So what is your professional opinion regarding the Fourteenth Amendment and some Congressmen calling for the U.S. to default rather than raising the debt ceiling? Are they in violation their oath of office?

is this just the greatest cuntry in the whole wide world? you betcha

If I go on a bank-robbing spree I will eventually be caught and charged with each crime. Making multiple stock buys based on inside information is no different. Each time DeCinces bought a block of stock he was stealing. Each round of paperwork he filed on those purchases was fraudulent, including the use of multiple brokerage accounts (some of which he opened in his grandchildren’s names).

DeCinces should get prison time for his crimes against the free market. When people make light of this type of criminal activity, it becomes obvious how it is possible for investment bankers to throw the entire world economy in a ditch, defraud the US taxpayer out of billions, and then go cash their multi-million dollar bonus checks. When small-fry crooks like DeCinces get (rightfully) hammered, but politically-connected big boys walk, then the system truly is blatantly corrupt.

DeCinces, 60, was indicted yesterday in federal court in Santa Ana, California, with three friends accused of illegally profiting by $689,871 from his tips, according to U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. in Los Angeles. DeCinces paid $2.5 million in August to resolve a Securities and Exchange Commission civil lawsuit over his purchase of Advanced Medical Optics shares before it was acquired by Abbott Laboratories for $2.8 billion.

A former Orioles teammate of DeCinces, Hall of Famer Eddie Murray, paid $358,151 in August to settle an SEC suit that said he profited from the tips. Murray denied wrongdoing in settling the case. Prosecutors didn’t charge him with any crimes.

The indictment accused DeCinces of getting tips from a source identified as an officer and director of American Medical Optics who was involved in negotiations over the acquisition. The source was a close friend and neighbor of DeCinces and a member of his golf club. They vacationed together, and the source invested in a business run by a son of DeCinces, according to the indictment.

The source learned of the deal through various meetings with insiders, including Abbott’s chief executive officer, according to prosecutors. The indictment outlines a series of meetings and phone calls in November and December 2008, when the source allegedly provided DeCinces with tips. DeCinces began buying the first block of Advanced Medical Optics shares on Nov. 5, 2008, and continued until Jan. 5, 2009, prosecutors said.

DeCinces bought a total of 75,700 shares through various brokerage accounts, including four for his grandchildren, according to the indictment. On Jan. 12, after the Abbott acquisition was announced, Advanced Medical Optics shares rose 143 percent and DeCinces sold all of his holdings, prosecutors allege.

An SEC complaint filed in August added Murray and two others to the case, including former Advanced Medical Optics CEO James V. Mazzo. The SEC identified Mazzo as the source. In a court filing yesterday, Mazzo denied providing material, nonpublic information to DeCinces. He demanded a jury trial.

DeCinces is charged with 21 counts of insider trading and 21 counts of tender offer fraud. He also is charged with money laundering. He faces as many as 20 years in prison on the most serious charge.

It would appear that this case is a bit more serious than Craig’s post makes it out to be. DeCinces bought stock over a two month period (each instance of stock purchase is probably a separate charge) utilizing multiple brokerage accounts (putting some in children’s names), passed on illegally-obtained information, laundered his ill-gotten gains, probably lied on his tax return, and generally benefited from criminal activity. Oh, and he faces as much as 20 years in prison on the most serious count, not 20 years on each count. Depending on how he chooses to pursue his defense he will likely get several counts dismissed.

Craig, what qualifies you to be so glib about this? Or even comment at all?

It is not as if you are some sort of constitutional scholar, are you? You are just a sports blogger, right? What do you really know about these laws?

Why is he not being charged? It seems he should bear a great deal of the responsibility.

Doug DeCinces sounds like the Bud Fox character from Wall Street. Only this wasn’t Teldar Paper

Do you think they put up signs she can’t read just to annoy her?

If you don’t put these guys in jail, you turn into Russia, where a few oligarchs dominate the wealth in the capital system.

The indictment also names three friends of DeCinces to whom he provided the insider information to make up for previous investment advice that “had gone bad,” according to prosecutors.

–Reuters