Hedge Fund Manager/Education Reformer Fined $7.2 Million Pounds For "Insider Dealing"

The crimes involving teacher bashers just don't stop today.

First I posted earlier how twenty employees of the teacher-bashing News Corporation have been arrested over the last half year in various charges ranging from phone hacking, computer hacking, conspiracy to cover up a crime, destroying evidence of a crime, bribing police and lying to police.

Now comes word that famed hedge fundie/education reformer/DFER advisor David Einhorn has gotten in trouble with the law as well:

Hedge fund manager David Einhorn, whose short selling famously helped to bring down Lehman Brothers bank, has been fined £7.2m for insider dealing by the UK regulator.

Einhorn, the owner of Greenlight Capital, engaged in "market abuse" in relation to a fundraising by pub group Punch Taverns in June 2009, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has ruled.

According to the City watchdog, Einhorn was told by a corporate broker acting on behalf of Punch Taverns that the company was preparing a significant equity fundraising. Moments after the telephone conversation ended, Einhorn gave instructions to sell all of Greenlight's holding in Punch.

At the time these instructions were given, Greenlight held 13.3% of Punch shares. Over the next four days Greenlight sold 11,656,000 Punch shares, reducing its holding in Punch from 13.3% to 8.89%.

On 15 June 2009, Punch announced a fundraising of £375m, after which the price of its shares fell by 29.9%. Greenlight's trading had thereby avoided losses of approximately £5.8m for the funds under its management.

The fine is a major blow for Einhorn's reputation. His career has been built on a talent for spotting wrongdoing in other firms. In a statement the hedge fund boss called the decision "unjust and inconsistent" and said the company had paid the fine rather than continue the "arduous fight"

...

Tracey McDermott, the FSA's acting director of enforcement and financial crime, said: "Einhorn is an experienced professional with a high profile in the industry. We expect someone in his position to be able to identify inside information when he receives it and to act appropriately.

"His failure to do so is a serious breach of the expected standards of market conduct. It is highly damaging to market confidence when privileged shareholders commit market abuse, and the high penalty reflects the seriousness of his breach

I breathlessly await the New York Post to do a story about David Einhorn's breach of ethics, his moral failings and the need to remove him from the Board of Advisors of the Democrats for Education Reform since nobody who shows this kind of moral failing ought to be involved in education.

Of course since every other member of both the Board and the Board of Advisors for the DFER's is a Wall Street criminal and since the New York Post actually admires the kind of criminal activity these people engage in, I better not wait too long for that Post story.