In a Financial Times article today the SEC sees the rise in insider trading cases just as troubling as it was back in the time of Ivan Boesky.

The director of the SEC's enforcement division is quoted saying she was "quite dismayed" at the nature of recent insider trading cases. Linda Chatman Thomsen is alarmed at who is being caught in their net and sees the trend as quite troubling.

“The tippers and tippees have been in senior positions of trust and confidence,” she said. “We are far from low-level employees or people on Main Street.”

Ms Thomsen said the recent cases reminded her of the days of Ivan Boesky and Dennis Levine, two central figures in insider trading scandals in the 80s.

47 insider trading cases have been pursued by the SEC in 2007 but the number of defendants jumped 16 percent to 110 from 2006, many involving people in senior positions such as partner and general counsel.