Second Circuit Ruling on Personal Benefit Test Widens Scope of Criminal Insider Trading

The holding in Blaszczak significantly widens the scope of criminal insider trading. It also creates the anomaly of extending the criminal law beyond the SEC's civil enforcement authority.

12 minute read January 01, 2021 at 12:05 AM

Robert J. Anello and Richard F. Albert

Second Circuit Ruling on Personal Benefit Test Widens Scope of Criminal Insider Trading

A Second Circuit panel's decision in 2019 in United States v. Blaszczak, 947 F.3d 19 (2d Cir. 2019), held that a government agency's confidential information can constitute "property" for purposes of federal criminal fraud statutes.

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