Insider trading: In Silicon Valley, you can be worth billions and it’s not enough

Andreas Bechtolsheim doesn’t like to waste time. The entrepreneur made one of the most celebrated investments in the history of Silicon Valley — the initial $US100,000 thatTwenty-one years later, Bechtolsheim may have seized a different kind of opportunity. He got a phone call about the imminent sale of a tech company and allegedly traded on the confidential information, according to charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The profit for a few minutes of work: $US415,726.

Bechtolsheim was not trading for himself, the SEC complaint said. He instead used the accounts of an associate and of a relative. Perhaps this was subterfuge, or perhaps it was a gift. The investor and his lawyer didn’t respond to emails for comment. At his trial earlier this year, Panuwat said the timing was a coincidence. A jury didn’t buy it, and after only a brief deliberation on April 5 found him guilty of insider trading.

He went to Stanford as a doctoral student in the mid-1970s and got to know the then-small programming community around the university. In the early 1980s, he, along with McNealy, Vinod Khosla and Bill Joy, started Sun Microsystems as an outgrowth of a Stanford project. When Sun initially raised money, Bechtolsheim put his entire life savings — about $US100,000 — into the company.“You could end up losing all your money,” he was warned by the venture capitalists financing Sun.

An impromptu demonstration was hastily arranged for 8am, which Bechtolsheim cut short. He had seen enough, and besides, he had to get to the office. He gave them a cheque, and the deal was sealed, Levy wrote, “with as little fanfare as if he were grabbing a latte on the way to work”. The founders celebrated at Burger King.

Bechtolsheim didn’t leave. In 2008, he co-founded Arista, a Silicon Valley computer networking company that went public and now has 4,000 employees and a stock market value of $US100 billion.

Source: Digital Coin News (digitalcoinnews.net)

Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Early Google investor Andreas Bechtolsheim was a Silicon Valley icon worth billions but couldn’t resist insider tradingAndreas Bechtolsheim made a legendary investment in Google that changed the world and made him billions. Then he threw it away for an insider trade worth far less.
Source: FinancialReview - 🏆 2. / 90 Read more »

Robert F. Kennedy Jr names Silicon Valley attorney as running mateIndependent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has named attorney and tech entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan as his running mate at a rally in Oakland, California.
Source: 9NewsAUS - 🏆 10. / 72 Read more »

Could Docklands become Australia’s Silicon Valley? One Victorian MP thinks soLibertarian MP David Limbrick says a special economic zone would turbocharge Docklands. It would mean scrapping payroll and land taxes.
Source: theage - 🏆 8. / 77 Read more »

Brisbane man charged with murdering his mother after body found in Fortitude ValleyAfter being called for a welfare check, police force their way into an inner-Brisbane unit and discover the body of a woman with stab wounds.
Source: abcnews - 🏆 5. / 83 Read more »

Woman found dead in Fortitude Valley apartment complexA man has been charged with murder after his mother was found dead in a Fortitude Valley apartment in inner Brisbane.
Source: brisbanetimes - 🏆 13. / 67 Read more »

Man Arrested for Murder of Woman in Fortitude ValleySteven Rhain Pinker, 42, was arrested for the murder of a 66-year-old woman in Fortitude Valley. The victim was related to Pinker and the crime is considered a domestic violence offence. Pinker appeared in court and the case was adjourned for a committal mention. Bail can only be granted by the Supreme Court for a murder charge in Queensland.
Source: 9NewsAUS - 🏆 10. / 72 Read more »