Stock Fraud

THE TOPIC OF STOCK fraud were prominently featured in the news media through the 1980s, 1990s, and the beginning of the 21st century. Names like Enron became part of the lexicon, while the terms penny stocks and boiler room made their way into the public conscience and into Hollywood productions. Because of these events, the public's confidence in the stock markets was predictably affected. Politicians and other public officials have scrambled to devise ways to avoid such large-scale frauds in the future.

Though the term stock fraud can encompass numerous illicit activities, there are essentially two key types of stock fraud—insider trading and market manipulation (each with many variants that can fill volumes unto themselves). Unfortunately, there are no valid statistics available to compare the difference ...