Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Postal Worker fined for insider trading INSIDE the Post Office

A former Mount Vernon, N.Y. postal worker has agreed to pay about $580,000 to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges of insider trading.

According to an on-line article posted on the CNN MONEY web site, the worker Davi Thomas, pulled stock tips from the "Inside Wall Street" column of Business Week magazine before it was mailed to subscribers and newsstands in violation of SEC and USPS regulations. The magazines were read at a Mount Vernon mail sorting facility where Thomas worked from 1996 to 1999, according to the SEC.

Thomas is accused of trading on the information and sharing it with a friend, Lionel Thotam. The two men bought stock shares in companies that were favorably mentioned in the columns, and in most cases sold the shares after their prices rose the following day.

Thotam allegedly paid Thomas $10,000 for the illegal tips. Thomas profited $153,711 from the illegal trades and Thotam profited $77,213, according to the SEC.
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posted by Don Schilling at 7:25 PM