Randomly Noted

Check out the WSJ’s Deal Journal blog for “Sopranos”-quality details from the government’s criminal complaint against the alleged insider-trading suspects: Prepaid cellphones concealing allegedly illicit calls; bags of cash transported here and there; and a B-movie nickname, the “Greek.” Then there’s the remark from the U.S. Attorney’s press conference: one of the suspects was known as “Octopussy,” apparently because he had his arms in all sorts of shady dealings. At this point in the financial crisis we shouldn’t really be shocked by yet another revelation of alleged criminality and immorality in and around Wall Street (“Wall Street” being loosely defined as banks and funds of all stripes and in all venues, including the City of Manhattan.) But I find myself marveling at the chutzpah of this widening ring of alleged bad guys and gals – how on earth did they think they would get away with it? WSJ.com provides the Securities and Exchange Commission’s chart linking various suspects to one another. What’s not clear is whether this was a tightly managed ring or a case of Six Degrees of Separation between a couple dozen (or more) broadly unrelated people on the East and West coasts. Stay tuned!