Insider trading of Goverment officials

The practice is illegal, but I am sure the government officials do insider trading, using offshore companies or friends.

This is a real debate in a lot of countries, especially in the U.S. Many people argue that elected officials and senior government staff should not trade individual stocks because of the potential for conflicts of interest or access to nonpublic information.

I don't think it is a huge problem here. The press are on to such practices very quickly.

It is. And I agree. I don't think government officials should be entirely banned from investing. Everyone is entitled to build wealth. However, I think they should be limited to only investing in, say, the S&P500 which gives them exposure to the broad market, but not individual stocks. Also, be sure not to confuse insider trading with investing. They are not the same thing. Insider trading is illegal, not just for government officials, but for everyone. It involves investing with prior knowledge to things the rest of the general public may not be aware of.