Barak Cohen was quoted in the Fortune article, "Blind Trusts, Inside Information, and the ‘Mosaic Theory’: Why Charging Members of Congress With Insider Trading Is so Fraught," on insider trading cases against members of Congress.

While it was “theoretically possible” to pursue insider trading cases against members of Congress before the STOCK Act, such cases “were difficult to bring,” adds Barak, a partner at law firm Perkins Coie and a former Department of Justice prosecutor.

“The STOCK Act made it clear that there’s a fiduciary duty that members of Congress owe with respect to material, nonpublic information, and makes it possible to bring those kinds of insider trading cases,” Barak notes.

“The difficulty [in pursuing STOCK Act cases] is that people in the legislative and executive branches are privy to a lot of inside information from many different sources, and are typically able to defend themselves by referencing a ‘mosaic theory’ of receiving information,” Barak notes.