fast and loose with the law. The only problem is, those Wall Street crooks that the feds have been cracking down on aren’t those who actually caused the financial crisis, but a different breed of white collar criminal: inside traders. As Charles Gasparino explains in his new book on insider trading, it’s largely coincidental that the fed’s recent crackdown on the practice — which includes yesterday’s indictment of the hedge fund SAC Capital – is taking place in the wake of...

Hundreds of federal employees were given advance word of a Medicare decision worth billions of dollars to private insurers in the weeks before the official announcement, a period when trading in the shares of those firms spiked. The surge of trading in Humana’s and other private health insurers’ stock before the April 1 announcement already has prompted the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Wall Street investors had advance access to inside information about the then-confidential Medicare funding plan. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) told The Washington Post late last week that his office reviewed...

It seems that hundreds of Department of Health and Human Services employees had access to information about a Medicare decision, at least 436 employees to be exact, that could have been very useful in advance of a huge trading spike which was the result of the announcement. The Washington Post is breaking this story today: Hundreds of federal employees were given advance word of a Medicare decision worth billions of dollars to private insurers in the weeks before the official announcement, a period when trading in the shares of those firms spiked. The surge of trading in Humana‘s and other...

Hundreds of federal employees were given advance word of a Medicare decision worth billions of dollars to private insurers in the weeks before the official announcement, a period when trading in the shares of those firms spiked. The surge of trading in Humana’s and other private health insurers’ stock before the April 1 announcement already has prompted the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Wall Street investors had advance access to inside information about the then-confidential Medicare funding plan. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) told The Washington Post late last week that his office reviewed...

Wall Street investors hungry for advance information on upcoming federal health-care decisions repeatedly held private discussions with Obama administration officials, including a top White House adviser helping to implement the Affordable Care Act. The private conversations show that the increasingly urgent race to acquire“political intelligence” goes beyond the communications with congressional staffers that have become the focus of heightened scrutiny in recent weeks. White House records show that Elizabeth Fowler, then a top ­health-policy adviser to President Obama, met with executives from half a dozen investment firms in 2011 and 2012. Among them was Kris Jenner, a stock picker with...

OCTOBER 17, 2009 Rajaratnam Surfaced in U.S. Terrorism Probe By EVAN PEREZ and MATTHEW ROSENBERG WASHINGTON—The hedge-fund billionaire charged as part of a vast insider-trading case surfaced in an earlier, separate probe into U.S. fundraising by a Sri Lankan terrorist group, people familiar with the probe said. As part of that investigation, federal agents said they uncovered documents showing that Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group, was among several wealthy Sri Lankans in the U.S. whose donations to a Maryland-based charity made their way to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to people familiar with the probe. Raj...

<p>The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has frozen the assets of a Swiss trading account that allegedly made a series of "highly suspicious" trades reaping about $1.7 million ahead of the blockbuster sale of H.J. Heinz Co.</p> <p>The regulator's move came one day after Heinz said it was selling itself for $23 billion to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Brazilian private-equity firm 3G Capital in one of the biggest food-industry acquisitions ever.</p>

Goldman Sachs Group Inc is cooperating with a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probe into insider options trading in H.J. Heinz Co before the food company announced it was being acquired, Goldman said on Friday.

From the Fed Transcripts: MR. LACKER. If I could just follow up on that, Mr. Chairman. CHAIRMAN BERNANKE. Yes, go ahead. MR. LACKER. Vice Chairman Geithner, did you say that they are unaware of what we’re considering or what we might be doing with the discount rate? VICE CHAIRMAN GEITHNER. Yes. MR. LACKER. Vice Chairman Geithner, I spoke with Ken Lewis, President and CEO of Bank of America, this afternoon, and he said that he appreciated what Tim Geithner was arranging by way of changes in the discount facility. So my information is different from that. Oh I see. Reuters...

Yesterday we broke the news [24]of what is prima facie evidence, sourced by none other than the Federal Reserve's official August 16, 2007 conference call transcript [25], that then-NY Fed president and FOMC Vice Chairman Tim Geithner leaked material, non-public, and very much market moving information (the "Geithner Leak") to at least one banker, in this case then Bank of America CEO Ken Leiws, in advance of a formal Fed announcement - an act explicitly prohibited by virtually every capital markets law (and reading thereof). It was refreshing to see that at least several other mainstream outlets, including Reuters [26],...

On the Friday before Christmas, President Obama announced that he was appointing Mohamed A. El-Erian, the CEO of Pacific Investment Management Company, as the chairman of his Global Development Council. The announcement didn’t get much attention, but it should. It exemplifies what’s wrong with Obama’s approach to economic policy, which amounts to: insult rich people as “fat cats,” raise their taxes, and then choose a favored few of them for special access. If you’re not familiar with El-Erian, you must not be watching CNBC or attending the World Economic Forum at Davos. The son of an Egyptian ambassador to France...

The portfolio of embattled United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice includes investments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in several energy companies known for doing business with Iran, according to financial disclosure forms. Rice, a possible nominee to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she steps down, has come under criticism for promulgating erroneous information about the September 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. Rice has the highest net worth of executive branch members, with a fortune estimated between $24 to $44 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. A Free Beacon analysis of Rice’s...

There is nothing like inside information, provided you are on the inside. But heaven forbid should you be on the outside and act on a tip as did Martha Stewart. Insider Monkey reports Google Inc. (GOOG): Insiders Sold $280M Prior to Crash Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) chairman Eric Schmidt was very active in late September, as he executed 226 transactions in just three days from Sept. 24 to 26, selling off more than 211,000 shares at per-share prices between $742 and $764 per share. He came away with about $158 million. Other noteworthy insiders are Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Larry Page...

The truth will make you sick. Congress is rich -- unbelievably rich. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, 249 of the 535 congressmen are millionaires. That's 47%. By comparison, about 5% of U.S. households are worth more than $1 million.And until recently, insider trading laws didn't apply to congress. They could buy or sell investments based on non-public information they learned from their privileged positions.As you would expect, that's led to some great returns for Congress' investments. In a study cited by Barron's, members of the U.S. House of Representatives beat investors like you and me by 55 basis...

Failed Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry’s (D., Mass.) long history of ethically dubious investments could invite controversy as he takes on a new role as a “top surrogate” for President Obama’s reelection campaign. Kerry’s net worth as listed on his 2011 financial disclosure form is at least $193 million and likely much higher, making him the wealthiest member of the Senate. He is also a prolific investor, maintaining an array of stocks and other holdings through a mix of family trusts, marital trusts, and commingled fund accounts with his wife, Big Ketchup baroness Teresa Heinz. The five-term Senator has...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama called on Wednesday for stricter controls on lawmakers to confront "the corrosive influence" of money in Washington as he signed into law an insider trading ban he said was needed to help restore trust in the U.S. government. The Democrat, who is running for re-election in November, said the STOCK Act he signed at the White House made plain that members of Congress using non-public information to improve their personal investment portfolios were breaking the law. Enforcement of the core stock trading disclosure provisions will begin in July. He also called for more restrictions,...