Mathew Marthoma Loses His MBA

Statue of the Stanford family [Source: Wikimedia Commons]

According to his profile on Wikipedia, Mathew Marthoma is known for Insider trading allegation. He has one more reason to be known for, now.

Within a month of being found guilty of his involvement in "possibly the largest single insider trading transaction profit in history at a value of $276 million," Marthoma went on to become the first in the history of Stanford to have his degree taken away by the reputed business school because he was admitted under "false pretense".

PoetsandQuants has a 3-webpage long story on it. Previously, he was kicked out of Harvard for forging his law school marklist (couldn't find any picture of his, so I've put up the picture of the founding family of Stanford University instead).

On February 6, 2014, Mathew Martoma was found guilty of insider trading. Wikipedia says, "Martoma allegedly advised Steven A. Cohen to sell shares of pharmaceutical companies Wyeth and Elan Corporation based on tips from two doctors", about "the Alzheimer's disease drug bapineuzumab during clinical trials overseen by the FDA." He was accused of generating possibly the largest single insider trading transaction profit in history at a value of $276 million.


The sentencing is in June and Marthoma could face up to 20 years in prison. He has time until May this year to seek a lenient sentence. Forbes reports that when Federal prosecutors and agents offered him a deal in return for his cooperation in the government’s further investigations in the insider trading allegations, Marthoma fainted. Interestingly, he is the second fund manager from SAC to faint during the trials for insider trading.

In India, when politicians turn up at the courts to face allegations, they usually clutch their ribs and complain of chest pain. And, here, we don't arrest corporate folks for things like insider trading. Do we even consider it a crime in India?

Other Indians who forged marksheets:
Bitty Mohanti, the rape convict from Orissa/Odisha who ran away to another state, assumed a new name, identity and a bunch of marksheets, went to Kerala, joined college and became a bank official in a nationalized bank.