Tom Hardin previously spent much of his career as a U.S. hedge fund equity analyst focused on the technology sector. In 2008, as part of a cooperation agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Tom assisted the U.S. government in understanding how insider trading occurred in the investment management industry. Known as “Tipper X,” Tom became one of the most prolific informants in securities fraud history, helping to build over 20 of the 80+ individual criminal cases in “Operation Perfect Hedge,” a Wall Street house cleaning campaign that morphed into the largest insider trading investigation of a generation. Since resolving his case in 2015, Tom was invited by FBI-NYC to speak to their rookie agent class in 2016 and now consults and speaks on conduct risk, behavioral ethics and compliance issues from his former frontline perspective..

Tom weaves his incredible story highlighting the importance of employees making smart/common sense/ethical decisions, and pointing out the types of risks that employees control (and have responsibility to control). He focuses on ethical behavior / general conduct risk, the psychology behind the decision making, the little lines that can be crossed, the feeling of “everyone is doing it”. By sharing the unique perspective of his own perfect storm, He describes exactly what it feels like when a few poor decisions become the sole focus of your existence, and the linchpin of your fate and your family’s future. Conveying his experience in a way that is both engaging, suspenseful and informative, employees will learn that starting with the smallest, seemingly harmless decisions, crossing the line between questionable and illegal is both deceptively easy and incredibly costly.