Executive Jerks

If watching the financial news has taught us anything, it’s that insider trading a huge mistake. Chances are good that you will be caught, and punishment isn’t usually light. I mean, Martha Stewart, beloved of housewives everywhere, was sentenced to jail. If she wasn’t able to buy, or guilt, her way out of punishment, then there’s no way anyone else can. But all too often, someone is willing to take the risk. Enter Danielle Chiesi.

“I’m dead if this leaks. I really am . . . and my career is over. I’ll be like Martha f- – -ing Stewart,” she allegedly said on wiretaps recorded by the feds.

Chiesi, 43, an Upper East Sider, faces six counts of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud in an indictment announced yesterday. She could end up imprisoned for decades.

Chiesi, who worked for New Castle Funds LLC, a former Bear Stearns affiliate, expressed fear in wiretapped talks of being caught for gathering insider information, which she used for her own company’s trading and shared with hedge-fund kingpin Raj Rajaratnam.

AP

‘I’M DEAD’: Danielle Chiesi, who was allegedly caught on wiretaps fretting about her involvement in an insider-trading ring, is led in handcuffs from FBI headquarters downtown yesterday.

She made the Martha Stewart crack in August 2008 discussing inside data about computer-chip maker AMD, the feds say. Stewart was convicted of insider trading in 2004 and served five months in prison.

Chiesi allegedly expressed similar fears to Rajaratnam a week earlier that authorities would learn she’d spread inside data about AMD and IBM.

“If it leaks, I think I’m out of business . . . Because . . . who knows IBM? And who, who’s in bed with AMD? Put Danielle’s name on the f- – -in’ ticket,” she said.

Chiesi was freed on $2 million bond at a Manhattan federal court hearing yesterday. Her lawyer, Alan Kaufman, said she plans to plead not guilty at an appearance in November. (NY Post)