Who are Baltia insiders? Any 10-percent or more holder of voting shares of a US-listed firm is automatically considered an insider.
In addition, any person or entity who by virtue of his or her employment or other close association has insider information on a publicly traded firm. The opportunity of an insider to profit from such information is commonly restricted or prohibited by law.
The SEC includes in its definition of insiders those who have "temporary" or "constructive" access to material information on a company. That includes anyone outside of the firm. An insider can be anyone who has tradeable information the public does not.
Who polices inside trading? Because of the stock market crash of 1929, the Securities Act of 1933 set up the first laws against insider trading. A year later, Congress passed the Securities Exchange Act which formally created the SEC, giving it broad authority over all aspects of the securities industry.
In 1984, Congress passed the Insider Trading Sanctions Act or ITSA to help the SEC enforce insider trading laws. Before that, the SEC was limited to submitting injunctions to stop fraudulent actions and try to force payment back to victims of illicit profit taking.
With any case the SEC has found after 1984, it's handed over to the Justice Department to prosecute.
What are the penalties? There can be both criminal and financial penalties. Individuals face up to 20 years in prison for criminal securities fraud. In addition, those suspected of insider trading are usually charged with mail and wire fraud, which can lead to a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
They can also be charged with more general "securities fraud" (up to 25 years in prison), and possibly even racketeering, tax evasion, and/or obstruction of justice.
When it comes to financial penalties, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 gives the SEC the authority to seek a court order requiring violators to give back their trading profits. The SEC can also ask the court to impose a penalty of up to three times the profit the violators realized from their insider trading.
The SEC Act of 1934 was amended by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002,to include a fine of up to $5 million for each "willful" violation of the act and the regulations under it.
There is one way to avoid prison, and only pay a fee. That would be if a defendant can demonstrate "no knowledge" of a rule or regulation that is violated. Corporations involved in insider trading face penalties of up to $25 million.
In light of the above, it is truly appalling that a Baltia insider, a 13D-filer, having admitted to have been advised by an attorney NOT TO POST HERE, does so repeatedly, while claiming to have unique access to undisclosed company information of a positive nature, while also moderating a board, and while also participating in a private ‘group’ board (see SEC Section 16(b) short-swing profit recovery).
How desperate is that? How ill-advised is that?
AI
