US to lift lid on "pervasive insider trading"

US officials are preparing  insider trading charges against a host of financial players,  including investment bankers and hedge fund managers,  according to The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar  with the matter.  

The charges could surpass any previous investigations on  Wall Street, and examine whether certain players garnered tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits, according to the newspaper.     

The investigations could expose "a culture of pervasive  insider trading in US financial markets", especially in ways private information is transmitted to traders through connected insiders, the newspaper said, citing federal authorities.  

Wall Street has been abuzz for weeks about federal  authorities filing another big insider trading case that might compare to last year's Galleon case.

Two lawyers speaking to Reuters, who declined to be  identified because they represent potential clients, said  agents from the FBI had approached hedge fund traders over the past two weeks and a number of traders had contacted lawyers.  

While the scope of the investigation is unclear it is said  to focus on the use of so-called expert network firms,  businesses that command big fees from hedge funds to match them up with experts in particular industries. There has been concern for years that some experts may be passing on confidential information about public companies to traders.