FBI enlists actor Michael Douglas to fight insider trading

WASHINGTON - Hollywood actor Michael Douglas, who played greedy financier Gordon Gekko in the movie "Wall Street," is now starring in an FBI video reminding investors that insider trading is a crime.

Douglas was the face of Wall Street excess in the 1987 movie, famously declaring: "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

"The movie was fiction, but the problem is real," Douglas says in an FBI public service announcement made for television.

"Our economy is increasingly dependent on the success and the integrity of the financial markets. If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is."

Douglas then appeals to viewers to contact the FBI for more information or if they suspect securities fraud and insider trading.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation enlisted Douglas, who reprised his Gekko role with a 2008 financial meltdown twist in the 2010 sequel "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," as part of a government crackdown on financial crime that has cheated millions of investors.

[Photo credit: Peter Albrektsen / Shutterstock.com.]