I once wrote a leading e-mail to MoveOn asking them how they could justify being supported by the fascist, George Soros. They sent me a thank-you-for-your-concern generic response. The legal and moral implications of a bad law aside, I feel no sorrow for the man. Isn’t this just what he wanted?
George Soros loses appeal over SocGen insider trading conviction
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against Mr Soros in the latest blow to the investor in his nine-year battle to have the conviction overturned.
Mr Soros was found guilty of trading on insider information in the French bank but argued that trading regulations were ambiguous.
In a statement released following the unsuccessful appeal, the Court said that while the law was not precisely worded, investors had a duty to be prudent.
The court said Mr Soros was a “famous institutional investor, well-known to the business community” and “could not have been unaware that his decision to invest in shares in [Societe Generale] entailed the risk that he might be committing the offence of insider trading.”
Mr Soros, now 81, was fined the €2.2m (£1.9m) he had made from trading in the French bank’s shares. However, while prosecutors filed criminal charges, France’s stock market regulator opted not to pursue a case against the investor, arguing that insider trading laws were too vague.
Ron Soffer, a lawyer representing Mr Soros, said his client would appeal the judgment. “It is inconceivable to expect that the citizen has a better understanding of the law than the authority in charge,” Mr Soffer said.
“The opinion of the regulatory authority is an irrebuttable presumption as to the lack of clarity of the law.”
Mr Soros is best known for making $1bn betting against the pound in 1992. He turned to the human rights court in 2006 after losing out in his appeal to the Cour de Cassation, France’s top court.
Mr Soros has three months to lodge his appeal to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, which will then decide whether to hear the appeal.
The true Randian believes that insider trading adds value to the market. Mr. Soros through his hard work obtained information on which he acted.
Compare that to the GOOPER Welfare Queens like Jamie Dimon or Brian Moniyhan who collected millions in pay using taxpayer funds.
Again, the distinction between Soros and GS/BAC/MS is that BAC/GS/MS are leeches on the taxpayer and wouldn’t exist if George W. Bush had any sense of decency.
Barry: until you take the effort to see what Rand said, why don’t you leave her out of your theories?
Henry Manne wrote the book, Insider Trading and the Stock Market, back in the 60s. His thesis was that inside info is proprietary to the company and they can dole it out to their advantage just like any other property right they have. So, morally, I would say that insider trading is a crime made up by the SEC, and isn’t really “criminal.” But, Soros is an advocate of things like these rules and favors the power of the state over our lives. The fact that the law was fuzzy, as so many of these are, is, to me, ironic justice for a bad person who is doing a lot of harm through his support of Progressive (regressive) causes.
Jeff: very ironic, given that Soros pushes for statism in innumerable ways.
In order to have liberty, one prerequisite is the rule of law. What is the rule of law if there is no way to know–in advance–whether one’s actions are legal or illegal?
This is one of the key objections to the laws against insider trading. When one trades based on what one knows, one is either a legitimate trader or a felon based on–what? How a prosecutor can argue and convince a jury that what one knows is “insider”.
I have no sympathy for Soros, but on this charge he should be acquitted.
I agree that he should be acquitted. But it is delightfully ironic, isn’t it. It’s my schadenfreude moment. I recall a case some years back when an analyst discovered something about a company, told his clients first, and then released the info. The SEC tried to get him on inside info! They lost. It should be legalized.
Nothing pleases the heart more than seeing a scoundrel dealt with unjustly :-)
Or better, nothing pleases the heart more than seeing a scoundrel punished unjustly.