Man charged with securities fraud after accessing Motley Fool picks

An Idaho man who allegedly managed to access stock picks by personal finance website Motley Fool before publication and made millions of dollars trading on the information has been charged with securities fraud, reports Christian Berthelsen of Bloomberg News.

Berthelsen reports, “Defense attorney information for Stone was not immediately available. The Motley Fool did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Prosecutors and securities authorities said Stone, a technology professional, gained unauthorized access to Motley Fool’s computer system and viewed the group’s upcoming stock picks before they were announced to paying subscribers. He then traded on them, sometimes using options contracts that paid out only if shares gained within a week.

“Among the dozens of recommended companies whose shares Stone and Robson traded based on the hacks were Amazon.com Inc., Lululemon Athletica Inc., Peloton Interactive Inc., Airbnb Inc. and Coinbase Global Inc., according to the SEC.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.