Letitia James is hunting for insider trading in Trump's inner circle. Ex-prosecutors call her tariff inquiry unprecedented.
Anthony Capozzolo, partner at Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss, was featured in a recent Business Insider article discussing New York Attorney General Letitia James's ongoing inquiry into potential insider trading within President Donald Trump's inner circle. The investigation focuses on suspicious trading activities linked to Trump's tariff policy announcements. Legal experts describe the probe as an unprecedented application of New York's Martin Act, a powerful securities-fraud statute.
Capozzolo, a former state and federal prosecutor, provided insights into the complexities of proving insider trading in this context, noting the challenges in establishing intent and securing cooperative witnesses.
"I do think it's going to start with using trading data to show that no reasonable person would have engaged in these trades without that nonpublic information," Anthony Capozzolo, a former federal and state prosecutor, said.
"You're going to want to, at the least, build an initial case that shows it's very likely that the only motivating factor for these trades was this allegedly inside information," he said.
Compiling trading data will be tougher these days, predicted Capozzolo, a partner at Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss in Manhattan.
Pre-Trump, the AG would routinely ask the Securities and Exchange Commission for trading data that's not already publicly available.
"Now, the SEC is controlled by the Trump administration, and he could potentially instruct the SEC not to cooperate," leading to a subpoena battle, Capozzolo said.
Read the article in full at [https://www.businessinsider.com/ny-attorney-general-letitia-james-trump-tariffs-insider-trading-investigation-2025-5].