Transparency in business and government is essential for healthy economies and Democracy. When business and government hide the mechanisms by which decisions are made the system breaks down and free citizens become victims. People still make money and policy continues, but it is not for the sake of building healthy and sustainable companies and free and secure citizenry. The irrevocable relationship between productivity, innovation and profit, essential to healthy business, is set aside for a different type of profit -- profit from manufactured numbers and investors manipulated into believing things that are not true. Such was the case with Enron and WorldCom with their manipulations of markets and gross exaggerations of self worth. These companies, specifically their top management, brought havoc to the economy and great suffering to many people - investors, consumers, workers and families. They also brought shame to our Nation's core values.
There are many ways to assess transparency. Checking the corporate balance sheets against sound accounting principals is certainly essential. Do the books make sense? As well, keeping tabs on insider investors is critical. Do insider investments support insider publicity, such as a CEO's end of quarter conference calls and personal stock trades? Do their trades support the public knowledge, or do they have an uncanny talent for making profitable decisions on events not yet publicly available, i.e., insider trading?
Regulatory bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and Departments of Justice are clearly obligated under Federal and State law to enforce good business practices and they do contribute towards business transparency. However, there is clear need for supportive tools to advance their mission to protect our citizens from corporate greed and abuse. This website is designed for such a purpose.
Biginsiders.org joins publicly available business information with insider trading activity. Our goal is to help investigate insider trading. We put business related information into chronologies so users can see who's trading before such things as the FDA withdrawal of Erbitux and Martha Stewart's subsequent decline, and Ken Lay's stock sell-off during the California energy crisis, just before Enron's downfall. The site is designed for exploring relationships between companies, people, and events. It brings into view possible insider trading by placing trades in proximity to those events impacting price - earnings announcements, drug withdrawals, litigation, etc.
We hope you find the site helpful in your pursuits for a better Nation. If you wish to contribute your time and expertise to building this site, please contact us.
Oh... and the Trinity of Three Species
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