United States Securities and Exchange (SEC) Commissioner Daniel Gallagher spoke with FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Charlie Gasparino about insider trading. Gallagher discussed the reasons why the SEC devotes resources and time to smaller insider trading cases, saying that, “If people feel like they aren’t getting a fair shake and someone else is getting a better price, they’re not going to come to the markets.” He went on to say that bringing these smaller insider trading cases “shows that the SEC is the cop on the beat and I do think that helps confidence.”
Excerpts from the interview are below.
On why the SEC devotes resources and time to smaller insider trading cases:
“I think this goes to confidence in the markets. If people feel like they’re not getting a fair shake and someone else is getting a better price, they’re not going to come to the markets. And right now the volumes on the equity markets are down which is something we need to be concerned about, so bringing these insider trading cases shows that the SEC is the cop on the beat and I do think that helps confidence…Some of the smaller cases, people say, ‘why do you bring a $10,000 insider trading case?’- I’ll have that debate with you. Should we be focusing on a boiler room instead, a Ponzi scheme popping up. Absolutely. Where the average retail investor loses their money, where a retiree has to go back to work, we should be all over that.”
