SEC Charges Individual with Facilitating Insider Trading Scheme via "Edible" Post-it Notes (with Lofchie Comment)

The SEC charged an individual with facilitating an insider trading scheme that involved the passing of illegal tips via napkins and Post-it Notes at Grand Central Terminal.

According to the complaint, the middleman would meet the stockbroker in Grand Central, where the middleman would indicate which stock was to be traded on a Post-it Note or napkin and then chew up and eat the "communication."

Lofchie Comment: Post-it Notes are actually a well-studied item in the history of business, as they were developed by a 3M employee who thought that the low stick adhesive used on their back was quite useful, but was not sure why. Under a 3M corporate policy, the employee was allowed to develop the product on company time, although no one was quite sure what the use was of an adhesive that was just so-so. After a somewhat slow start, the Post-it Notes product of course became tremendously profitable as its uses were found. (Unfortunately for our alleged villain, the use of Post-it Notes to transmit material non-public information turns out to be off-label.) For a brief discussion of the history of Post-it Notes (there is actually quite a bit written about them), see this Wikipedia article.

See: SEC Complaint.Related news: SEC Charges Stockbroker and Law Firm Managing Clerk in Insider Trading Scheme (March 19, 2014).