Author: Editor

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Paper: Analysis of Short Selling in Canada

Paper

Short Selling in Canada: Regulations are Weak and a New Path Forward is Needed to Reduce Systemic Risk 

Based on our research, it is clear that IIROC’s largely non-interventionist approach and its focus on maintaining liquidity have made Canadian companies attractive targets for short campaigns. From 2015 to 2018 there was an increase in the number of short campaigns in Canada, while generally in other jurisdictions there was a decrease. Additionally, the number of short campaigns in Canada is utterly disproportionate to the size of our capital markets when compared to the United States, the European Union and Australia (as examples). The reason for this seems clear: short selling regulations in Canada are out of step with regulations in those other jurisdictions – see Schedule A attached hereto. As a result of inherent weaknesses in the Canadian short sale regulatory regime, short sellers may well be attracted to the Canadian capital markets.

PDF (164 Pages): Paper Analysis of the Short Selling Landscape of Canada

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Article: Tower Research Capital pays $67m to settle spoofing charges

Article - Media

Tower Research Capital pays $67m to settle spoofing charges

Kadhim Shubber in Washington

Financial Times

Tower Research Capital in $67M settlement for spoofing futures. High-frequency trading firm Tower Research Capital will pay $67.4 million to settle allegations of spoofing by three former traders, the largest settlement to date associated with the illegal activity.

Full text at News.Law.

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Article: Fraser Perring: Chronicles of Deceit, Part I

Article - Media

Fraser Perring: Chronicles of Deceit, Part I

Roddy Boyd

Foundation for Financial Journalism, 4 November 2019

Forty-six-year-old Fraser Perring, a resident of Lincoln, England, founded and runs Viceroy Research with two other analysts. Their investigations of what they claim are misleading corporate disclosures or flawed business models have regularly sent the stock prices of their targets spiraling downward.

But as revealed by a seven-month investigation by the Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation, Perring is a charlatan of the first order, with a brazen multiyear record of personal and professional deceit. It makes one wonder, If Perring is fudging the truth to reporters about houses and cars, what else is he not on the level about? A lot, it turns out.

The first part of this investigation lays out Perring’s erratic and troubling conduct, including some dubious methods to generate interest for his research on stock message boards and his impersonating a well-known hedge fund manager. Part two will examine the real forces backing and benefiting the business model of Perring and many other activist short sellers.

 

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Article: Racketeering Law Makes Its Return to Wall Street

Article - Media

Racketeering Law Makes Its Return to Wall Street

Peter J. Henning

The New York Times 24 October 2019

Prosecutors have not brought a case under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, against Wall Street traders since the investment firm Princeton Newport Partners was indicted in the mid-1980s. The RICO charges filed recently against three traders at JPMorgan Chase indicate that prosecutors may be resurrecting the law to target white-collar defendants.

Prosecutors accused Michael Nowak, who was the head of precious metals trading at the bank, along with Gregg Smith and Christopher Jordan, of organizing the precious metals desk as a RICO enterprise to engage in “spoofing,” as well as wire and bank fraud in which JPMorgan and its customers were the victims

“Spoofing,” which was made a crime by the Dodd-Frank Act, happens when traders are “bidding or offering with the intent to cancel the bid or offer before execution.”

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Article: Wirecard’s suspect accounting practices revealed

Article - Media

Wirecard’s suspect accounting practices revealed

Dan McCrum

Financial Times, 15 October 2019

FT Investigation: internal documents from the payments company point to a concerted effort to fraudulently inflate sales and profits

Comment: Dan McCrum is strongly suspected of being a shill for naked short sellers, and appears to be one of several journalists — others work for the Wall Street Journal — who routinely bash companies to further illegal naked short selling campaign.  He should be deeply investigated.

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Article: Former Overstock CEO Explains by Charles Gasparino and Lydia Moynihan

Article - Media

Fmr. Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne wants to explain controversial exit, stock sale and predicts more deep state revelations

According to Byrne, his departure and stock sale are unrelated to his FBI activities or what he has described as a romantic tryst with an alleged Russian spy, Maria Butina, though he says those matters will become a huge story sometime soon. Byrne in his interview with FOX Business said he didn’t want to dwell on spycraft (“I’m supposed to be keeping quiet [on] all that political stuff,” he said), adding cryptically that the full story “will break this year and it will be 100 times bigger than Watergate … it’s political fraud conducted by the deep state against the republic, against Democrats and Republicans … I was asked to set up Hillary Clinton,” all of which he declined to elaborate on.

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Article: JPMorgan’s Metals Desk Was a Criminal Enterprise, U.S. Says

Article - Media

JPMorgan’s Metals Desk Was a Criminal Enterprise, U.S. Says

By and

Bloomberg

  • U.S. invokes racketeering law in charging three metals traders
  • RICO statute is rarely used in cases involving big banks

The head of the bank’s global precious metals desk, Michael Nowak, 45, and two others ripped off market participants and even clients as they illegally moved prices for gold, silver, platinum and palladium, the Justice Department said Monday. Nowak was placed on leave last month, a person familiar with the matter has said. The other traders charged were Gregg Smith, 55 and Christopher Jordan, 47.

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Article: Another ex-JPMorgan precious metals trader pleads guilty to ‘spoofing,’ is cooperating with Feds

Article - Media

Another ex-JP Morgan precious metals trader pleads guilty to ‘spoofing,’ is cooperating with Feds

Dawn Giel

CNBC, 26 August 2019

Key Points
  • A former J.P. Morgan precious metals traders pleaded guilty Tuesday to criminal charges of manipulating the precious metals markets for nine years.
  • Christian Trunz, 34, of London is cooperating with an ongoing federal criminal investigation.
  • The Justice Department is conducting multiple criminal investigations into big banks with the cooperation of traders who have pleaded guilty to spoofing-related crimes.
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Article: FT calls in law firm to review its reporting on Wirecard of alleged accounting fraud at Singapore office

Article - Media

FT calls in law firm to review its reporting on Wirecard of alleged accounting fraud at Singapore office

Straits Times (Singapore), 24 July 2019

Editor Lionel Barber called in London-based law firm RPC after the Handelsblatt daily reported at the weekend that Wirecard had given evidence to German prosecutors alleging collusion between short sellers and employees of the Financial Times.

Comment: Use the tag cloud to see other stories featuring Dan McCrum, the journalists alleged to be in collusion with naked short sellers.

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Article: FT calls in law firm to review reporting on Wirecard

Article - Media

FT calls in law firm to review reporting on Wirecard

Reuters, 23 July 2019

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The Financial Times has hired a law firm to review its investigations into German payments company Wirecard (WDIG.DE), which has sued the newspaper over a series of reports alleging accounting irregularities.

The FT’s reporting, citing a whistleblower’s claims of fraud and creative accounting at Wirecard’s Singapore office, wiped up to $10 billion off Wirecard’s market value and triggered a police investigation in the Asian state.

Wirecard denies the allegations and has filed a suit at the Munich regional court against both the FT and its lead reporter on the stories, Dan McCrum, seeking a ruling on the merits of its case. If successful, the company would then press for financial redress.

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Article: Online Attackers Called Us ‘Canada’s Madoff,’ Lawsuit Alleges

Article - Media

Online Attackers Called Us ‘Canada’s Madoff,’ Lawsuit Alleges

Amanda Cantrell

Institutional Investor, 18 June 2019

Secret Dropbox folders, a negative Twitter campaign, and an exclusive dinner for short-selling “conspirators” are all tactics alleged by Canadian private equity firm Catalyst Capital Group against rival firm West Face Capital and a slew of other defendants, according to the latest filing in a long-running legal campaign.

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Article: Citron’s Andrew Left slams Jumia as a ‘fraud,’ accuses company of ‘financial colonialism’ in latest video

Article - Media

Citron’s Andrew Left slams Jumia as a ‘fraud,’ accuses company of ‘financial colonialism’ in latest video

Tonya Garcia

MarketWatch, 29 May 2019

Citron Research’s Andrew Left, a noted short seller, is once again slamming Jumia Technologies AG as a “fraud,” this time in a video that includes footage of what he says are former employees who accuse the company of placing fake orders.

Comment:  Down from $36 to $3 based on a naked short selling campaign apparently led by Andrew Left.

THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?