Yesterday the SEC filed charges against thirteen people in an expansive insider trading case. A Merrill Lynch employee as well as one from Goldman Sachs are among them. The original SEC press release describing the enforcement action featured the, somewhat pointed statement credited to SEC Enforcement Director Linda Thomsen, which read "our premier financial institutions need to be on guard against fraudsters trying to infiltrate their institutions to steal their market-moving information" but apparently this language didn't sit well with some.

An email from SEC Deputy Enforcement Director, Walter Riccardi that was mistakenly included with materials provided to reporters, indicated that the above-mentioned quote "might be read as critical of Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, but we are not charging either entity." Later versions of the release were altered with language indicating that Merril and Goldman were victims, rather than negligently complicitous in the fraud.

More on the edits here. And for more on the insider trading charges, click here, for the SEC news release.

-- MDT

Labels: insider trading