Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: Memory, Mortgages and Puzzles
Also Herbalife’s tender offer, flossing on the blockchain and the unicorn SPAC.
By Matt Levine
Richard Lee thought that he had insider traded, but forgot that he had in fact not insider traded:
A former trader at billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s former hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors LP wants to withdraw his 2013 insider trading guilty plea, saying he had forgotten about two instant messages that show he committed no crime.
Richard Lee said in Monday court filings that the messages uncovered in the last few months demonstrated how his purchase of 725,000 Yahoo Inc shares on July 10, 2009 was based on public information.
I suppose it is now time to promulgate the Eighth Law of Insider Trading, which is: If you did not insider trade, don’t forget! Don’t confess to insider trading just because you can’t remember if you insider traded! This law of insider trading — which, like its predecessors, is not legal advice — hardly seems like it would be necessary, but I guess that is a bit of a theme among the laws of insider trading.
Lee should not be confused with the other Richard Lee who used to work at SAC Capital and pleaded guilty to insider trading. That one was sentenced to…
