Robert Moffat: The Inside Non-Trader

Earlier this week, as part of the unfolding Galleon insider-trading case, government prosecutors urged U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts to sentence ex-IBMer Robert Moffat to six months in prison for passing confidential corporate information to his mistress, Danielle Chiese, when she was an executive with the hedge fund New Castle Partners. Unquestionably, what Moffat did wronged IBM, and the company would be well within its rights to sue him. But I fail to see that Moffat’s corporate disloyalty is any business of the U.S. government. Moffat is seeking probation. He will be sentenced on September 13.