Have you heard of Ashley Madison? Sounds like a nice girl right? Well, whoever she is, she’s got an interesting website. If you’re the type of person that is looking for an extramarital affair, then Ashley Madison is to you what eHarmony is to that weird guy at the office. Statically speaking, some of you will click the link not because you’re curious, but because you’re interested.
Anyway. This New-York lawyer/investment banker type guy, James Gansman, was so over that whole monogamy thing and find himself a piece of tail down in Philly, Donna Murdoch. Affairs make for boring material these days, but as the headline suggests, this gets better. See, James was a big-wig over at Ernst & Young, a company that, among other things, helps other companies go through mergers. James is the type of person that would know whether a deal fell through long before Wall Street did, making him an insider. Acting on information before it’s public is against the law (that’s insider trading).
But this isn’t some simple case of James cashing in on some information to run away with his lover, Donna, oh no sir! The relationship was as typical as affairs can be at first. James would talk about his work only after it hit the newspapers. But then they started playing games in their respective offices, basically a “guess what I’m working on” type thing. What James didn’t know is that Donna was placing some bets on these games and other leaked info. She ended up on some SEC watchlists for insider trading.
But why did Donna make these bets? Well, Donna and her husband owed $1.45 million on a subprime mortgage! But Donna wasn’t done, not yet. She needed money to make these insider trades so she stabbed her lover (and her husband?) in the back and went and found ANOTHER man on Ashley Madison’s service. This guy, Richard Hansen fronted the money for trades and eventually got her a job at his brokerage firm. The relationships were all secret from eachother, I can’t imagine how hard it was to keep up with all those men.
Of course the SEC investigation eventually caught up to Donna and James. Poor James never made any money in all of this but he was the one leaking the information. Read the Wall Street Journal report to find out what happened in court.
The Weaky does not go to Donna for this. She was a mastermind who just eventually got caught up in her own web of infidelity and poor financial choices. No it goes to James for being dumb enough to give away company secrets, to someone he met online! Come on guys, don’t go messing around with married women, you know they’ve got some baggage, people like Donna just have a lot. Oh, and don’t cheat on your spouse, the SEC will know.
Photo: aleera*
 By The Weakonomist |
The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. |
| Related Websites |
That is outstanding, so does her husband still love her since this was all a clever plot to pay off her mortgage? This is definitely not the best way to pay your mortgage off early.
Kyle´s last blog ..Get up to $525 for Opening an ING Direct Account