Ruder Says ‘Major’ Insider Trading Cases Still Ahead

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman David S. Ruder said Tuesday that further government action on a complex web of insider trading cases is still months away.

His assessment contrasted sharply with an earlier estimate of timing from his predecessor, John S. R. Shad, who said in May that Congress could expect to see “a succession of shoes dropping through the summer” on insider trading.

Ruder, who in August took over the agency that regulates the nation’s stock and bond markets, told the Senate securities subcommittee, “We still have an ongoing investigation stemming from the Ivan Boesky matter.”

Ivan F. Boesky was one of Wall Street’s leading takeover speculators when he agreed last year to pay $100 million to settle SEC civil charges. He pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of conspiring to make false statements to the SEC and faces sentencing Friday in New York.

Ruder replied, “Yes sir,” when asked by Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr, (D-Mich.), if he expected additional “major cases.” And, he said, completion of those investigations would come “probably in terms of months, rather than weeks.” He declined to elaborate further.

But Riegle, subcommittee chairman, said, “We’ve got to have some better understanding as to why it is that the earlier expectation that we were given has changed as much as it has.”

He asked Ruder for a written explanation of “why the clock seems to be running here without some sense of us getting to some conclusions.”

“I can assure that as such time as we have completed the investigative process we will be bringing the appropriate enforcement action and cooperating with the U.S. Attorney’s office in bringing criminal charges,” Ruder said. “The delay, if any, is due not to our unwillingness or lack of desire but to the exceedingly complicated nature of these cases.”

Boesky supplied information leading to the guilty pleas of merger specialist Martin A. Siegel and brokerage executive Boyd L. Jefferies. According to a sentencing memo by the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, dozens of Wall Street professionals implicated by Boesky remain under investigation.