In America esagerano sempre. Un banchiere James McDermott, capo della banca Keefe Bruyette & Woods ha preso 5 mesi di galera per avere passato a una star del porno Kathryn Gannon detta "Marylin Star" il suggerimento di comprare un titolo che doveva essere coinvolto in una fusione. La signorina è scappata in Canada evitando la galera. Un suo fidanzato, tale Anthony Pomponio e probabilmente nello stesso giro ha preso 21 mesi di galera (che credo stia scontando) perchè "Marylin Star" gli ha a sua volta passato l'informazione. ----------------- dal WSJ di oggi---------------------------- Anthony Pomponio. For those who missed him the first time, Mr. Pomponio's name will be flitting through the news again later this month when the ex-porn star Kathryn Gannon (known professionally as Marylin Star) is sentenced for insider trading. Let us recap: James McDermott, head of the investment bank of Keefe Bruyette & Woods, leaked news of pending mergers to his girlfriend, Ms. Gannon. She passed the tips to another boyfriend, Mr. Pomponio, who was convicted on insider-trading charges after (in the court's words) "poorly telling lies, evading questions and affecting incredulous reactions" to an SEC interrogation. Mr. McDermott, the banker, ended up serving five months and then being released on a plea bargain when an appeals court sent his case back for retrial. Ms. Gannon repaired to her native Canada and struck a plea deal herself. Poor Mr. Pomponio, though, was sent away for 21 months for trading on tips that he understood Ms. Gannon to have cadged from "escort clients in New York City who were 'well connected Wall Street types' and other 'high level people'" (the SEC's words). Economists love to debate whether insider trading should even be a crime, though few doubt that shareholders have a right to forbid employees from stealing company information for private use. But once you get beyond such questions of fiduciary trust, you're throwing people in jail for failing to make abstruse and clairvoyant distinctions about the legal status of a stock tip. Here we come to the paradox of insider-trading laws: On one hand, they encourage the average investor to believe he's on a level playing field with professional traders, which he can never be. Yet when a non-pro like Mr. Pomponio or Ms. Stewart actually lucks into a reliable tip from somebody in the know, he or she is immediately strung up for "insider trading." Who benefits from such laws? Maybe day traders who can play the lurch in a company's price when news is successfully kept mum until it hits the market in a public announcement. But most small investors have better things to do than hover around a keyboard all day trying to trade on a headline floating across CNBC. They'd benefit most if the market were simply allowed to do what it's supposed to do: channel capital to its most valued uses and cue management on what the best-informed opinion thinks about its plans and strategies. The ImClone follies indicate another problem, for which perhaps the only solution is a large pay raise to improve the social status of congressmen. Then we might hope they'll gain a higher conception of their own dignity. Mr. Greenwood, like one of those bozos who jumps and waves in front of the TV cameras at a ballgame, might find that the distinction that comes from being willing to act like a bigger jerk than anybody else isn't taking him where he wants to go.