Tom Hardin: Tipper X - A Cautionary Tale

At age 28, Tom Hardin was a junior partner at an up-and-coming hedge fund. He was on track to achieve his dream career, but before long, felt like he was falling behind in an increasingly competitive industry. Then, a moment arose when he made a decision to cross a very important line and the rest is history. Tom was later charged with felony securities fraud and, known as "Tipper X," became the FBI’s most productive cooperating witness in Operation Perfect Hedge, a sting setup by the U.S. government during 2008-2012 targeting the hedge fund industry. The sting branched out into the largest insider trading investigation of a generation, leading to over 80 guilty pleas and convictions.  Since resolving his case in 2015, Tom was invited by the FBI to speak to their NYC rookie agent class in 2016 and now consults and speaks on insider trading, conduct risk, ethics and compliance issues from his former frontline perspective through his company Tipper X Advisors. He holds a B.S. in Economics with a Finance concentration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Today’s Subjects:

• Discusses how he tells “his story”
• Learning takeaways from insider trading
• Biggest take ways of his experience:   Surround yourself with great people
• All the Repercussions of what happened (good & bad)
• He made 46K
• 85% of marriages end up in divorce of people that go through these kinds of experiences
• How he started his career all over again
• What he did during a long time of uncertainty
• How networking has helped him build his new business
• How he got into public speaking & what he did to build his presence
• Tools he used to ascertain his clients: Boomerang by gmail
• They psychology behind why people make poor decisions
• How Tom approaches networking: How he can help others, what kinds of connections that he can make for other people, He doesn’t look for anything in return.
• He always asks beforehand before he makes the introduction
• How he approaches networking. He always asks during every conversation I have had with him “how can I be helpful for you to today?”
• Talks about Ben Cattaneo’s “all things risk” podcast