I came across this great article about Jonathan Lebed, and how he become one of the youngest stock traders to bring in a million. It also relates how the S.E.C. took $285,000 of it away—and that was after they tried to get more.
“Can you explain to me what he did?”
He looked at me long and hard. I could see that this must be his meaningful stare. His eyes were light blue bottomless pits. “He’d go into these chat rooms and use 20 fictitious names and post messages. . . . ”
“By fictitious names, do you mean e-mail addresses?”
“I don’t know the details.”
Don’t know the details? He’d been all over the airwaves decrying the behavior of Jonathan Lebed.
“Put it this way,” he said. “He’d buy, lie and sell high.” The chairman’s voice had deepened unnaturally. He hadn’t spoken the line; he had acted it. It was exactly the same line he had spoken on “60 Minutes” when his interviewer, Steve Kroft, asked him to explain Jonathan Lebed’s crime. He must have caught me gaping in wonder because, once again, he looked at me long and hard. I glanced away.
It’s a few years old now, but it’s still compelling reading: Jonathan Lebed’s Extracurricular Activities.