The FBI briefed reporters Monday on the widening probe into insider trading on Wall Street. The feds are building cases against as many as 120 people, according to reports out of the briefing. It’s the first time the feds have put a number on the size of the insider trading probe.
There’s been an ongoing debate over whether the Obama Administration should be doing more to punish the bankers who inflated the housing bubble and recklessly peddled mortgages and mortgage-backed securities, contributing to the global meltdown in 2008. On the left, there are calls for prosecution. The Justice department has resisted “prosecuting the recession”, arguing that there is a difference between financial recklessness and criminality.
But insider trading is a crime, albeit a poorly defined one, and the feds are becoming more aggressive in going after it. For more on the federal investigations into Wall Street see our cover story last month:
