Wheeling and dealing has
been a movie plot staple for generations, and real-life trading and
securities and commodities can be just as dramatic.
Wall Street in New York and the Mercantile Exchange in
Chicago, spiraling growth in these markets has led to unparalleled
opportunities for investment and for fraud.
Market frauds are
committed by a host of players:
investors, brokers, shareholders and big-time investment
bankers like Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken.
Wherever fraud involves large-scale insider trading or a
penny stock manipulation, fooling the public is key to the crime.
The FBI,
working with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other
agencies, executed undercover investigations like Penticon, which
targeted stock manipulation in Denver, and Sour Mash, a case that
shocked the Chicago Mercantile Exchange after undercover agents posing
as traders exposed rampant and widespread fraud in the commodities
trading pits.
In the
case of national securities fraud, an FBI operation called Road
Brokers, brought criminal charges against numerous brokers, involving
client investment account frauds, just another step in helping
preserve our country's free market system.
