Mathew Martoma, once working in a fund firm, got a nine year sentence on Monday for insider trading. Earlier this year,  Martoma was found guilty of trading the information about a drug, for $200-million dollar profit for his company and $9-million for his own.

Homo economicus tends to act out of self-interest and Martoma should not be an exception. Due to business nature, we have to guess what others will be doing in order to be success. During the process of guessing, the market failed to reached its equitability between the own interest and morality of Martoma, which caused the action of moral deficiency- insider trading. He, as the first moral actor, got a nine-year-sentence. And his former company, SAC, (second moral actor) also paid over $6 million for this.

I suppose he should have found the balance between his own self-interest and business ethics, with which everyone should comply. Had he not committed insider trading, he shouldn’t have gained such a long sentence.

Picture from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2014/09/08/mathew-martoma-sentenced-to-nine-years-for-insider-trading/

Reference

Vardi, Nathan “Mathew Martoma Sentenced to nine years for insider trading” www.forbes.com <http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2014/09/08/mathew-martoma-sentenced-to-nine-years-for-insider-trading/> Sep 8, 2014

Parkin, Michael & Bade, Robin “MICROECONOMICS, CANADA IN THE FLOBAL ENVIRONMENT” Eighth Edition