June 2016 – Financial Treason & Crime

Peter Koven, 29 June 2016

Gold miner Asanko Gold Inc. has come under attack from a Toronto-based hedge fund that claims its stock price could plunge 90 per cent. The main allegation from K2 & Associates Investment Management Inc. is that Asanko’s gold resources “don’t add up” and appear to be over-inflated by a factor of two. K2 has a short position in Asanko, and in the grand tradition of short sellers, the hedge fund published its report on the company on a public website, allowing anyone to download it.

The strategy is reminiscent of previous short-seller attacks on Chinese-Canadian firms Sino-Forest Corp. and Silvercorp Metals Inc., which were highly effective in driving down the stock prices of the targets. However, this short report only had a minor impact. Asanko shares dropped five per cent on Wednesday, closing at $5.17 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

“We thought it was important for our work and opinions to be entered into the public conversation,” K2 founder Shawn Kimel said in an emailed response to questions. He noted at least nine other groups are publishing opinions on Asanko and that it is the largest short position in K2’s precious metals portfolio.
Continue reading “Article: Hedge fund claims 90% downside potential at Asanko Gold”

06/23/201605/08/2020

Filing: SEC v Merrill Lynch

Filing

SEC v Merrill Lynch

23 June 2016

Broker-dealers are required to be diligent stewards of the cash and securities entrusted to them by their customers. This basic principle is embodied in Exchange Act Rule 15c3-3, known as the Customer Protection Rule (“Rule”). The Rule requires broker-dealers to safeguard both the cash and securities of their customers so that customer assets can be quickly returned if the firm fails. In broad strokes, a broker-dealer cannot use customer assets to finance the business activities of the firm, and it cannot place customer assets in locations or accounts that make them vulnerable to claims made against the broker-dealer by third parties.

PDF (23 pages): SEC v Merrill Lynch

06/23/201605/18/2020

Article: Credit Suisse Tries to Overhaul Its Image, but Problems Remain

Article - Media

Credit Suisse Tries to Overhaul Its Image, but Problems Remain

William D. Cohan

New York Times, 23 June 2016

Wall Street’s efforts to overhaul its culture since the 2008 financial crisis that nearly bankrupted the world’s economy have not been a resounding success, despite calls by prominent regulators to stop rewarding bad behavior.

William C. Dudley, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and one of Wall Street’s most important overseers, has twice held closed-door sessions at the bank, located in downtown Manhattan, to urge top banking executives to overhaul the behavior inside their companies. His goal has been to get bankers to think about what they should do instead of what they can do and get away with.

Read full article.

06/13/201605/18/2020

Article: FINRA Fines Morgan Stanley $80,000 for Supervisory Failures, Deletion of 21k OTC Options Positions

Article - Media

FINRA Fines Morgan Stanley $80,000 for Supervisory Failures, Deletion of 21k OTC Options Positions

Michael Edmiston

Stock Law, 13 June 2016

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC received a censure and $80,000 fine after a FINRA investigation determined the firm improperly deleted 21,374 over-the-counter (OTC) options positions required to be reported to the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)’s LOPR system, thereby rendering the LOPR data inaccurate.

FINRA wrote that, “The accuracy of LOPR data is essential for the analysis of various potential violations, including insider trading, position limits, exercise limits, front-running, capping and pegging, mini-manipulation, and marking-the-close.” The identification process assists regulators in identifying potential market manipulation by users who hold large options positions, such that deleting such information may adversely affect the industry’s ability to detect such violations.

Read full article.

06/12/201605/18/2020

Article: SESC Proposes $1.9m Fine for Morgan Stanley MUFG over Market Manipulation

Article - Media

SESC Proposes $1.9m Fine for Morgan Stanley MUFG over Market Manipulation

Finance Magnates, 12 June 2016

Japan’s financial market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC), today recommended fining Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities for alleged market manipulation related to shares of railway operator, Seibu Holdings, according to a Reuters report.

SESC has recommended that the Financial Services Agency (FSA) imposes a penalty of ¥220 million ($1.9 million), as revealed in a statement posted on its website.

Read full article.

06/11/201603/04/2021

Article: How Steven Cohen Built, and Almost Lost, His $12.7 Billion Net Worth

Article - Media, Publications

How Steven Cohen Built, and Almost Lost, His $12.7 Billion Net Worth

Kay Jenkins, 11 June 2016

Steven A Cohen has a net worth of $12.7 billion, a figure that grew from a relatively small $25 million seed investment into his hedge fund, SAC Capital, in 1992. The firm was wildly successful in the 1990s and 2000s, minting billions for Cohen and his investors until an SEC investigation into insider trading effectively shuttered the firm in 2012.

Cohen may have fallen from grace, but that doesn’t mean he’s out of the game forever. In fact, some think he just may be getting started. Continue reading “Article: How Steven Cohen Built, and Almost Lost, His $12.7 Billion Net Worth”

06/03/201605/19/2020

Article: Ban offshore banks with account secrecy from US correspondent accounts: Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz

Article - Media

Ban offshore banks with account secrecy from US correspondent accounts: Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz

Lucy Komisar

The Komisar Scoop, 3 June 2016

Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel prize-winning former chief economist of the World Bank, says that the way to solve corruption and money-laundering facilitated by offshore banks that run secret accounts is to “shut them down.” And the way to do that is to ban non-transparent banks from US correspondent accounts. He spoke at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting today.

Read full article.

06/03/201605/12/2020

Article: Immunomedics Kicked Out of Prestigious ASCO Cancer Conference

Article - Media

Immunomedics Kicked Out of Prestigious ASCO Cancer Conference

Adam Feuerstein

TheStreet, 3 June 2016

Immunomedics (IMMU) – Get Report was caught trying to sneak old, previously presented clinical data on its triple-negative breast cancer drug IMMU-132 into the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, which starts Friday.

Read full article.

Comment: Complete fraud. Stock went from $5.50 to $2.50 on millions of shares, then up to $27.

06/02/201603/11/2021

Article: Russian Police Bust Alleged Bank Malware Gang

Article - Media, Publications

Russian Police Bust Alleged Bank Malware Gang

Mathew J. Schwartz, 02 June 2016

Russian authorities have arrested about 50 people in connection with an ongoing investigation into a hacker group that’s suspected of unleashing malware-enabled hack attacks against customers of major Russian financial institutions. Continue reading “Article: Russian Police Bust Alleged Bank Malware Gang”

06/02/201603/18/2021

Article: The Deutsche Bank gold manipulation scandal

Article - Media, Publications

The Deutsche Bank gold manipulation scandal

Leonard Melmano, 02 June 2016

Sophisticated British criminals exploited vulnerabilities in Australia’s search engine and cryptocurrency infrastructure to dupe small investors, lured by the promise of high-yield funds badged by some of the finance world’s most trusted brands.

The complex scheme involved stolen identities and fraudulent prospectuses that claimed to represent high-yield investment funds run by global managers Citibank, Nomura, and IFM Investors. It has ensnared millions from unsuspecting victims who sought better returns as interest rates collapsed during the COVID-19 crisis. Continue reading “Article: The Deutsche Bank gold manipulation scandal”