At least 436 Department of Health and Human Services employees--and possibly more at the White House Office of Management and Budget--received advance notice of an $8 billion Medicare decision that sent private health insurers’ stocks soaring. The Department of Justice and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) have launched a probe to investigate possible insider trading. “This should sound an alarm,” said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA). “It should result in better controls to avoid unfair access to information that the average investor could never tap.” The case involves an April 1 decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand funding to the private-sector Medicare Advantage program by $8 billion. Employees at the Department of Health and Human Services were notified in some cases as far as two weeks in advance. Whether federal workers innocently passed along the potentially market-moving information or were courted by the emerging “political intelligence” industry that sells government intel to Wall Street firms is presently unknown. HERE We Go AGAIN!!!
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:27:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015