We posted last week about Sallah & Cox's jury verdict in the SEC insider trading case against Dr. De La Maza. Sallah and Cox defended Dr. De La Maza in the SEC trial after he was charged with insider trading by the Commission.
The defense verdict is a bit unusual - after all, the SEC gets to pick and choose the cases it brings, so it has, almost by definition, a high success rate. However, new reports are coming out criticizing the SEC for the way it handled this matter - and the defamation of Dr. De La Maza.
Walter Pavlo at the Forbes While Collar Crime Blog points out today that at the time of the filing of the complaints the SEC staff made some very strong comments about Dr. De La Maza, comments which might actually be defamatory, including: “[t]hese individuals traded on confidential information with reckless disregard for the fairness of the markets and utter disrespect for their jobs or close-knit relationships. But their greed left a trail for investigators to follow” and "[t]hese individuals chose money over integrity as they abused their positions of trust and misused privileged information. Whether they learned about the pending mergers through business, family, or friends, they exploited those relationships to make an easy buck.”
I am certainly not an expert on tort law or defamation, but at a minimum, someone owes Dr. De La Maza an apology.
SEC Loses Insider Trading Case — You Can’t Win’em All - Walter Pavlo - White-Collar Crime - Forbes
