A federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned two of the government’s signature insider trading convictions, a stunning blow to prosecutors and their campaign to root out illegal activity on Wall Street.
In a 28-page decision that could rewrite the course of insider trading law, sharply curtailing its boundaries, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan tossed out the case against two former hedge fund traders, Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson. Citing the trial judge’s “erroneous” instruction to jurors, the court not only overturned the convictions but threw out the cases altogether.
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WASHINGTON — The $1.1 trillion spending agreement reached by House and Senate negotiators on Tuesday night would triple the amount of money that contributors could give to political conventions and to real estate projects owned by the political parties, possibly strengthening the influence of big donors but also redirecting money from largely unregulated outside groups to the Democratic and Republican Parties.
Limits on individual contributions to national parties would leap to $324,000 a year from $32,400.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/us/trillion-dollar-spending-pact-angers-campaign-finance-watchdogs.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&r
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