Live Hearing On Whether Insider Trading By Congress Should Be Illegal

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2011 12:37 -0500
Comments: 112 / Reads: 4,756

Only in a banana republic would Congress be "forced" to hold hearings on whether to ban itself from illegal (for everyone else) insider trading. Which explains why below readers can watch precisely that, live from the house Committee on Financial Services. The legislation in question relates to bill H.R. 1148, the "Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act." http://financialservices.house.gov/Uplo ... 1148ai.pdf We wonder how long until Congress manages to scuttle this latest effort to keep the playing field between the muppets and everyone else. After all, someone has to leak critical rating agency information (such as the FT's break of a key S&P leak yesterday, or Nancy Pelosi knowing weeks in advance that Moody's http://www.zerohedge.com/article/moodys ... -her-multi would not downgrade the US) to the media and/or trading entities.

Live Hearing: Insider Trading and Congress http://www.c-span.org/Events/Insider-Tr ... 7426032-1/



From C-Span:

The House Financial Services Committee holds a hearing on congressional
insider trading. The committee will look into allegations Members have
enriched themselves through legal stock trades based on non-public
information.

Today's hearing will look at a bill that aims to prevent lawmakers from
using information they obtain through work to trade stocks. A form of
the legislation was originally introduced in the House in 2006. The
current bill is H.R. 1148, the "Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge
Act."

The House Ethics Committee sent a memo stating that members of Congress
may be liable as insider traders, whether they obtain nonpublic
information as part of their official duties or outside them.

A recent "60 Minutes" segment focused on financial transactions
involving House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Democratic leader Nancy
Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL). All three have denied
wrongdoing.

WITNESS LIST

Panel I

Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)
Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY)
Representative Tim Walz (D-MN) http://financialservices.house.gov/Uplo ... 11walz.pdf

Panel II

Mr. Robert Khuzami, Director, Division of Enforcement, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) http://financialservices.house.gov/Uplo ... huzami.pdf

Panel III

Mr. Jack Maskell, Legislative Attorney, Congressional Research Service http://financialservices.house.gov/Uplo ... askell.pdf

Professor Donna Nagy, Indiana University Maurer School of Law http://financialservices.house.gov/Uplo ... 11nagy.pdf

Mr. Robert Walker, Of Counsel, Wiley Rein LLP http://financialservices.house.gov/Uplo ... walker.pdf

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/live-hear ... be-illegal