Speaker 1: And now time for our daily Bloomberg labrary if exploring
Speaker 1: legal issues in the news. Today, Bloomberg lawhost Student Grosso
Speaker 1: and Michael Best discussed the insider trading case of Las
Speaker 1: Vegas gambler Billy Walters, who was found guilty in a
Speaker 1: New York court on Friday. They speak to Peter Henning,
Speaker 1: a professor at Wayne State University, and Robert Hacketts, a
Speaker 1: professor at Cornell University Law School. Peter, how important was
Speaker 1: this win for federal prosecutors? Well, it was important because
Speaker 1: it was so high profile. Billy Walters is maybe the
Speaker 1: most famous defendant since Raja Gupta, who was the former
Speaker 1: director at Goldman Sachs. And it just almost had a
Speaker 1: tabloid feel to it, with Phil Mickelson and Carl Icon's
Speaker 1: name coming up the government FBI agent leaking information back
Speaker 1: in twenty uh fourteen about the case. In a sense,
Speaker 1: it was high profile because it was tabloid. Um, the
Speaker 1: legal issues really weren't all that difficult. Um And even
Speaker 1: if that Newman case from fourteen had remained, the government
Speaker 1: had evidence that um, some of the inside information was
Speaker 1: to help pay off loans, so it would not have
Speaker 1: raised the issue of friendship at least not as much.
Speaker 1: So it's important because it's high profile, Bob. The defense
Speaker 1: seemed to argue that the only way the jury could
Speaker 1: convict Walter's here was if they believed Tom Davis, the
Speaker 1: former chairman of Dean Foods, who was passing information to
Speaker 1: Walter's and they argued that he was lying, he had debts,
Speaker 1: he was he had done all sorts of unsavory things. Um,
Speaker 1: how much did the case really rely on Davis's testimony?
Speaker 1: I don't actually think that the case was all that
Speaker 1: reliant on davis The testimony. There was a lot of
Speaker 1: circumstantial evidence as well, in the form of, for example,
Speaker 1: phone records, right, so Mr Davis of course would pass
Speaker 1: on the information uh Toms Walters, and Mr Walters would
Speaker 1: then oftentimes phone to place his trades literally within the
Speaker 1: same minute that he got off of the phone with
Speaker 1: Mr Davis. So if you've got a pattern of that
Speaker 1: sort that's sort of repeated over and over and over again,
Speaker 1: all that Mr Davis's testimony actually ends up doing is
Speaker 1: sort of providing a little bit of narrative context, a
Speaker 1: little bit of extra color. But as far as the
Speaker 1: sort of fundamental evidence, that's needed to convict us concerns.
Speaker 1: It seems that that was actually all available even without
Speaker 1: Mr Davis. That's Robert Hockett, Professor at Cornell University Law School,
Speaker 1: and Peter Henning, professor at Wayne State University, speaking to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law host stud In Grosso and Michael Best. You
Speaker 1: can hear Bloomberg Law weekdays at one pm aall street
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