Live-Blog: Insider Trading Arrests/"Octopussy" Caught-Khuzami

12:31 PM The hot press conference room is lined with dark-suited attorneys and officials. A solid press turnout is here - no fewer than eight TV cameras.

12:29 PM SEC says it has caught Octopussy. SEC enforcement boss Khuzami says that's what people called Zvi Goffer because "he had his arms in so many insider" trading schemes.

At one point the defendents bit in half a cell phone chip to destroy the evidence.

12:24 PM U.S. Attorney Bharara says today the warning bell on Wall Street should be ringing louder as he announces a host of new defendants and charges for insider trading.

"This case goes to the very heart of fair play in the business world," he says.

Bharara says sophisticated criminals "took a page from drugmakers" in using prepaid cellphones and this prompted authorities to deploy wire taps.

He vows to find out how much insider trading is really going on out there.

12:17 EST U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is about to start press conference. Also there: SEC enforcement director Robert Khuzami and the FBI's Joseph M Demarest Jr., who's in charge of the New York field office.

They've dubbed it Insider Trading II and it comes with colorful charts laying out the total $40 million the accused are alleged to have made.

Details on wiretaps huge profits and a growing list of defendants coming soon from NY.

(Wall Street Journal Online link: http://blogs.wsj.com/dispatch/2009/11/05/ coming-live-blog-on-insider-trading-presser/)

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  11-05-091247ET
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