Arrest of Harvard Business School Grad Sam Barai for Insider Trading Rekindles Debate on Adequacy of Ethics Training at Harvard

What is being said to the students at Harvard’s Business School about the arrest and actions of Havard’s B School Alum Sam Barai? It has been said publicly that Nitin Nohria was chosen as the new Harvard Dean because of his reputation as an ethics focused leader. He said recently ” Are we educating people who have the competence and character to exercise leadership in business? With the arrest of Harbard Business School Grad Class of 1999 for insider trading this week, he ads to a growing list from Harvard’s B School to be charged with a crime. It includes former Enron President Jeff Skilling who received his MBA from Harvard in 1976 and was convicted in 2006 of federal felonies from the financial collapse of the energy company. Barai who is virtually deaf had an aid come to each class at Harvard to ensure he understood what was being said via lip reading. Barai had graduated New York University’s Stern School where he earned a B.S. in finance and then joined Merrill Lynch’s ivestment banking analyst program. After Harvard, he had a six year position with Ziff as a tachnology analyst and then moved to Citigroup’s Tribeca Global management as Managing Director before founding Barai Capital Management in 2008. It managed about $100 million in assers. Prosecutors said that when they were closing in, Barai systematically set about destroying any evidence linking them to a criminal scheme. The question remains; why someone like Sam Barai who worked so hard to achieve his position and build a company, would risk everything for what were obviously insider tips in direct violation of law? Perhaps, after his case is over, Sam Barai will speak about this for the benefit of all.