
Facebook Terminated Corporate Development Employee Over Insider Trading Scandal - ssclafani
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/31/facebook-terminated-corporate-development-employee-over-insider-trading-scandal/
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rumpelstiltskin
Re: the last paragraph in the article

Considering this can potentially ruin Brown's reputation, shouldn't they wait
to get solid confirmation before slapping him with the 'insider trading'
label?

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Bud
I'm really a bit confused here. If a Goldman employee did this, he'd get a
$50M bonus, be knighted, and be given permanent immunity in advance by the
President of the United States against all prosecution, whether related to
this affair, or any others, past, present, or future. If a hedge fund manager
did this, same thing. If any Republican politician did this, same thing. But
somehow, if it's a tech industry employee, or (of course) anyone in the bottom
99.5% of the class structure in the US, they get fired and/or jailed.

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ig1
Have you heard of the term "libel" ?

Insider trading is a criminal offence, if you're going to accuse a company of
advocating it you should probably have solid evidence.

If you wanted to make a general point about how you think investment banks are
unethical, then use the term investment banks.

Naming a real company and accusing them of illegal behaviour just to make a
point isn't a good idea.

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arethuza
I think you are being just a _bit_ over sensitive....

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ig1
Imagine instead of Goldman the OP would have said "YCombinator", how fast do
you think it would have been downvoted ?

You can't have one rule for companies you like and another for companies you
don't.

I like many HN'ers am a startup founder, I'd be horrified if someone
baselessly accused my company of advocating criminal activities. I don't care
if the company being wrongly accused is Goldman, Microsoft, AOL or some tiny
startup. Wrong is wrong.

While such behaviour might be tolerated in other online communities, it should
have absolutely no-place on HN.

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Bud
You're just being obtuse. I didn't wrongly accuse Goldman. I _rightly_ pointed
out past abuses which Goldman has carried out. Do you not read the news?

And yes. You most certainly can have one rule for companies who are multi-
billion-dollar bad actors, and other rules for companies which, well, aren't.

This isn't complex.

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Mystalic
Take everything posted by TechCrunch (and all news websites) with a big grain
of salt for the next 24 hours.

~~~
wheels
Arrington is a lawyer. These are serious allegations. I don't think he's
stupid enough to float something like this as a joke.

~~~
ig1
After the Calacanis lawsuit and the Techcrunch Tablet lawsuit, I'm not
entirely convinced Arrington applies his legal skills in his business
dealings.

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albahk
Well, if the article is not an April fools joke then its a leap to claim that
this is "Insider Trading". The term specifically applies to public companies
and not to companies in general. This distinction is not a "footnote" in the
article, it is the fact that negates the entire article.

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ig1
Insider trading cases in the US have been bought under SEC Rule 10b-5 which
reads:

    
    
      To use or employ, in connection with the purchase or sale
      of any security registered on a national securities
      exchange or any security not so registered, or any
      securities-based swap agreement (as defined in section  
      206B of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act), any manipulative or
      deceptive device or contrivance in contravention of such
      rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe as
      necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the
      protection of investors.
    

(source: <http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/78j.html#b> )

Note in particular the line "security not so registered".

Trading in private companies can be considered Insider Trading.

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ajaimk
I'm gonna stick taking everything on the internet with a grain of salt today.
We really do need a safe word for "real news" for the day.

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tomjen3
Or maybe not, since the sources conflict.

This is not something you write without being 100% sure.

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thesethings
Sincere question: has anybody ever punked a journalist as an April Fools
prank?

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prostoalex
Facebook released "Fax this photo" feature to a specific subset of user IDs.
[http://techcrunch.com/2009/09/10/yeah-ok-so-facebook-
punkd-u...](http://techcrunch.com/2009/09/10/yeah-ok-so-facebook-punkd-us/)

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thesethings
Oh right, I remember that. Thanks for the link.

