Anabella Marconi is a junior industry analyst with Trackstar Blue, an investment advisory service firm. She has been assigned to follow 3 different firms in the telecommunication industry and reports directly to the senior manager, Constantine Naples. Constantine manages 9 other analysts and has to frequently visit
Trackstar's other offices around the country. Recently, Anabella received a "friendly tip" from her friend, Socorro Shue, who works for Quicktel Com, one of the firms that Anabella is following. Socorro informed Anabella about an ultra-fast broadband channel that was about to be released by Quicktel. The channel had the potential to catapult Quicktel from the minor league to competing with national telecom giants. Anabella quickly prepared a memo for Constantine advising him of her change in the recommendation on Quicktel from hold to buy. Constantine briefly discussed the reasons with her and asked her to circulate the memo amongst the portfolio managers. Shortly thereafter, he left for San Francisco for a 10-day business trip. Anabella conferred with the portfolio managers, who then bought a substantial stake in Quicktel in the open market.
I. Anabella has not violated any AIMR code but Constantine has violated Standard III (E) - Responsibilities of Supervisors.
II. Anabella has violated Standard III (B) - Duty to Employer.
III. Anabella has violated Standard IV (B.3) - Fair Dealing.
IV. Anabella has violated Standard V (A) - Prohibition against Use of Non-Public Information.
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A. B. C. D.C
By using a "friendly tip" from an insider in her recommendation, Anabella has violated Standard V (A) - Prohibition against Use of Non-Public Information. Note that due to this, she is also in violation of Standard I - Fundamental Responsibilities and Standard II (B) - Professional Misconduct (In general, any violation of the laws of a regulatory or governmental body will automatically trigger an infringement of these two laws). However, since she does not handle any client accounts, she is not in a position to violate Standard IV (B.3) - Fair Dealing. The portfolio managers of Trackstar violate Standard IV (B.3) if they give preferential treatment to some of their clients while using the investment recommendation. Constantine, in spreading himself too thin to be able to effectively manage his subordinates and not checking to see if Anabella was violating any securities laws (insider trading in this case) is in violation of Standard III (E) - Responsibilities of Supervisors.
In fact, he can be held criminally accountable for not curbing insider trading in his group through sheer negligence.