Mere Thieves

Today, criminals are capable of covertly stealing financial secrets from multinational corporations. Securities jurisprudence, however, has focused largely on the activities of insiders who secretly trade on information that they legally garner through their positions of trust, and has not addressed the culpability of "mere thieves" who trade on confidential financial information gained through illegal means. As such, a void in securities law exists regarding how to address the theft and use of confidential financial information by strangers under the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Rule 10b-5. This article sets forth a jurisprudential analysis under which mere thieves who trade on stolen confidential information are liable for insider trading.