In order to keep the Piśāca away, they are given their share of offerings during certain religious functions and festivals.

That sum included $28 million in profits on shares of initial public offerings and far larger gains on stock and options of their own companies.

And the profits that some other senators and government officials made flipping their insiders' shares of initial public offerings in the late 1990's put you to shame.

Few retail investors can get access to companies at that stage, and even procuring shares of initial public offerings can be all but impossible.

How the large Wall Street firms dispensed shares of initial offerings during the mania is the subject of scrutiny by securities regulators and federal prosecutors.

Mr. Rekenthaler added that fund companies commonly used shares of hot initial public offerings to increase performance of young funds.

Evidently, shares of initial public offerings of recent years have fallen so far that few insiders want out.

The suit contended that the banks had awarded shares of hot initial offerings to favored clients in return for lucrative investment banking business.

Mr. Quattrone's defense team is expected to argue that he played no role in deciding who would receive shares of offerings.

In one strategy, the highest-fee funds in a fund family, on average, received far more shares of initial public offerings than those with the lowest fees.