The latest twist in the Société générale "rogue trader" scandal is an investigation by US authorities of insider dealing in the bank's shares prior to the public revelation of the bank's losses from the trading and the subprime mortgage mess.
Being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the Wall Street Journal (subs. req'd) --
... board member and American investor Robert A. Day and two foundations associated with him, people familiar with the matter say. The U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y., has opened a criminal probe related to the bank, according to one person familiar with the matter, although its precise focus wasn't immediately clear.
Mr. Day, investment manager with U.S.-based Trust Company of the West, and the foundations sold about $140 million of Societe Generale stock approximately two weeks before the bank notified its board about the billions of trading losses.
That would be Robert Day, massive donor the Republican party both in California and nationally ($700K in the 2004 cycle) -- including to finance an electoral stunt that would have changed California's electoral college delegation from winner-take-all to proportional representation, which would have tilted the scales towards a Republican candidate in 2008 (almost no other state allocates delegates this way).
Incidentally, Day is also a McCain donor, although he hedged his bets with small donations to Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd. The pundits love that "both sides" stuff.
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