Consider the following hypothetical scenario. A public company is selling mobile advertising space, earning ever-increasing profits as cell phone screens garner a larger and larger slice of people’s attention spans. One Sunday night, however, a senior executive of the public company—call her “Mobile Ad Tipper”—is out to dinner when she locks herself out of her car. So she hails a cab to take her downtown to her office, where she keeps a spare car key. When Mobile Ad Tipper arrives, she notices the firm’s five top salesmen are already there—holding a secret meeting in the board room with the light off. Without being seen, she hides behind a corner and listens in on what the star-salesman are discussing. And to her surprise, she overhears that in two weeks the salesmen are going to quit the public company to start their own boutique, a coup that would utterly devastate her company’s business.
The next morning, Mobile Ad Tipper gets a bright idea. She calls her friend—”Tippee Friend”—and offers her a deal: if Tippee Friend pays $20,000 cash, Mobile Ad Tipper will disclose inside information about her company’s impending doom. With this information, Tippee Friend can bet against the company and get rich, and Mobile Ad Tipper herself can make money without leaving a paper trail. Everybody wins!
