The Plotkin/Pajcin insider trading ring discussed here and here, and which continues to unravel, is the most audacious insider trading case ever, in my opinion.  And it took me about 5 minutes to figure out the proper adjective to use in the prior sentence before settling on "audacious." 

To me, the case is paradigm shift in insider trading--Plotkin and Pajcin were not your standard insider trading defendants working at a company who learned in the course of business that a material transaction was about to occur.  Far from it. 

If the SEC and DOJ's allegations are true, these guys actually sat down together and mapped out a detailed business plan to make money through insider trading.  You can almost imagine them brainstorming and making a list of all of the ways that inside information could possibly be obtained.  According to the SEC/DOJ, they allegedly followed through on many of them. 

Indeed, "Insider Trading, Incorporated" would have been an appropriate name for this "business."   After all, Insider Trading, Inc. allegedly had employees--the DOJ's criminal complaint alleges that the defendants actually recruited people via Craigslist to go out and get jobs at the plant that printed Business Week so that they could obtain advance copies of the magazine.  Insider Trading, Inc. also allegedly had distinct product lines:

• the Investment Banker Information product line;
• the Business Week Information product line; and
• the Grand Jury Information product line. 

There were also new product lines in the pipeline that apparently never got off the ground, such as the Exotic Dancer Information product line.   Who knows what other product lines were on the drawing board?  I bet we learn about others as this case unfolds.