Federal Prosecutors Continue Investigating Insider Trading Cases

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is known for going after big names accused of wrongdoing on Wall Street. According to Reuters, he is now pursuing cases "on a pace not seen since 2012" when 17 people were charged with insider trading.

Bharara is the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Reuters noted that a major appellate ruling limited the attorney's ability to charge hedge fund managers and traders with insider trading instances/suspicions. However, a resurgence of prosecutions is now possible after a December 2014 ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Bharara said would allow individuals to avoid prosecution.

Related Link: Hedge Fund Manager Charged With Insider Trading Found Dead

Bharara's office has now averaged nearly 14 defendants a year through 2015. So far this year, 11 charges have been laid against people for insider trading.

Two of those 11 charges are considered high profile and received their fair share of media attention.

Bharara recently charged William Walters, the famed sports better and Thomas Davis, a former investment banker and ex-chairman of Dean Foods Co (NYSE: DF) for participating in an insider trading scheme.

Bharara also charged Sanjay Valvani, a hedge fund manager with criminal wrong doing and illegally obtaining advance information about U.S. Food and Drug Administration rulings, which profited $25 million. However, he was found dead this week in an apparent suicide.