Slashdot Mirror
Former Apple Lawyer Who Was Supposed To Keep Employees From Insider Trading Has Been Charged With Insider Trading (cnbc.com)
The SEC Wednesday charged a former Apple executive with insider trading. From a report: Gene Levoff, senior director of corporate law and corporate secretary until September, "traded on material nonpublic information about Apple's earnings three times during 2015 and 2016," according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey. "Levoff also had a previous history of insider trading, having traded on Apple's material nonpublic information at least three additional times in 2011 and 2012. For the trading in 2015 and 2016, Levoff profited and avoided losses of approximately $382,000," the complaint says. Levoff's position at Apple granted him insider access to not-yet-public earnings results and briefings on iPhone sales, the complaint says. On more than one occasion, he disobeyed the company's "blackout" period for stock transactions, selling or buying stock worth tens of millions of dollars, according to the SEC.
Just as we tech people say. Lets hire a convinced black hat hacker, as your IT security expert, because they would know how it is done. Lets hire a lawyer convicted in insider trading to stop other employees from doing it, because he knows how it is done.
There are two problems witch such logic.
1. the Convicted part: They got caught... So how good can they be.
2. They have shown a history of poor ethical thinking skills. Such jobs with high level of responsibility and general access to information, a strong ethics background is needed.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
It shouldn't be as tempting when you're a highly paid corporate lawyer, wealthy enough to play with 8 digits' worth of stocks...but that's the difference between regular greed and insane greed I guess.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Except that greed begets more greed, and anybody telling you how the "free market" solves these problems is lying to you. The more wealthy you are, the more you feel entitled to dip your beak, because you are special and privileged.
Human nature tells us that people are selfish assholes only out for their own interests. Any economic or social theory which says that doesn't happen is a complete fucking lie.
Which in my book is capitalism, communism, and most religions because they all seem to be predicated on deluding yourself into believing that people aren't intrinsically assholes by their very nature.
You can't go around claiming your -ism works when you have fundamental assumptions which defy logic and reality about what people really do.
I fail to see why a highly paid corporate lawyer would be any less tempted to be a lying selfish asshole. In fact, I consider it more likely.
That would seriously leave few current CEOs in office. Think about how many are considered "eccentric," and that "eccentric" just means "crazy but wealthy." And then consider that most of the apparently level-headed ones are also psychopaths. If CEOs were hired on merit they would indeed be required to undergo mental health evaluations to get that position.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel