SIX ESSAYS ON SECURITIES FRAUD AND FINANCIAL CRIME

This article aims to connect six seemingly disparate topics into a single theme. The idea behind these six essays is to guide the reader from Arthur Levitt’s desire to more rigorously regulate financial companies and their auditors to an example contained in the 1987 movie Wall Street, where excessive greed ran its course and landed both the protagonist and the antagonist in prison. The first essay describes Arthur Levitt’s talk on the number games of earnings management. The second essay discusses the notion of materiality, and why it matters when dealing with violations of the law. The third essay addresses the issues surrounding liability in the financial sector, while the fourth essay provides practical advice on what to do if one receives a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fifth essay focuses on the factors that can potentially make payment for order flows legal or illegal. The final essay highlights possible insider trading violations in the 1987 movie Wall Street. The six essays explore various topics that may bear on the financial creativity of individuals to seek ever-greater profits and what happens when they violate the law.