Comments on: Insider Trading, Ponzi Schemes, and Making the Most of Your Assets http://www.aharrisonbarnes.com/insider-trading-ponzi-schemes-and-making-the-most-of-your-assets/ Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:01:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Tim Perrin http://www.aharrisonbarnes.com/insider-trading-ponzi-schemes-and-making-the-most-of-your-assets/#comment-7089 Tim Perrin Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:18:21 +0000 http://www.aharrisonbarnes.com/?p=5897#comment-7089 Harrison - I greatly enjoyed your column on making the most of your assets. Your comments about successful people involved in insider trading made me think of the former Premier of British Columbia, Bill Bennett. I knew him when I was a reporter during his years in government. He had only a high school education and had followed his father in running both the family business in Kelowna, BC, and later in running the province. Yet, after he got out of office in his late 40s, he was caught up in an insider trading scandal that severely tarnished his reputation. He apparently got a tip from a friend of some bad news coming down about the friend's company and dumped his stock. Bill had plenty of money, lived in a very nice house on Okanagan Lake, ran the family businesses again, mainly real estate holdings and other investments, but he was afraid to take a hit on one investment, albeit a bad hit. He and his brother sold 517,000 shares minutes before trading was halted and it was announced a sale of the company had fallen through. When trading resumed, the price of the shares had fallen $4 so they avoided a $2 million loss. But I wonder sometimes what his reputation and legacy is worth. We built a new $145 million bridge over Okanagan Lake the opened last year and named it after him, so I guess all is forgiven, but I wonder how he feels about it today, particularly since he had to disgorge the proceeds anyway. But thanks for the thoughts about making the most of all my assets. You've got me rethinking what I've got to offer. Tim Perrin Harrison – I greatly enjoyed your column on making the most of your assets. Your comments about successful people involved in insider trading made me think of the former Premier of British Columbia, Bill Bennett. I knew him when I was a reporter during his years in government. He had only a high school education and had followed his father in running both the family business in Kelowna, BC, and later in running the province. Yet, after he got out of office in his late 40s, he was caught up in an insider trading scandal that severely tarnished his reputation. He apparently got a tip from a friend of some bad news coming down about the friend’s company and dumped his stock. Bill had plenty of money, lived in a very nice house on Okanagan Lake, ran the family businesses again, mainly real estate holdings and other investments, but he was afraid to take a hit on one investment, albeit a bad hit. He and his brother sold 517,000 shares minutes before trading was halted and it was announced a sale of the company had fallen through. When trading resumed, the price of the shares had fallen $4 so they avoided a $2 million loss. But I wonder sometimes what his reputation and legacy is worth.
We built a new $145 million bridge over Okanagan Lake the opened last year and named it after him, so I guess all is forgiven, but I wonder how he feels about it today, particularly since he had to disgorge the proceeds anyway.
But thanks for the thoughts about making the most of all my assets. You’ve got me rethinking what I’ve got to offer.

Tim Perrin

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