Over the last few months, we have witnessed a flurry of insider trading allegations and convictions. One of the most recent came on January 11, when US attorneys announced the guilty pleas of former Goldman Sachs and Blackstone Group employee Anthony Viggiano, who admitted to tipping off close friends about a series of large deals, including a $2.2bn investment by the private-equity group into insurer AIG.

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The news comes after another former Goldman Sachs investment banker was sentenced to three years in US prison for insider trading and obstruction of justice in November. And yet another investigation is ongoing over allegations by the Financial Conduct Authority that ex Goldman Sachs analyst Mohammed Zina was trading on inside information in 2016 and 2017.

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There are a few ways to interpret the surge of insider trading cases reaching court over recent months. The optimistic view is that it suggests both financial institutions and markets watchdogs alike are growing increasingly effective at identifying the practice. It is evidence banks are investing in and implementing sophisticated solutions – such as VoxSmart’s communications surveillance and trade reconstruction platforms, for instance – to weed out bad actors seeking to exploit their access to confidential information for their own financial gain. This, at least, is the view most professionals in the middle office function will align with.

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But for the small minority of wrongdoers in the trading game, it may also suggest that a new, more creative approach to insider trading is necessary to throw watchdogs off their scent. Indeed, while Viggiano pled guilty to his charges, the case does provide an insight into the lengths many criminals will go to cover their tracks. As reported, ‘prosecutors alleged that Viggiano and Forlano [his associate] had attempted to avoid detection by using encrypted messaging applications such as Signal and the XBox 360 communication platform. Forlano also used the disappearing messages feature on Instagram, they said.'

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In the interest of readers who prefer to unwind by strolling in the great outdoors than by sitting on a beanbag and gaming, Microsoft discontinued its Xbox 360 console on April 20, 2016 – years before Viggiano and his pals used it as a medium through which to share inside information. Although this bizarre approach proved futile in this instance, it demonstrates the number of communications channels available to those with ill intent – as well as the size of the challenge when it comes to stamping out the practice.

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With this in mind, companies may need to cast a wider net in terms of the platforms they monitor, or at the least be highly selective over the channels available to staff on company issued devices. Whatever approach they take, it appears those tasked with detecting insider trading may need to think outside of the box – or rather the Xbox – to catch increasingly creative insider trading activities.