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10 Stock Market Scams from the Movies

10 Stock Market Scams from the Movies

Christopher Campbell
By Christopher Campbell posted 5 months ago
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The original film of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was quite representative of New York City in the mid-1970s. Tony Scott’s remake, which opens this weekend, doesn’t have that same sense of space, but even worse than its lack of local relevance is its out-of-date plot, which has John Travolta causing panic on Wall Street in order to make hundreds of millions in a stock scheme. Never mind that the economy is currently in such a state that the terrorist’s plan may be fruitless. Even before the recession this should have seemed antiquated. As David Edelstein writes in New York magazine, “Why would he need to do something so…so…1974 as hijacking a subway train to do what a lot of hedge-fund managers do before breakfast?”

The plot is also tremendously unoriginal, enough to assume Travolta’s character is a huge James Bond fan. But someone familiar with 007 villains, or any other would-be economic terrorists, would have to realize his own scheme would fail. To illustrate why it’s useless to attempt this kind of thing, we present you with ten classic films involving stock market scams, most of which are unsuccessful.
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Mark Cuban Charged with Insider Trading

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 11 months ago
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According to WIRED and other sources, Mark Cuban, founder of 2929 Entertainment (which includes the eponymous production company, Magnolia Pictures, HDNet and Landmark Theaters), has been charged with insider training. FORBES has the filing, which contends that in 2004, Cuban became privy to the knowledge that Mamma.com, in which he owned 600,000 shares, was set to offer public shares at a cut price. Despite agreeing to keep the information confidential, the filing charges, Cuban sold his shares, and thereby “avoided losses in excess of $750,000.”

For those of us who are SEC illiterate, Sillicon Alley Insider offers a detailed timeline of exactly what the Commission is alleging Cuban did. They conclude that “if the SEC’s reporting of the facts is true and complete, it certainly appears that Mark traded while in possession of material non-public information.”

We’ll be refreshing Cuban’s blog all afternoon and wil let you know if he posts a comment.

UPDATE! That was quick. Cuban now has a statement, signed by his lawyer, on his blog. It reads in part: “This matter, which has been pending before the Commission for nearly two years, has no merit and is a product of gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion…Mr. Cuban stated, ‘I am disappointed that the Commission chose to bring this case based upon its Enforcement staff’s win-at-any-cost ambitions. The staff’s process was result-oriented, facts be damned. The government’s claims are false and they will be proven to be so.’”