在美国金融证券业，从业人员必须遵守从业法规。其中一条就是不能交易Any instruments on the firm's restriction list (the list contains all instrument with possible pending transactions and other possible market moving events). Almost all big Wall Street firms also require employee to report which brokerage firm(s) they use to conduct personal investment.
For prop desk traders, the restrictions are even more severe. I was not allowed to trade any derivatives and equites for US and Asia markets.
As employee of MS and ING, the chinese couple know the rules. As long as they knowingly trade on these restricted instruments, they can be charged with insider trading (which is a federal offense), even if they use relatives or friends to trade on their behalf.
Actually use proxy to trade make the offense even more severe (conspiracy will be added to the charge). It is a slam dunk case for SEC.
The bad news is not over yet. The 3 year prison term is only for the criminal phase of the offense. SEC also brought cival charges which can cause severe financial penalty for the couple as well as life time ban for them to practice in the securites industry.
