Pic: 20th Century Fox
Our fondness for the movie Wall Street is well known by now (even if they are going ahead with Shia @#(*@#$ LeBoeuf!!!). Gordon Gecko’s understanding of the power of information and the lengths he went to to get it are fascinating.
We’ve even tried to help out those bent on engaging in the activity with our series on Insider’s Tips for Wannabe Insider Traders.
One of the more-annoying internet memes is the expression “headdesk,” used to express frustration.
Unfortunately, it accurately describes our reaction to last week’s SEC complaint against one Melissa Mahler.
We recount her numerous, avoidable transgressions after the jump (and just for shits and giggles, we pierce through her charade of pretending she maintains an office in the City).
According to the Blog of the Legal Times,
On July 28, 2004, the complaint alleges, Mahler, then a lawyer in Nixon Peabody’s Rochester, N.Y. office, was asked by client Roger Tichenor, the chief executive officer of Teleplus Consumer Services Inc., to draft a letter of intent involving a potential merger with Rooms.com, an online travel company. That conversation occurred at 9:15 a.m. Fifteen minutes later, the complaint says, Mahler called her broker and instructed him to buy 10,000 shares of Teleplus for $1,200. Teleplus was trading at 12 cents a share.
When the deal between Teleplus and Rooms.com was announced on July 30, 2004, Mahler allegedly called her broker and instructed him to sell the 10,000 shares of Teleplus for a profit of $5,800.
There are so many laughable details in that story. Nixon Peabody. Rochester. Penny stock. Only had $1,000 in her brokerage account. Oh, and this isn’t in the original piece, but the LOI she drafted was later terminated anyway.
Where to begin?
We’ve tried to help out those bent on engaging in insider trading with our series on Insider’s Tips for Wannabe Insider Traders. To recap:
Tip #1 - Watch out for the Watch List. The SEC publishes a list of names and hometowns for all suspicious trades, which interested parties have to review to make sure they don’t know anyone. It’s possible people didn’t know that.
Tip #2 - Don’t Trade on Your Own Deals. This is when we started to realize that we had to provide the most-basic advice and couldn’t assume ambitious inside traders knew anything.
Tip #3 - Don’t Trade in Your Client’s Stock. The lawyer’s version of Rule #3.
You laughed when we reported that people didn’t realize even the most-basic principles of insider trading. Then along come people like Maher, who is an embarassment to the legacy of men like Boesky.
Mahler is (was?) a solo practicioner, although she’s going to have to focus more on the consulting side of her dual-threat attack if the charges stick.
Her website is currently down, but nothing is gone for long on the internet. Google has an archive. It looks like she was trying to give the impression that she was in New York City, based on the mailing address. But 228 Park Avenue South ECM # 7335 really means she’s using Earth Class Mail – an updated version of a PO box where they scan all your snailmail and email it to you. She also lists a 646 direct line, but for those who don’t know, that area code is, as Elayne Benes discovered, the johnny-come-lately area code in New York, mostly occupied by cell phones. Her 585 fax and mobile numbers are for Rochester.
Another miracle of the internet: we dug up an old bio of hers.
Melissa A. Mahler Nixon Peabody LLP
Melissa A. Mahler is an associate at the law firm of Nixon Peabody LLP practicing in the Technology and Intellectual Property practice.Ms. Mahler’s practice is concentrated in the areas of general corporate and securities practice with a special emphasis on private securities offerings, venture capital transactions and mergers and acquisitions as well as general corporate representation of emerging growth companies ranging from start-up to publicly held entities.Her experience includes representation of companies in the biotech, medical devices, IT services, Internet and software fields in domestic and international transactions.Prior to practicing law, Ms. Mahler was a news anchor in Syracuse, New York and was appointed by the Mayor to serve as Special Assistant to the Director of Community and Economic Development.
Ms. Mahler was born in Ankara, Turkey, and was admitted to the New York State bar in 1998.She graduated college fromSyracuse University’s New House School of Communications, cum laude, (B.S. 1991) with a minor in political science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship.Ms. Mahler graduated cum laude from Syracuse University Law School (J.D. 1997) whereshe was a member of the Justinian Honor Society, member of the Moot Court Board and Director of Intercollegiate Teams.
Related posts:
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.