In the wake of the Galleon hedge fund insider trading scandal, a lot of hedge fund pros are on edge. More indictments could be coming at some point. The anxiety was heightened by the news that a procedural change at the SEC has made it easier for the enforcement staff to obtain subpoenas.

Reuters reports that in the past two months, the SEC has taken advantage of the change; it has sent subpoenas to the funds asking for information about performance and how they raised assets. Earlier this year, the SEC said it had about 150 investigations of hedge funds on-going. I think it's fair to say the agency is keen to reverse its image as an agency that can't keep up with modern, techno-savvy hedge funds. We may well see some more quite splashy indictments and perhaps more wiretaps. All this amounts to a gift for securities-oriented defense lawyers.

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