U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara (SDNY) delivered a good line yesterday in his press conference concerning the extreme efforts of one of the defendants in the expert witness insider trading probe to destroy evidence:

"When people frantically begin shredding sensitive documents and deleting computer files and smashing flash drives and chasing garbage trucks at 2 a.m. ... it is not because they have been operating legitimately.

Good stuff, and somewhat reminiscent of Rob Khuzami's November 2009 comment in the Galleon case, which I previously declared to be the "2009 SEC Quote of the Year":

There should be a moment — hopefully before you're holding a bag of cash delivered to you by somebody codenamed ‘the Octopussy' — that causes anyone in a position to tip or trade on inside information to think twice before taking such a misguided step. And if you find yourself chewing the memory card in your cell phone to destroy any record of your misconduct, something has gone terribly wrong with your character.

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