Have the rampant and highly publicized insider trading scandals of the 1980s, now almost three decades behind us, been forgotten by today’s generation of business executives, traders, bankers and lawyers?
Although it is difficult to imagine how the lessons of those cases could be lost, the recent resurgence of insider trading investigations and civil and criminal enforcement actions being pursued by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice against white-collar professionals, including bankers, lawyers and even compliance professionals at prominent Wall Street securities and law firms, may cause some to ask whether the stunning array of individuals that are the subject of such actions have forgotten the lessons of the 1980s and neglected the risks associated with insider trading.
