28 February 2012 Last updated at 00:30 ET

Michael Douglas, star of Wall Street movie, to help FBI

Michael Douglas: "The movie was fiction but the problem is real"

Michael Douglas, who played a greedy executive in the movie Wall Street, is the Federal Bureau of Investigation's new spokesman against insider trading.

In the movie, Mr Douglas played the character Gordon Gekko who famously boasted that "greed is good."

For critics the phrase came to embody the excesses of the Wall Street boom years and subsequent problems.

However, in his new role Mr Douglas is warning executives against following his on-screen credo.

"The movie was fiction, but the problem is real," he said in an announcement.

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

'Integrity and fairness'

The move is a part of Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) efforts to tackle insider trading and fraud.

Last year, Raj Rajaratnam, a former hedge-fund manager and founder of Galleon Group, was sentenced to 11 years in jail and fined $10m (£6.4m) for one of the biggest insider trading cases in American history.

The case saw more than two dozen other people being jailed, with sentences ranging from a few months to 10 years.

The FBI said that it will continue to "pursue those who cheat the system."

"Integrity and fairness are paramount to the success of our markets. Today's announcement brings us closer to that objective," said the FBI's Assistant Director in Charge, Janice Fedarcyk.