VW engineers busted for insider trading on Rivian shares

An indictment unsealed Friday charges Volkswagen engineers with insider trading tied to a joint venture with Rivian. Prosecutors allege they used confidential information about the deal to buy stock in the electric-vehicle maker before the market got wind of it. The DOJ filed the charges in the Southern District of New York.

The joint venture is the kind of thing that moves markets — VW brings cash and manufacturing muscle, Rivian brings the EV know-how. When that deal is still locked down inside the companies, the people who know about it are sitting on a gold mine. These engineers apparently took advantage.

Insider trading charges like this aren't new, but the fact that the DOJ is pursuing it years later shows they're keeping a close eye on cross-border deals and the folks who profit from them.

Why this matters for us: When people with inside info on deals between big companies make a quick buck, it's another way the system is rigged against the rest of us who don't have access.