Greed is illegal

If Douglas is now the ambassador for brand FBI on TV,declaring that illicit trading is illegal,is the bureau pouncing on the possibility that those Wall Streeters read the message wrong? Or,if some of them read it right,are they self-loathing traders pondering spilling the beans on their Gekkos? It would help the FBI’s securities investigations if more would-be-informants came forward with the illegal things they witness. After all,it was only after the 2008 global meltdown,that insider trading moved up the bureau’s crime hierarchy close to the top — and a reformed Gekko returned with the sequel,Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010),as an anti-hero.

With Wall Street,even the FBI could do with a little publicity. Last year’s Raj Rajaratnam trial — which saw the fall of Rajat Gupta — was a paradigm shift for the war on insider trading. But the bureau worked in obscurity,while Preet Bharara,US attorney for the Southern District of New York,earned a lot of deserving fame,landing recently on the Time cover titled: “This Man is Busting Wall Street”. Now the FBI wants its work recognised and greed bravely reported. Gekko’s was a pretence of enlightened self-interest. If Douglas made him a legend,Wall Streeters may now believe all greed is bad.