I found last night’s 60 Minutes story on insider trading in Congress to be uneven, partially underwhelming and at times outright misleading. That Congress has access to insider information and can trade on that information is true, but some of the examples CBS cited were weak or unconvincing.

A couple days ago, Yves Smith speculated that Standard and Poor’s broke SEC regulations by leaking word of its imminent downgrade of US debt before it occurred. Charlie Gasparino backed her up a day later. And now, the Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly investigating whether S&P leaked.

Preet Bharara makes the world safe for hedge fund traders. The rest of you can go hang.

Insider trading: Martha Stewart yes, Anthony Mozilo no.

Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is letting the statute of limitations run on securities fraud related to sales of real estate mortgage-backed securities. He’s very busy with insider trading cases and partying with his buddies at the law firms that got reich creating teh deals and then coping with the fall-out.

The FBI conducted raids on two hedge funds in Connecticut at the center of a growing insider trading scandal. Diamondback Capital Management and Level Global Investors LP experienced the raids today, which were carried out under court-authorized search warrants.

Outside of foreclosure fraud and the chain of title issues that could bring down the entire financial system, you still have your run-of-the-mill financial fraud. Wall Street executives and traders have only a passing familiarity with integrity, and the authorities may finally be catching up with them.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Sam and Charles Wyly, two politically powerful brothers and major GOP donors, with $550 million in insider trading and securities fraud.

I don’t understand it. Why would they do it? Oh, I know that Goldman Sachs made a lot of money working both sides of the deal selling short on a synthetic CDO that it created with direct input of the customer who wanted to take the short position (bet against the CDO).