Tom Harden
Appearances
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1140: Mark Follman | How to Stop Mass Shootings in America
So insider trading, trading stocks on information that's material. And if you have that information before the public, You can place your long trade or your short trade if they're going to miss or beat the estimates from Wall Street. So if you were to have this information before everybody else, then you can make profitable trades. And my rationalization was, seems like everybody's doing it.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1140: Mark Follman | How to Stop Mass Shootings in America
Who am I hurting? The boss was looking the other way. I'll do it just this once and never do it again. I placed the trade and it was just a few keystrokes. Years later, people say, what were you thinking? It was all a very slow, slippery slope of like, this is how I rationalized it. And I hear this guy behind me say, hey, are you Tom? Turn around. Yeah. And then there was two FBI agents.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1140: Mark Follman | How to Stop Mass Shootings in America
And he's like, look, man, we know about your four trades. And my first thought was. I know why they're here. And oh my God, my dad's gonna kill me. Oh my God, my wife's gonna divorce me. And then I thought, holy crap, this might impact my career. Oh my God, I might go into prison. So I went from dad to prison. I immediately started making implicating statements.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1140: Mark Follman | How to Stop Mass Shootings in America
So the sentencing guidelines is based on the money my firm made, just over a million. So I was looking at three years in prison. If you would have told me when I graduated from Penn, you know, a few years later, you're going to be insider trading, I would never do that because I'm a good guy. It was all self-inflicted. I did this all to my family and myself.
The Jordan Harbinger Show
1140: Mark Follman | How to Stop Mass Shootings in America
You know, for the past seven years now, pretty much every week, I get in front of a group of people, a complete group of strangers, and tell them the worst thing I've ever done.