Um, read my comments again...carefully.
"Who are the victims?" referred to the Sacane case, so forcefully recounted by Aguirre. My comment could perhaps even be expanded to hedge funds in general. However, it could never be extended to insider trading, as my post makes very clear. Insider trading is bad, period; and I stated that it is a particular problem with PIPE's and acquisitions. Hedge fund registration or scrutiny does not affect insider trading cases. The Insider Trading Act of 1988 already provides plenty of firepower to enforce insider trading cases, whether the miscreants are CEO's, friends of CEO's like Martha Stewart, or hedge fund execs.
The problem with insider trading is that it is frequently hard to make a strong case. The Commission correctly does not want to waste its time and limited resources. Thus, it has to pick its battles. In fact, it is possible that CMKX (to bring the topic back to the subject of this thread), while not an insider trading case, is a victim of SEC triage; either the Commission is putting together the case very slowly, or they have decided to apply their resources to more important things. Either way, I think that they have correctly assessed that CMKX shareholders are vivid examples of the human tendency to accept any explanation for events other than the one which has the complainer as a greedy sucker. Thus, even if the SEC were to nail the miscreants, the people wronged would still believe that they were the victim of a massive conspiracy reaching to the very depths of Wall Street and Washington, rather than of a few clever con men. Thus, there is not going to be a lot of pressure for justice.
AI
