Financial Journalist Fined For Pumping Own Stocks

Formerly of CBS MarketWatch.com, Thom Calandra has been fined more than $540,000 by the Securities and Exchange Commission for using an investment newsletter to promote certain stocks he owned.

Michael S. Dicke, a deputy assistant district administrator in the S.E.C.'s enforcement division, said: "It's not every day that you find a respected financial journalist, who has a large readership, and then find them selling stocks. It was a serious betrayal of Mr. Calandra's readership."

Mr. Calandra, without admitting or denying any wrongdoing, agreed to return more than $416,000 in trading profits and interest. He will also pay a civil penalty of $125,000.

"It has been a challenging year, to put it mildly, and I do not wish to expose my family to a protracted public dispute with the commission on this matter," Mr. Calandra said in a statement. "Now that we have a resolution, I am eager to move on with my life and pursue my first love, writing."

This type of stock manipulation scheme just fries my chicken and I don't think that the punishment is adequate. Calandra obviously is not being impacted financially when he easily agrees to pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars. Obviously, the punishment is viewed more like a traffic ticket than a deterrent. A eye-opening stretch in the slammer would change that perception.

I wonder how many of the investors he defrauded will get their money back.