The Big Board has fessed up to even more insider trading, reports Reuters. The 140 referrals to the Securities and Exchange Commission is a 26 percent rise over last year.

The New York Stock Exchange's regulatory unit chief told a Senate Committee that hedge funds are the culprits. And so the Judiciary Committee under Sen. Arlen Specter is thinking about more regulation of the funds. For most hedge funds, you'd say they're big boys and they know, as sophisicated investors, what they're doing with their money but when they start messing with the stock exchange, something probably has to be done. Trouble is that we seem incapable of eliminating much more than the most flagrantly obvious insider trading.

But there is some revenge for the spreading options-backdating scandal, reports Bloomberg. Unfortunately, the market's revenge has fallen on regular investors whose only crime was not being able to stop executives cheating. More than two-thirds of 117 companies that announced investigations into their options grants by Aug. 31 fell in the stock market the next day, the wire service's research shows.

The research also measured how much the price drop came on general industry news by looking at sector indexes. The stocks slid an average 5.6 percent after a month, and trailed their peers by 4.3 percentage points. And who can blame the market? As one analyst points out, companies that mess with options dating probably don't have shareholders interests at heart.