Preet Bharara’s Insider-Trading Smackdown Heads to the Supreme Court

On Thursday, quietly and four days ahead of the deadline, the solicitor general of the U.S. filed a petition to the Supreme Court asking it to review an appeals court decision that threatens to undermine at least some of Preet Bharara’s legacy on insider-trading prosecutions.

In December an appeals court overturned the convictions of two hedge fund traders, Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson, issuing a ruling that made it much harder to prosecute insider trading. In short, the court said, the government needs to prove that someone who traded on inside information they received secondhand was aware that whoever first disclosed the information knew it was confidential and had leaked it in exchange for some kind of benefit. The court also said that simple friendship wasn’t enough to qualify as a benefit. It had to be something more tangible.