纳斯达克内幕交易者受审

    美国证券交易所终于重见光明。上周四，美国证券交易委员会（Securities and Exchange Commission）对前纳斯达克（Nasdaq）执行董事唐纳德•约翰逊提出指控，罪名是其在公司正式发布消息前，通过内幕交易牟利75.5万美元。

    令人惊讶的是， 直至2009年10月，约翰逊一直主管纳斯达克的“市场情报”部门。这个显而易见的错误任命，无疑使他可以利用工作之便获取大量信息，并借此在与联合治疗公司（United Therapeutics）等机构有关的交易中，赚得大笔进项。

    上世纪90年代，麦道夫曾担任三届纳斯达克主席，直到在史无前例的庞氏骗局（Ponzi scheme）中他侵吞200亿美元巨款案发才告结束。近年来，美国证券交易委员会因未能将之及时缉捕归案而饱受抨击。但是，他们并未放弃努力，而是为恢复名誉不遗余力，这点在其新闻稿的措辞中得到了集中体现，着实令人难忘。功夫不负有心人，上周四，他们的一切努力终于有了结果。

    “此案分明是内幕交易版的让狐狸看管鸡窝。”美国证券交易委员会执行部主任（Division of Enforcement）罗伯特•库扎米表示。“约翰逊非但不保护纳斯达克客户的信用，反而暗自利用客户信息中饱私囊。他甚至用纳斯达克办公室的计算机进行交易。”

    简直难以想像！无巧不成书，周四，在另一桩更为严重的刑事内幕交易案中，约翰逊也认罪伏法，美国弗吉尼亚东区（Eastern District of Virginia）检察官指出。不管这只“狐狸”是否承认他在纳斯达克这个“鸡窝”中应当承担的责任，仅凭此项指控，他就得在大牢里坐上20年。

    译者：大海

    In the latest shining moment for the U.S. stock exchanges, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged Donald Johnson, a former Nasdaq managing director, with ripping off investors to the tune of $755,000 by insider trading ahead of the release of corporate press releases.

    Johnson, you will be impressed to learn, was in charge through October 2009 of the Nasdaq's "market intelligence" desk, which is surely a misnomer but seems in any case to have afforded him with a lot of info he used to trade profitably on outfits like United Therapeutics (UTHR).

    The SEC has come under heavy fire in recent years for its failure to nab Madoff, a three-term Nasdaq chairman in the 1990s, before he frittered away $20 billion in the biggest-ever Ponzi scheme. But the agency is doggedly trying to restore its good name by putting really catchy quotes in its press releases, an effort that was much in evidence Thursday.

    "This case is the insider trading version of the fox guarding the henhouse," said Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "Instead of protecting NASDAQ client confidences, Johnson secretly traded on client information for personal gain, even using his NASDAQ office computer to make the trades."

    If you can imagine! As it happens, Johnson also pleaded guilty Thursday in a rather more serious criminal insider trading case, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia said. That one could get him 20 years in jail, regardless of whether the fox admits or denies his responsibility in this particular henhouse.