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back to article Cali bloke accused of illegally trousering $68k using mom's Apple AuthenTec gobble tip-off

A California chap is accused of illegally using inside information to pocket more than $68,000 when Apple took over mobile security biz AuthenTec. Andrew Kerr, 41, of Livermore, allegedly got a tip-off from his mom about the upcoming acquisition and immediately bought a bunch of shares in AuthenTec. She learned of the deal …

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  1. Roq D. Kasba

    Impure capitalism

    Always seems a bit of a disconnect to me - having to pretend not to know something so you don't do the logical thing based on knowing that thing. True capitalism says ”screw you guys", so it's always a strange one. You can be capitalism if you guess but don't know something.

    10 1 Reply
    1. Dadmin
      Reply Icon

      Re: Impure capitalism

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_network

      An old, interesting PBS/Frontline episode dug into these operations, and what was exposed did not look like "investors doing serious research," rather it was laundering information so as to sidestep the SEC watchdogs. So, if you call yourself an "Expert," put on a suit and pay for office space, you TOO can take insider info, then ?, then profit! What a country!

      4 1 Reply
    2. goldcd
      Reply Icon

      Indeed

      Playing the markets is an entirely respectable thing to do for millions, if you solely base it on the same information all the other gamblers have.

      The moment you know something they don't - well that's insider-trading and a really bad thing.

      Not that they make any pretence of it being a level-playing-field in any other way - you can buy your way to ensure your network latency puts you ahead of others once the information is officially released, and the exchange will welcome your money.

      It's completely nuts.

      8 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Indeed

        "The moment you know something they don't - well that's insider-trading and a really bad thing." Is it just knowing something they don't, or more how one knows something which matters?

        2 0 Reply
  2. Roq D. Kasba

    $68000

    Wasn't the 68000 series of CPU what Mac's ran on before x86. Nice internal, geeky self-referential symmetry to the number for the story.

    8 2 Reply
    1. Mage Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: $68000

      68K - PPC - x86 I think, but yes 68K was before the x86

      I wonder did he know he was breaking the rules or did he think he was being clever?

      The big guys probably don't get caught. I expect what's caught is tip of the iceberg.

      5 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: $68000

        The big guys are smarter about it. If you get a group of people who all have insider info and effectively each throw our information into a hat and draw one someone else's info and trade on it - in dollar amounts that would be similar to dollar amounts you normally trade in.

        It is easy to prove if your brother works for the company being bought and you stretch your finances to the limit to buy as much as possible when you normally don't trade stocks at all. It is almost impossible to prove if they can't even prove I know an insider, and my inside trade looks indistinguishable to other trades I make that are not always successful. Then the SEC can't prove anything beyond that I got "lucky" buying Authentec.

        2 0 Reply
    2. Roq D. Kasba
      Reply Icon

      Re: $68000, downvotes

      H'mmmm, a post alluding to a fact and no discussion of relative merits, etc.

      Are you downvoters in the 51.9% by any chance?

      3 0 Reply
  3. Blake St. Claire

    Oh puhleaze

    Cali is what the hipsters (chavs?) that live elsewhere call California. (I don't live there now, but I've spent about half my life there.)

    And risking jail time for insider trading for a measly $68K is just stupid. The dude's brother and mother are probably going to get seriously slapped too as a result of his stupidity. What a wanker.

    As for capitalism and using what you know to do what seems normal? Well, we could just go back to the good ol' days and let people tell lies and cheat to manipulate the market in their favor. That's capitalism too. I grew up being told life isn't fair, so I won't argue that the stock markets should be "fair"; I would, however, like them to be reasonable secure from manipulation.

    2 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh puhleaze

      " I would, however, like them to be reasonable secure from manipulation."

      Good luck, then. No amount of civilization's going to fix that because that goes to the basic human condition: get a leg up on your neighbor so your kids win over their kids.

      1 0 Reply
    2. Eddy Ito
      Reply Icon

      Re: Oh puhleaze

      Nah, Cali is what it's called by folk who live here and don't necessarily think Cali is [deity]'s gift to the world any more than anywhere else is. Then again you do get the "USA, USA, USA" hooligan chanting types every now and again, even in Cali.

      0 0 Reply
  4. a_yank_lurker

    Abusing the law?

    Insider trading laws are to protect outsiders from the machinations of insiders and prevent insiders from making a market play before the information is readily available. Thus, does this guy and his mom meet the definition of an insider or is this some bored shyster trying to make an easy kill.

    For the record, Martha Stewart was not convicted of insider trading but of making false statements to the ferals.

    3 1 Reply
  5. Herby

    No good deed...

    goes unpunished. I suspect a big fine is in the offing, and the $50k debt will be the least of his problems.

    I see a couple of years of porridge in his future.

    Of course there are those who get $$$ by saying they are the IRS, and they won't even get their hand slapped. Yes, I got a phone call today. It went to voicemail, and I scrubbed it before it was over. They use machine voices so as to not be traceable.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Charles 9
      Reply Icon

      Re: No good deed...

      "Of course there are those who get $$$ by saying they are the IRS, and they won't even get their hand slapped."

      Because they're under the protection of foreign powers. That's the flip side of sovereignty.

      0 0 Reply
  6. Steve B

    What is the issue?

    A chap's brother has a long meeting with Apple, doesn't take much to assume something is happening.

    So what if he bought some shares in the hope a deal goes through, not exactly earth shattering sums, and he has probably run out of successful brothers now so little chance of a repeat. It is the rip off merchants who went Sell, sell, sell on news of brexit, just to force the market prices down so they could buy them back cheaply and make a much bigger (virtual) profit that these officials should be chasing and sorting out, not a chap who backed his brother.

    3 0 Reply
  7. cd / && rm -rf *
    Unhappy

    His mistake ...

    ... was getting caught. Unlike the wunch of bankers in the City who do this day, day out, with impunity.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Steve Evans
      Reply Icon

      Re: His mistake ...

      Hardly surprising given the way he went about it...

      Someone who suddenly starts throwing everything he has, and a load extra he had to borrow in order to throw, in one particular direction obviously knows something he shouldn't...

      0 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: His mistake ...

        Then again, I would've loved to see the face of such a bloke doing the exact same thing, and then at the last minute the deal falls through, tumbling the stocks. Heck, maybe the failure causes the company itself to talk, rendering all the stock worthless.

        0 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: His mistake ...

      His biggest mistake was not being a politician. People in the US House/Senate are immune from inside trading laws!

      0 0 Reply
  8. The Nazz

    Aiding and abetting?

    And of course, the brokerage agent is likewise being prosecuted for aiding and abetting an illegal activity and profiting therefrom.

    Yeah, thought not.

    0 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Aiding and abetting?

      The broker didn't have any inside information though. They were just doing as their client asked.

      0 0 Reply
      1. Charles 9
        Reply Icon

        Re: Aiding and abetting?

        Wouldn't an extreme buy order like that be considered an unusual activity and raise a red flag, though? Brokers can't act blindly because they can be held culpable, too, if they were found to have allowed something, for lack of a better term, "bloody obvious".

        0 0 Reply

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