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Was Hawkins forced out of last
position...? While SPARKR provided an interesting, upbeat post, did Hawkins explain why she was forced out of her last position? A google of the news stories from that time clearly indicates that she was either forced out or stepped over by other candidates within the company. Her positions took on less and less responsibility over time, with other people assuming the responsibilites she had. I have nothing against her - all indications are that she is professional and sincere. But, she was clearly forced out for some reason and, I suspect, took the ADVR job because it was the best she could get. Overall, the key is for her to keep The Moron Wilner as far as humanly possible from the actual operations of ADVR, as he has done untold damage to the company. The drug could be so much farther ahead now if not for him... |
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Have no idea! However Fenderbender
and Lov can appreciate someone who makes sense around here instead of
nonsense. Sparkr's an inspiration! He has something to say, whereas many here don't, like you for instance. Regards to rar. Luv |
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Dr. Hirschman, you should not be
posting here. You are the reason we are years behind. Not Wilner. And certainly not Hawkins. As for your spin on Hawkin's last job... be careful. Some people here still do not know you were about to be canned by Mt. Sinai. Your post here shows "transference." |
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Sorry, Beaume, but your barking up
the wrong tree. I certainly have issues with Hirschman - a great scientist, but absolutely, completely unfit to be a CEO. No question he did damage, as well. But, The Moron Wilner has done horrendous damage in other ways about which you are obviously unaware. One day, you will know.... |
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So easy to sound like a Know it
All--expecially by saying "One day, you will know". Give me a break. I have
known Eli for years from his numerous visits to Florida. I know his
side...and it is not perfect. But Dicke and his $12 million (before his
original $1 million investment) came through WIlner's efforts. Pony up your sinsiter information--or stop your patronizing posts. Hawkins was NOT pushed out of her job--she was preparing to shift to ADVR WAY before February this year. But your clever spin suggests otherwise. Nice try. |
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Beaume, You will know the day the authorities come aknock, knock, knockin' on your friend's door. Believe what you like. It's a free country. I'll post what I like, when I like. If you've got a problem, forward it to Lycos and let them sort it out. In the meantime, try to cherish democracy, Beaume. If I am wrong about Dr. Hawkins, I will do what many on this board will do - admit a mistake. However, the press releases from Hawkins' former company clearly read as if she were pushed out. I guess there's no way to know for sure - I will cede that point. But the black and white words, read without your rose-colored glasses, leave that very, very strong impression. The Dicke's are putting their money in because they win on both sides of the transaction, so it's a GREAT deal for them. They would be fools NOT to pony up with the terms they got. Beaume, don't let your friendship with Eli cloud your judgment. But, like I said, it's a free country. Have a wonderful, wonderful day Beaume! |
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06-21-04 08:46 PM This Is For Steelhead....nightline Sitting On "stockgate" Investing 101 - Jun 11, 2004 - Is Dateline Losing Credibility Over StockGate Story Delays? by Mark Faulk It's been called the biggest financial scandal in the history of the world, with incurred losses estimated by some experts at well over $1 trillion dollars. It's a scandal that involves over 1,200 offshore hedge funds, over 150 US brokers, and has already bankrupted over 7,000 US companies in the past six years. According to many of the lawsuits filed to date, the crooks include terrorist groups and organized crime syndicates. Sources say that this scandal, which involves an intricate system of selling electronic counterfeit shares of stock in an effort to destroy the market value of small publically traded companies by utilizing a method known as "naked short selling", will eventually implicate almost every major broker in America, all of the governing bodies that oversee trading, and will extend into Canada and Europe. Amazingly, the SEC has admitted it had been "observing" naked short selling for six years, but up to now has done absolutely nothing to put a halt to it. As The Faulking Truth has written about and followed this story over the past few months, one nagging question has remained: where is the national press coverage on this issue? Aside from a few recent articles in national newspapers, which have barely scratched the surface of this worldwide scandal, why has this been largely ignored by the mainstream media? Why hasn't one of the major network investigative shows put together an in depth expose' to blow this scandal wide open? Incredibly, we have confirmed that Dateline has done that very thing. According to sources involved with the story, NBC's flagship news program has filmed over 100 hours of explosive footage on the "StockGate" scandal, which includes evidence that will "blow the roof off this scandal". There is only one problem. Originally scheduled to air in January or early February, they have postponed the show repeatedly, and now plan to air it "sometime in August". Even more incredibly, we have learned that they have signed an exclusivity contract with the two law firms that have filed the class action lawsuits that deal with the naked shorting scandal, in effect suppressing the public release of even more information about the scandal. After publically speaking out about the scandal early on, attorneys John O'Quinn (of the Houston law firm of O’Quinn, Laminack and Pirtle), and Wes Christian (of Christian, Smith, Wukoson and Jewell) have been uncharacteristically quiet for the past few months. That's because Dateline has kept a muzzle on the two attorneys until the "StockGate" segment airs. However, lead attorney Wes Christian has filmed over twenty hours of exclusive interviews for the Dateline segment. Although exclusivity contracts involving the media aren't unusual, this situation is a bit different. This scandal is ongoing, and in fact seems to be accelerating in the past couple of months, even after new NASD regulations supposedly aimed at putting a halt to the corruption went into affect on April 1st. The shelving of this important expose' by Dateline NBC raises some very important moral and ethical issues, in this writer's opinion. If in fact they have collected information that would help to put a stop to the massive criminal activity that is robbing American companies and their stockholders of literally hundreds of millions of dollars every day, aren't they at the very least morally obligated to release that information in a timely fashion? And since they have postponed the show for the last four months, shouldn't they release attorneys O'Quinn and Christian from their exclusivity contract, so that they can disseminate information that might be vital in helping the victimized companies, their shareholders, and the various governing bodies put to end this ongoing corruption? And if in fact the money being stolen from honest Americans is being used to fund terrorism and organized crime, then shouldn't Dateline immediately make public any information that could help put an end to those insidious activities? Dateline declined to respond to repeated emails inquiries for this article. The question remains: why has Dateline been so slow to expose this monumental ongoing scandal, even as the corruption continues? There is some debate on that point. Some sources believe that they have "caved in to political pressure from the Right, who see this as a political time bomb for the Bush Administration", while C. Austin Burrell, who has provided litigation and research support to O'Quinn and Christian in their lawsuits, believes that Dateline has it's own political and journalistic agenda, and plans to air the show in August to coincide with the Democratic Convention. The scheduled August air date concerns Burrell as well. "August is a dead month, with half of all people on vacation, and the other half not paying attention. It is not an appropriate month to release a piece with such a business focus." Still others close to the story say it is the complexity and constantly evolving nature of the story that makes it difficult to edit and air. "Complex and constantly evolving" is an understatement. However, this writer for The Faulking Truth has managed to gather pertinent information and write relevant articles on the topic, and in all honesty, I'm just a guy with a computer and a cell phone who does this in his spare time. Dateline, on the other hand, is, well, Dateline. According to Burrell, "This is not a difficult story, and it needs to get out there now. Dateline has made an important time commitment to this topic, and we simply want to see the payoff for the victims." Regardless of the reason, the time for full disclosure is now. Dateline NBC owes it to the American people to release what information they have immediately, and if necessary, air a followup segment as the story continues to develop. As the Associated Press and rival CBS show 60 Minutes recently pointed out, "In one month, NBC's signature newsmagazine devoted some five hours of programming to the season finale of 'The Apprentice' and the series finales of 'Friends' and 'Frasier.' " If The Donald, Ross, Rachel, and Fraiser rate five hours of coverage in one month on what is supposed to be a major news show "bringing viewers compelling investigative reports", then surely the "biggest financial scandal in the history of the world" is worth a segment or two. Edit/Delete • Quote • Complain jack rabid Senior Member Registered: Oct 2002 Posts: 150 06-23-04 02:02 PM bungus bogus bogus bogus bogus (Voluntary Disclosure: Position- Long; LT Rating- Strong Buy) |
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Commentary - Jun 7, 2004 - StockGate: A Call To Arms by Mark Faulk An Open Letter To All Those Concerned: To The Perpetrators: To the short sellers and those who control the offshore financial institutions: You are destroying your own country. As with any scam in which the victims are nameless and faceless, it is much easier to rob them blind when you don't have to look your victims in the eye. However, this is the truth: the Grandmother or Grandfather whose life savings you have wiped out by using fraud and manipulation to destroy the stock market could be your Grandparents. The hardworking employees who have lost their jobs because you forced their company into bankruptcy could be your sons, daughters, or your best friends. The company that is forced out of business because of your greed and dishonesty could be developing the cure to a disease that you might someday die from. Good riddance. You are traitors to your country, no better than Benedict Arnold or those who cause the loss of lives by selling national secrets. The wheels of justice might turn excruciatingly slow, but they are turning as we speak. In the end, you will be paraded in the town squares as the traitors and common criminals that you are. You will have to face those whose lives you have ruined, look your victims in the eye, and explain yourselves. To the companies that have taken advantage of the same loopholes to defraud their own shareholders: You are the worst type of criminal, the kind that robs the very people who have placed their trust in you. There are many honest companies out there trying to make our country a better place, and you are giving them all a bad name, and providing ammo to those who would paint all small companies with the same brush. You too will have to answer for your despicable crimes. And to the foreign exchanges who are complicit in this scandal: You have taken part in the defrauding of America and Americans, and in the end, you will pay dearly. Enough said. To The NASD, The Brokers and MMs, and the DTCC: You are the true villains in this scandal. When I wrote about this scheme to defraud our country and called it "Financial Terrorism In America", make no mistake, you are the terrorists I was referring to. While it's true that the short sellers and offshore lending institutions might be flying the planes, you are providing the weapons of mass destruction that are ruining American lives. To the DTCC: to say that you are "following the rules" does not exonerate you. You made those rules yourselves, and filled them full of loopholes large enough to drive a Brinks truck through. Loopholes that allow counterfeit electronic shares to be created out of thin air, and then used to destroy stockholders and the companies that they invest in. And sadly, that is exactly what has happened time and time again, unchecked and unabated for years. Shame on you. To The SEC: Why did you sit idly by while this scandal continued year after year? Why have the rules which could have put an end to this pillaging of America's wealth taken years to implement? When will you, as the so-called protector of the American investor, finally have the nerve to stand up and say "Enough!"? If you continue to sit on the sidelines while the financial markets are brought to ruin, then you are as guilty as those who actually committed the crimes. Do the right thing, and do it now! To The Paid Bashers: You are the footsoldiers in this scandal. While your bosses are making the big haul by shorting the stocks that you are paid to bash, you are holding the innocent at gunpoint. While those at the top make millions in this scam, you are paid chump change, but when the house of cards collapses (and that time is nearing), you will share a cell with those who masterminded the entire scheme. Is it worth the price you will soon pay just to make a few dollars stealing from your family, friends, and neighbors? And even worse, you hear the desperation and feel the pain of those who you help destroy every day, and you mock them. How can you sleep at night? To Raging Bull: You are the Napster of this scandal. Although you may feign innocence by saying that you simply provide a forum for discussion about OTC stocks, and that you have no control over the content, that is simply bull (no pun intended). By allowing the systematic unsubstantiated bashing of every small company in America to continue unchecked for years, you are a party to this scandal as well. Who are you, anyway? I have received information from a number of sources who claim that you are actually owned by a group of investors who have profited from this scandal. If in fact that is true, then you, too, deserve to be held accountable for your actions. Even if it isn't, the fact that you are providing a forum for those who will destroy our markets makes you an accomplice to this travesty. To The Victims: To the shareholders who have been robbed blind. Speak out! Distribute articles like this one, and others that have been written about this scandal, to all corners of the Earth. Inundate Raging Bull, Yahoo, and the other stock message boards with the truth. Send these articles to other news sources and ask them to link them, or to write stories about this in their publications. Educate everyone. I have received dozens of calls and emails about this issue, and a few brave souls have put themselves in the line of fire time and again to expose this fraud. Join them! If you have information that will aid in the fight, send it to me. I will be your mouthpiece. Call your congressman, call or email the SEC. Sign the petition at www.investigatethesec.com . Join together with other stockholders and demand that your brokers deliver your stock certificates to you. If they refuse, report them to the SEC (and again, email the information to me). Empower yourselves. Spread the word! You will have your day. To the companies that have been robbed blind: Speak out! Enough is enough. Contact your stockholders, band together, and call in your shares. If you demand that all shares be delivered, this will expose the crooks. If you have a contract with an offshore lender who is naked shorting your company into oblivion, sue them and refuse to give them any more shares. Issue press releases exposing the fraud against you. Contact the press and tell them your story. Contact The Faulking Truth and tell us your story. Reprint articles about this issue on your websites, release them through your media outlets. Only by shining a light on this scandal will the public ever see it clearly. There are hundreds of other companies just like you out there, join together with them and form a coalition to fight those who are defrauding you and your shareholders. Contact the SEC, as a group, and demand that they close the loopholes that allow this fraud to continue immediately, and that they take the necessary steps to repair the damage that has already been done. Demand that they force the Money Makers, brokers, and the DTCC to reveal how many trades are never settled, and in essence, how many counterfeit shares have been electronically created. What would happen if several hundred companies got together and demanded to be removed from the DTCC trading system altogether? I'd like to find out. Join one of the class action suits that have been filed, or file your own suit. Contact your congressmen. Contact Elliot Spitzer, the New York State Attorney General. Many of you have spoken out against this fraud, but many more of you have remained on the sidelines. This is a battle for your very survival. If you don't join the fight, you have lost the war without firing a shot. Fire the next shot, and don't stop firing until this scandal has been stopped dead in it's tracks. That, more than ever, is the faulking truth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Email this article to anyone who will listen: "StockGate: A Call To Arms" http://www.faulkingtruth.com/article/?Commentary&1006 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Editor's note: If you would like to help us spread the word about this scandal, send us an email at info@faulkingtruth.com , asking to be added to our "Stockgate activist list". We will email you only when we have new articles dealing with this issue. Please link the articles everywhere you can, post them on stock message boards, and send them to the appropriate public entites. To enact positive change requires positive action. This commentary is the opinion of the writer, based on information currently available. Future events may or may not change those opinions. That's not likely, but anything is possible. Other articles on the stock market scandal: "The Berlin Connection?" www.faulkingtruth.com/article/?Investing101&1004 "Financial Terorism In America" www.faulkingtruth.com/article/?Investing101&1001 "Is Canada Robbing America Blind?" www.faulkingtruth.com/article/?Commentary&1001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Voluntary Disclosure: Position- Long; LT Rating- Strong Buy) |
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To The Paid Bashers: You are the footsoldiers in this scandal. While your bosses are making the big haul by shorting the stocks that you are paid to bash, you are holding the innocent at gunpoint. While those at the top make millions in this scam, you are paid chump change, but when the house of cards collapses (and that time is nearing), you will share a cell with those who masterminded the entire scheme. Is it worth the price you will soon pay just to make a few dollars stealing from your family, friends, and neighbors? And even worse, you hear the desperation and feel the pain of those who you help destroy every day, and you mock them. How can you sleep at night? sad, very sad indeed.! (Voluntary Disclosure: Position- Long; LT Rating- Strong Buy) |
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StockGate: Dateline Could Blow Lid
Off ‘Stockgate,’ Says Website June 14, 2004. (FinancialWire) FinancialWire learned several months ago that “Dateline,” the investigatory TV program aired by General Electric’s (NYSE: GE) NBC unit, has been preparing a blockbuster expose of “Stockgate,” the term coined by FinancialWire to encompass the massive naked shorting scandal, that could cause the entire financial community to implode, but FinancialWire had honored requests from participants to keep the plans for the program confidential. That has changed now following a story by The Faulking Truth website. “It's been called the biggest financial scandal in the history of the world, with incurred losses estimated by some experts at well over $1 trillion dollars. It's a scandal that involves over 1,200 offshore hedge funds, over 150 US brokers, [including Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCH), A.G. Edwards, Inc. (NYSE: AGE), and ETrade Group, Inc. (NYSE: ET)], and has already bankrupted over 7,000 US companies in the past six years,” said Mark Faulk, entitled “Is Dateline Losing Credibility Over StockGate Story Delays?” “According to many of the lawsuits filed to date, the crooks include terrorist groups and organized crime syndicates. Sources say that this scandal, which involves an intricate system of selling electronic counterfeit shares of stock in an effort to destroy the market value of small publically traded companies by utilizing a method known as ‘naked short selling’, will eventually implicate almost every major broker in America, all of the governing bodies that oversee trading, and will extend into Canada and Europe,” stated the article. “Amazingly, the SEC has admitted it had been ‘observing’ naked short selling for six years, but up to now has done absolutely nothing to put a halt to it. “As The Faulking Truth has written about and followed this story over the past few months, one nagging question has remained: where is the national press coverage on this issue? Aside from a few recent articles in national newspapers, which have barely scratched the surface of this worldwide scandal, why has this been largely ignored by the mainstream media? Why hasn't one of the major network investigative shows put together an in depth expose' to blow this scandal wide open? “Incredibly, we have confirmed that Dateline has done that very thing. According to sources involved with the story, NBC's flagship news program has filmed over 100 hours of explosive footage on the ‘StockGate’ scandal, which includes evidence that will ‘blow the roof off this scandal’, stated Faulk. “There is only one problem. Originally scheduled to air in January or early February, they have postponed the show repeatedly, and now plan to air it ‘sometime in August.’ Even more incredibly, we have learned that they have signed an exclusivity contract with the two law firms that have filed the class action lawsuits that deal with the naked shorting scandal, in effect suppressing the public release of even more information about the scandal. “After publicly speaking out about the scandal early on, attorneys John O'Quinn (of the Houston law firm of O’Quinn, Laminack and Pirtle), and Wes Christian (of Christian, Smith, Wukoson and Jewell) have been uncharacteristically quiet for the past few months. That's because Dateline has kept a muzzle on the two attorneys until the ‘StockGate’ segment airs. “However, lead attorney Wes Christian has filmed over twenty hours of exclusive interviews for the Dateline segment. Although exclusivity contracts involving the media aren't unusual, this situation is a bit different. This scandal is ongoing, and in fact seems to be accelerating in the past couple of months, even after new NASD regulations supposedly aimed at putting a halt to the corruption went into affect on April 1st.” FinancialWire has learned that Dateline may be pointing a large finger of conflict at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission itself, which reportedly receives a slice of every transaction fee as part of its budget. According to court filings supported by the O’Quinn/Christian network, almost $1 billion annually is received by the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. for its “Stock Borrow Program,” which the lawsuits claim is just a fancy name for counterfeiting, as the DTCC purportedly lends out many multiples of the actual certificates in the float. Apparently the SEC receives a transaction fee for each transaction facilitated by these loans of non-existent certificates, which could knock a hole in its budget should the revenues from the practice be halted. The North American Securities Administrators Association, comprised of state and Canadian regulators, has pointedly told the SEC that either it must rethink its cozy DTCC relationship, or it hints, some of its more aggressive state practitioners (think Eliot Spitzer) may do the rethinking for the SEC. “The shelving of this important expose' by Dateline NBC raises some very important moral and ethical issues, in this writer's opinion,” said Faulk. “If in fact they have collected information that would help to put a stop to the massive criminal activity that is robbing American companies and their stockholders of literally hundreds of millions of dollars every day, aren't they at the very least morally obligated to release that information in a timely fashion? And since they have postponed the show for the last four months, shouldn't they release attorneys O'Quinn and Christian from their exclusivity contract, so that they can disseminate information that might be vital in helping the victimized companies, their shareholders, and the various governing bodies put to end this ongoing corruption? And if in fact the money being stolen from honest Americans is being used to fund terrorism and organized crime, then shouldn't Dateline immediately make public any information that could help put an end to those insidious activities? Dateline declined to respond to repeated email inquiries for this article. “The question remains: why has Dateline been so slow to expose this monumental ongoing scandal, even as the corruption continues? There is some debate on that point. Some sources believe that they have ‘caved in to political pressure from the Right, who see this as a political time bomb for the Bush Administration’, while C. Austin Burrell, who has provided litigation and research support to O'Quinn and Christian in their lawsuits, believes that Dateline has it's own political and journalistic agenda, and plans to air the show in August to coincide with the Democratic Convention. “The scheduled August air date concerns Burrell as well. ‘August is a dead month, with half of all people on vacation, and the other half not paying attention. It is not an appropriate month to release a piece with such a business focus’,” the article quoted him as saying. “Still others close to the story say it is the complexity and constantly evolving nature of the story that makes it difficult to edit and air. According to Burrell, ‘This is not a difficult story, and it needs to get out there now. Dateline has made an important time commitment to this topic, and we simply want to see the payoff for the victims’,” the article noted. Naked short selling is worrisome for hundreds of small U.S. companies, including those recently asking to be delisted from the Berlin Stock Exchange, such as Golden Phoenix Minerals, Inc. (OTCBB: GPXM), Nannaco, Inc. (OTCBB: NNCO), 5G Wireless Communications, Inc. (OTCBB: FGWC), CyberAds, Inc. (OTCBB :CYAD), Provectus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCBB: PVCT), House of Brussels Chocolates (OTCBB: HBSL), InforMedix, Inc. (OTCBB: IFMX), Tissera, Inc. (OTCBB: TSSR), Americana Publishing, Inc. (OTCBB: APBH), Celsion Corporation (AMEX: CLN), ChampionLyte Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: CPLY), Pickups Plus, Inc. (OTCBB:PUPS), China Wireless Communications Inc. (OTC BB: CWLC), CareDecision Corp. (OTCBB: CDED), Titan General Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: TTGH), IPVoice Communications, Inc. (OTCBB: IPVO), Whistler Investments (OTCBB: WHIS), WARP Technology Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: WRPT), BGR Corp. (OTCBB: BGRR), ICOA, Inc., (OTCBB: ICOA), DICUT, INC. (OTCBB: DCUTE), NHC Communications Inc. (TSX: NHC; OTCBB: NHCMF), Stratus Services Group, Inc. (OTCBB: SERV), Golden Phoenix Minerals, Inc. (OTCBB: GPXM). Berliner Freiverkehr (Aktien) AG has been singled out as the broker and market maker that has been “listing” the companies. It is suspected that one broker, RA Angsar Limprecht, is involved in all if not most of the listings. Small public companies are squeezed not only by hedge funds, naked short sellers, overseas listers such as the Berlin Stock Exchange, and the out-of-control “Stock Borrow Program” run by the governance-conflict-laden Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, but to the amazement of the industry, as often and not by their own regulators. A new staff recommendation by Annette Nazareth, director of the division of market regulation at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to “outlaw” ownership of paper certificates at the same time the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation is under intense scrutiny for alleged electronic counterfeiting has begun hitting the small public company markets, company executives, shareholders and manipulative short-selling opponents like the proverbial ton of bricks. A Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ) article by Judith Burns sparked the uproar, as the inextricably intertwined web of connections between the SEC and the DTC, which is sagging from the weight of conflicted governance by representatives from a rollcall of industry heavyweights, including NASD, which owns NASDAQ (OTCBB: NDAQ), the New York Stock Exchange, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH), to name only a few. The rule proposal would bar stock transfer agents from handling shares that carry any limitations on transfer. Control over stock certificates is one of the ways that small companies have combated illegal naked short sellers. Burns quoted Nazareth as saying that these companies’ “self-help” efforts “aren’t helping U.S. markets overall.” Nazareth was quoted as saying restrictions on stocks are “a significant step backwards” in the “move from paper stock certificates to automated computerized trading.” Nazareth said that abusive “naked” short selling has been a problem “in some cases,” but that is “best dealt with by a pending SEC proposal,” presumably Regulation SHO. SEC Commissioner William Donaldson purportedly publicly refused to answer any questions from the NASD about the timing of the Commission’s consideration of the Regulation at a conference where he was simultaneously proposing early reforms of the mutual fund scandals. The Dow Jones said, however, that Robert Colby, SEC deputy market regulation division director, predicted the SEC will take that to a vote in early June. The Dow Jones report noted that “naked short-selling occurs when sellers don't buy shares to replace those they borrowed, a manipulative practice that can drive a company's stock price sharply lower. The stock certiticate plan has been put to a 30-day comment periodl Then the SEC would have to vote to adopt it. If adopted, Colby was quoted as saying that regulators might “sue firms that seek to impose restrictions on stock transfers.” The recent lawsuit filed by Nanopierce Technologies (OTCBB: NPCT) alleges that the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. has a lot of reasons, almost one billion of them a year, to keep illegal naked short selling in operation. It was the shot across the bow by the legendary Houston law firms of Christian, Smith, Wukoson and Jewell, and OQuinn, Laminack and Pirtle, whose notches already include environmental targets, the breast implant industry and the tobacco industry, all brought to their knees. In comments to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, C. Austin Burrell, who is providing litigation support and research for the law firms, said that StockGate is more massive than anyone may have imagined. “Illegal Naked Short Selling has stripped hundreds of billions, if not TRILLIONS, of dollars from American investors,” and have resulted in over 7,000 public companies having been “shorted out of existence over the past six years.” Burrell said some experts believe as much as $1 trillion to $3 trillion has been lost to this practice. He stated that the restrictions on short selling were deliberately put into the Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934 because of the first-hand evidence then available that the “sheer scale of the crashes was a direct result of intentional manipulation of US markets through abusive short selling by a massive conspiracy.” Burrell noted that the 65-lawyer team presided over by lead lawyers Wes Christian and John O’Quinn has uncovered more than 1,200 hedge fund and offshore accounts working through more than 150 broker-dealers and market makers in a joint cooperative effort to strip small and medium size public companies of their value. Recently the NASD and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved an interim naked short-selling band-aid, requiring U.S. brokers to make an “affirmative determination” that short-sellers, even foreign short-sellers, mostly Canadian, can find certificates to cover before processing the order. Last year, many besieged public companies sought refuge from the manipulation by seeking to exit the DTC, but on June 14, 2003, the SEC stated “the issues surrounding naked short selling are not germane to the manner in which DTC operates as a depository registered as a clearing agency. Decisions to engage in such transactions are made by parties other than DTC. DTC does not allow its participants to establish short positions resulting from their failure to deliver securities at settlement. While the Commission appreciates commenters' concerns about manipulative activity, those concerns must be addressed by other means.” The Nanopierce lawsuit, said to be the first of many out of the box, emphatically suggests otherwise. According to lawyer Christian, et.al., the DTC is at the very heart of the problem, and has almost a billion dollars a year at stake in keeping the problem. The Depository Trust Company (DTC) is a member of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, a limited-purpose trust company under New York State banking law and a registered clearing agency with the SEC. The depository supposedly brings efficiency to the securities industry by retaining custody of some 2 million securities issues, effectively "dematerializing" most of them so that they exist only as electronic files rather than as countless pieces of paper. The depository also provides the services necessary for the maintenance of the securities it has in “custody.” According to the suit, the DTCC has an enormous pecuniary and conflicted interest in the entire short selling scandal through the huge income stream they were realizing from it every day. They have made literally billions of dollars lending individual real shares, in most cases over and over, getting a fee each time they made a journal entry in the “Stock Borrow Program.” The Stock Borrow Program was purportedly set up to facilitate expedited clearance of stock trades. Somewhere along the line, the DTCC became aware that if it could lend a single share an unlimited number of times, it could collect a fee each time, according to Burrell. “There are numerous cases of a single share being lent ten or many more times,” giving rise to the complaint that the DTCC has been electronically counterfeiting just as was done via printed certificates before the Crash. “Such re-hypothecation has in effect made the potential ‘float’ in a single company's shares virtually unlimited and the term ‘float’ meaningless. Shares could be electronically created/counterfeited/kited without a registration statement being filed, and without the underlying company having any knowledge such shares are being sold or even in existence.” Burrell said the Christian/O’Quinn lawsuits will seek to show that the “counterfeiting/creation of unregistered shares is a specific violation of the Securities Act of 1933, barring the ‘Sale of Unregistered Securities’.” While the Nanopierce lawsuit has been filed at the state level, another companion lawsuit just heading to the courts on behalf of Exotics.com (OTC: EXII) will be argued at the Federal level. Nanopierce’s suit in the 2nd Judicial District Court in Nevada, is Case No. CV04-01079, alleges that the DTC’s “stock borrow program” was “purportedly created to address SHORT TERM delivery failures,” but that the “end result of the program has been to create tens of millions of unissued and unregistered shares to be traded in the public market,” and in some instances resulting in “two or more shareholders who purchase shares in separate transactions to own the same shares.” The complaint alleges that the DTC has a colossal disincentive to stop the “stock borrow” program, booking revenues from services of $425,416,000 and similarly, the NSCC deriving revenues of $293,133,000. Further, the suit alleges that “open positions” resulting from this activity at the close of business on December 31, 2003, “approximated $3,025,467,000” due to NSCC, and $2,303,717,000 due by NSCC, and unsettled positions of $721,750,000 for securities borrowed through the NSCC’s “Stock Borrow Program.” Nanopierce claims that DTCC and NSCC have joined in a “scheme” to “manipulate downward the price of the affected securities, thereby reducing the market value of the open fail to deliver positions.” The suit also claims that the defendants have permitted sellers to maintain open fail to deliver positions of tens of millions of shares for periods of a year and even longer. It quotes the National Association of Security Dealers as admitting that “concerns have been raised by members, issuers, investors and other interested parties about potentially abusive short selling activities occurring in the marketplace. In particular, naked short selling, or selling short without borrowing securities to make delivery, can result in long term failures to deliver, including aggregate failures to deliver that exceed the total float of a security. NASD believes such extended failures to deliver can have a negative effect on the market. Among other things, by not having to deliver securities, naked short sellers can take on larger short positions than would otherwise be permissible, which can facilitate manipulative activity.” Nanopierce claims that it had “relied on material misrepresentations and omissions by DTC and NSCC in trading its shares in the stock market “without knowledge of Defendants’ fraud-on-the market through statements they made about the clearing and settlement services they provided.” Further, it claims that the Defendants acted with “scienter” since they had a major financial financial motivation to falsely represent their services, which Nanopierce claims are also anticompetitive. The largely unregulated DTC has become something of a defacto Czar presiding over the entire U.S. markets system, wielding more day-to-day influence and control than the SEC, the NASD and NASDAQ combined. And, as the SEC’s June 14 ruling indicates, its monopoly over the electronic trading system appears even to be protected. The Depository Trust and Clearing Corp.’s two preferred shareholders are the New York Stock Exchange and the NASD, a regulatory agency that also owns the NASDAQ (OTCBB: NDAQ) and the embattled American Stock Exchange! Regulators, regulate thyself? In an era when corporate governance is the primary interest for the SEC and state regulators, the DTCC is hardly a role model. Its 21 directors represent a virtual litany of conflict: They include Bradley Abelow, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS); Jonathan E. Beyman, Chief Information Officer, Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH); Frank J. Bisignano, Chief Administrative Officer and Senior Executive Vice President, Citigroup / Solomon Smith Barney's Corporate Investment Bank (NYSE: C); Michael C. Bodson, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MWD); Gary Bullock, Global Head of Logistics, Infrastructure, UBS Investment Bank (NYSE: UBS); Stephen P. Casper, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, Inc.; Jill M. Considine,Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC); Also, Paul F. Costello, President, Business Services Group, Wachovia Securities (NYSE: WB); John W. Cummings, Senior Vice President & Head of Global Technology & Services, Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER); Donald F. Donahue, Chief Operating Officer, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC); Norman Eaker, General Partner, Edward Jones; George Hrabovsky, President, Alliance Global Investors Service; Catherine R. Kinney, President and Co-Chief Operating Officer, New York Stock Exchange; Thomas J. McCrossan, Executive Vice President, State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT); Eileen K. Murray, Managing Director, Credit Suisse First Boston (NYSE: CSR); James P. Palermo, Vice Chairman, Mellon Financial Corporation (NYSE: MEL); Thomas J. Perna, Senior Executive Vice President, Financial Companies Services Sector of The Bank of New York (NYSE: BNY); Ronald Purpora, Chief Executive Officer, Garban LLC; Douglas Shulman, President, Regulatory Services and Operations, NASD; and Thompson M. Swayne, Executive Vice President, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM). In their comments to the SEC regarding Regulation SHO in January, the 50 state regulators, through their association, the North American Association of Securities Administrators (NASAA) issued what many consider to be a strong warning that if the DTC is not dealt with in the final regulations, state regulators such as New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer may step to the plate. In what many considered to have been explosive comments, Ralph Lambiase, NASAA president and Director of the Connecticut Division of Securities, warned "NASAA urges the Commission to reconsider its stance regarding the role of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (the DTC). As a threshold matter, NASAA believes that the Commission should explicitly prohibit the DTC from lending more shares of a security than it actually holds. The ability of the overall proposed rule would be severely impared unless the Commission undertakes to implement such a prohibition.” As the Nanopierce lawsuit reveals, those were indeed strong words, meddling as it did, in a substantial revenues base for the DTCC. Recently, leading market makers and brokers named in various lawsuits and other actions, including FleetBoston (NYSE: FBF), Goldman, Sachs & Co. (NYSE: GS), H. Myerson & Co., Inc. (NASDAQ: MHMY), Olde / H&R Block (NYSE: HRB), Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCH), Toronto-Dominion’s (NYSE: TD), TD Waterhouse Group and vFinance, Inc. (OTCBB: VFIN). A.G. Edwards, Inc. (NYSE: AGE), Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: AMTD), Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB), and ETrade Group, Inc. (NYSE: ET), were forced to comply with new short-selling market regulations imposed by the NASD after the SEC had “sat on” the NASD request to plug material loopholes for almost 2-1/2 years. “The new rules expand the scope of the affirmative determination requirements to include orders received from broker/dealers that are not members of NASD ("non-member broker/dealers"). CSCO 23.43 -0.25 More Info: News, Chart, Profile, Quote ,Insider ,Options View Thread | Format For Printing | Email This Post Post Reply Post New Message > (Voluntary Disclosure: Position- Long; LT Rating- Strong Buy) |
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To The SEC: Why did you sit idly by while this scandal continued year after year? Why have the rules which could have put an end to this pillaging of America's wealth taken years to implement? When will you, as the so-called protector of the American investor, finally have the nerve to stand up and say "Enough!"? If you continue to sit on the sidelines while the financial markets are brought to ruin, then you are as guilty as those who actually committed the crimes. Do the right thing, and do it now! you POS (Voluntary Disclosure: Position- Long; LT Rating- Strong Buy) |
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Mark, Decaf. You definitely need decaf. You are going to bust a gasket if you aren't careful, and no one would want that, now, would they? Was waiting for you to raise your meanspirited head from the depths. If you ask really, really, really, really nicely, you may get ajoining accomadations! That's certainly something to which you can look forward! See ya. Wouldn't want to be ya! Hugs and kisses, C40 |
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Wilner's poor side? Dicke's money?
Eli made it happen? Hawkins time line? Beaume. You like to sound tough and
smart and claim you know what you are talking about. You are wrong! |