The Gambler and the Director

A professional sports gambler was accused of trading on secrets passed to him by a friend who sat on the board of a large dairy company. Prosecutors said the director tipped him about a planned spinoff of a company division and about an activist investor's plans for a restaurant chain, communicating on a disposable phone that the director later destroyed. The gambler made large, profitable trades before the news became public and lent the director nearly $1 million. The director became a cooperating witness. The defence argued the charges should have been dismissed because an FBI agent had leaked secret grand jury information about the investigation to reporters, that the prosecution had knowingly allowed false testimony, and that the evidence about the restaurant-chain trades was insufficient.