Mark Rosenblum, a former Thomson Reuters salesman, says he was fired after questioning whether Thomson Reuters violated insider trading laws by distributing market-moving data releases, such as the consumer sentiment index, to high-speed traders two seconds before regular subscribers saw it, The Economist reported Friday.
Some find it unfair for high-speed traders, who pay up to $6,000 a month for their feeds, to get an early peek at numbers, but there are no regulations forbidding selective disclosure of private data.
Rosenblum has filed a wrongful termination suit, but Thomson Reuters says the case is "unsubstantiated and without merit." New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating the early releases of data.
In an affidavit, Rosenblum said a colleague told him "chasing down who is getting the numbers ahead of time" would affect profits, and his manager advised him to "stop being a hero."