Of all the villains in Den of Thieves, James B. Stewart's 1991 expose of insider trading on Wall Street, the most unlikely may have been a second-year Harvard Business School student named Randall Cecola.

In a world of Ivan Boeskys and Michael-Milkiens, Cecola, an analyst at Lazard Freres, wasn't much of a criminal, but he was no angel either. He used inside information to trade stocks in his girlfriend's name, and supplied another investment banker with tips gleaned from his work at Lazard, according to Stewart.

He also got caught. After being indicted in 1987, Cecola pled guilty to one count of tax evasion for not reporting his insider trading profits, and was slapped with a $21,800 fine by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Business School, which he was attending at the time of the indictment, suspended him with the right to reapply.

Now, six years later, history may be repeating itself.

Last week, Daniel K. Young, a second-year Business School student, was indicted by a New York state jury on charges that he engaged in insider-trading activities while working as a trader at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company in 1990. He has 30 days to pay the Federal Reserve a fine of $500,000--the amount of money investigators say he made from the alleged trading.

Young, who pled not guilty, could get up to four years in jail for felony charges of bribery and violating banking laws and misdemeanor counts of conspiracy. He is free on $25,000 bail.

The indictment will likely cost him his career. The Fed has initiated proceedings to bar him from ever working in the banking profession again.

And like Cecola, Young, 30, may have lost his chance at a Harvard diploma. Senior Associate Dean for Educational Programs Thomas R. Piper said Young, who has completed all his course requirements, will not get a diploma until his legal proceedings are complete. If he is found guilty, it is likely that he will never receive a degree.

"Until the legal proceedings are resolved we will not be in a position on whether to award him a degree," Piper said. "We, of course, take any sort of misconduct extremely seriously, but we also believe due process is important."

Interviewed by phone Friday at his home on Long Island, James A. Young, the student's father, said his son had been lobbying Harvard very hard to change its mind and award him a degree on Commencement day, June 10, with the rest of his Business School class.

But whatever the particulars, the Young case, like the Cecola indictment, represents an embarrassment to a school that prides itself on its commitment to teaching ethics. Young, like all other students, was required to take a class in the subject.

Young, whose Harvard number has been disconnected, has left few clues around the University as to the nature of his dealings. Students interviewed in his Morris Hall entryway said last week that they did not know Young and hardly ever saw him in the dorm.

There are indications, however, that Manufacturers Hanover, and perhaps the Business School, knew about allegations of wrongdoing by Young before he enrolled at Harvard in the fall of 1991.

Two sources familiar with the case said last week that Manufacturers Hanover was tipped off in December, 1990, to what one source called "ethical problems" with Young's handling of a Colombian debt deal in November, 1990. As a result, Young was forced to resign on Christmas Eve of that year, and he lost a Christmas bonus of an unspecified amount.

The sources said Young had been accepted by the Business School at the time of his resignation, and deferred his enrollment until fall 1991. After the resignation, he left to do volunteer work in Chile.