Great question which I will post to the Securities and Exchange Commission later on today.
Thanks very much for the suggestion as well as posting a link to The Deal.com.
Unless I missed it, I have not seen an allegation of any specific untruthful statement made by anyone except statements by the wacko CEO’s of Overstock.com and Biovail. Before the SEC sends out any subpoenas, shouldn't it at least determine that lies have been disseminated? A “conspiracy” to tell the truth or promulgate an honestly held opinion is not a crime as far as I know – much as certain wacko CEO’s would like it to be one. As USA Today reported, Carr Bettis of Gradient said, “CEOs who don't like the research its computers and analysts generate don't have to sue to prove their point. ‘All you have to do is prove us wrong,’ he says. ‘You just have to perform.’ "
Gary,
I found this on a google search of,
'atkins grundfest sec naked short'.
What's most telling about Mr.Atkins comments besides his mention of Grundfest being of interest, is that he also seems to acknowledge being an adherent to the 'naked shorting conspiracy' of Bobo O'Brien,Patrick
Byrne,Senator Bob Bennett,attorney John O'Quinn,Wes Christian,ex-SEC attorney Brent Baker,James Dale Davidson,David Patch,Georgetown U.'s James J. Angel,Ralph Lamiase,et.al..
Where do they all come from ? What creates them ? Would Mr.Grundfest also swear that Stanford University's and James Dale Davidson's Endovasc pump and dump was indeed the product of 'naked shorting'?Is that what Paul Atkins would have us all believe ? :
Speech by SEC Commissioner:
Remarks before the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform
by
Commissioner Paul S. Atkins
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Washington, DC
February 16, 2006
These statistics are very encouraging. After the last several years of scandal-induced securities class actions, it appears that things may be taking a turn for the better. As former SEC commissioner, now Stanford Professor, Joe Grundfest likes to say - and please forgive me if you've already heard the phrase this morning, but it's too colorful to pass up - "the pig may have passed through the python."
....
These issues are tremendously important to the integrity of the capital markets, and we should be careful to ensure that the appropriate amount of enforcement resources are directed to the type of activity described in the Journal piece, as well as the separate but no less important issue of illegal naked short selling. Have we, perhaps inadvertently, over the past few years allowed too much of our attention to be diverted to other, supposedly "sexier" financial frauds where the lines are greyer, potential settlements are eye-popping, and newspaper headlines are guaranteed? The basic market manipulation cases, such as pump and dump schemes, are the types of cases in which outright criminals directly victimize innocent investors. We have plenty of power and authority to take more of these cases on (with or without the controversial hedge fund registration rule that is before the courts as we speak).
The information management problems are not limited to CEOs. Something very bad has to happen for sanitycheck to be the first to report the Greenberg subpoena, or for Byrne to email reporters he doesn't like about their subpoenas before they are reported publicly.
Did you notice Greenberg's quote of the daft SEC spokesman who talked about "law abiders"? An Earth human would talk about "law abiding folk", not "law abiders". The good news is that replicants give themselves away with words that went out of style in the 18th century; the bad news is they have infiltrated the SEC.
Give Paul Atkins a little more credit than that, please. He's no fan of pump and dump scams and typically it's the NCANSeque types who perpetrate them.
Nice rant by Chris Byron in the NYP today: http://www.nypost.com/business/61878.htm
Maybe people should be thinking a little more than they did last year about the accusations leveled against Cox and his work for the First Pension ponzi scam in California back in the 80's. Eg: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/
...thComplaint.pdf
He was dismissed as a defendant. Partisan motivations no doubt lay behind some of the suggestions that his former law firm had to pay up big-time to secure the dismissal.
But even if Cox had been purely a dupe, or just unlucky, it still amazes me that somebody with this history gets to be in charge of the SEC. Too easy for cynical suspicious people like me to imagine old skeletons whispering to him through half-opened closet doors ...
Chris Byron asks the same question I asked last week.
http://www.nypost.com/business/61878.htm
WHO ARE THESE ASSWIPES?
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