Insider Trading w/Tom Hardin

About this episode

Tom Hardin discusses his experiences with insider trading and becoming an informant after his conviction for Securities Fraud.

How do you handle it when you screw up badly? (Like really badly.) Former hedge fund trader and Wharton graduate Tom Hardin was convicted of Securities Fraud and Conspiracy to Commit Securities Fraud, which are felonies. In 2008, during the beginning of the great finanical crisis, Tom desperately needed to put some points on the board at his fund. And since everybody else in the industry seemed to be doing it, Tom allowed himself to trade equities on material, non-public information—something he knew was illegal. After being stopped by the FBI on the streets of Manhattan, Tom agreed to become an informant and wore a wire over 40 times to aid the agency in its investigation of big fish like Steve Cohen of SAC who paid a $1.8 billion fine and Rajaratnam of of Galleon Group who went to jail for 7.5 years. I spoke to Tom this week about his new book, Wired on Wall Street: The Rise and Fall of Tipper X, One of the FBI’s Most Prolific Informants. A scrappy, middle-class kid from suburban Atlanta (Go Braves!), Tom willed himself into the University of Pennsylvania’s famed Wharton School of Business, which launched him into the finance industry. He eventually earned a seat at a…

People in this episode

Host: Paul Ollinger

Guest: Tom Hardin

Topics covered

• insider trading
• financial crisis
• Securities Fraud
• whistleblowing
• hedge funds
• career downfall

Keywords

• insider trading
• Securities Fraud
• Tom Hardin
• whistleblower
• hedge fund
• financial crisis
• Wall Street

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Wharton School of Business, SAC, Galleon Group

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