And colourful Corel Corp. founder Michael Cowpland is still waiting for his day in court to deal with stock sales that came days before the announcement of poor results, and a slide in the share price. Now, this wonder boy is on the sidelines, after private investigators hired by Royal Bank linked him to suspicious trading in shares of more than a dozen client companies that were doing takeovers. Eventually, investigators will build a paper trail, and the courts will sort out if Mr. Rankin and his alleged co-conspirators did use confidential information to buy stock in takeover targets, and tried to hide their tracks by using banks in the Bahamas and Switzerland. If he's found guilty, most of those who toil on Bay Street would happily consign Mr. Rankin to jail, and complain bitterly that lynchings have been outlawed. The question of why well-paid people would behave this way is more complex.
Ignorance is certainly no excuse.
In financial circles, you learn that trading on inside information is forbidden on your first day at work, and the lesson is drilled in daily. But in the 1980s, New York's investment dealers were rocked by insider-trading scandals that saw some of the community's leaders led out of their offices in handcuffs. We heard stories of suitcases stuffed full of cash being handed over in exchange for tips on coming deals. After the hype faded, social psychologists studied these Wall Street heroes, and their feet of clay, and found character traits common to most inside traders. They worked incredible hours surrounded by individuals with a similar drive.