Category: Publications

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Article: Why I Will Never Buy Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, HSBC Holdings plc And Standard Chartered PLC

Article - Media, Publications

Why I Will Never Buy Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, HSBC Holdings plc And Standard Chartered PLC

Rupert Hargreaves, 10 November 2014

The godfather of value investing, Benjamin Graham, made it quite clear that the process of investing is nothing like speculation: “An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and a satisfactory return.” On the other hand, speculation is more akin to gambling, with no return guaranteed.

With this in mind, it’s easy to arrive at the conclusion that banks, which rely on leverage and trading to make a living, can never be deemed true ‘investments’ due to the speculative nature of their businesses. And this is the reason why I’m staying away from banks like Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS), HSBC (LSE: HSBA) and Standard Chartered (LSE: STAN). Continue reading “Article: Why I Will Never Buy Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, HSBC Holdings plc And Standard Chartered PLC”

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Article: ARBUTUS BIOPHARMA (F.K.A TEKMIRA PHARMACEUTICALS) – GLAUCUS RESEARCH

Article - Media, Publications

ARBUTUS BIOPHARMA (F.K.A TEKMIRA PHARMACEUTICALS) – GLAUCUS RESEARCH

Bonitas Research, 10 November 2014

Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp (NASDAQ: TKMR) (“Tekmira” or the “Company”) is a Vancouver-based biopharmaceutical
company focused on developing RNA-interference (“RNAi”) delivery technology using the Company’s proprietary lipid
nanoparticle (“LNP”) delivery platform. In the last three months, Tekmira’s share price has nearly doubled because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) temporarily lifted a clinical hold on the Company’s anti-Ebola RNAi therapeutic (“TKM Ebola”) to allow the drug’s administration to Ebola infected patients in emergency situations. Continue reading “Article: ARBUTUS BIOPHARMA (F.K.A TEKMIRA PHARMACEUTICALS) – GLAUCUS RESEARCH”

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Article: $50K wrapped in newspaper, computer with 2 hard drives, diamonds hidden in toothpaste tube: Trial of former UBS executive dredges up Swiss banks’ shady past

Article - Media

$50K wrapped in newspaper, computer with 2 hard drives, diamonds hidden in toothpaste tube: Trial of former UBS executive dredges up Swiss banks’ shady past

Reuters, 3 November 2014

From bundles of cash inside scraps of newspaper to setting up shell companies, the trial in Florida of a former UBS executive is a reminder of the extreme methods some Swiss bankers used to hide clients’ cash.

Raoul Weil, 54, is the highest ranking Swiss banker to be arrested in the United States and prosecutors are seeking to paint him as a facilitator of efforts that helped conceal up to US$20 billion in taxpayers’ assets in secret offshore accounts.

Read full article.

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Article: FINRA Fines Merrill Lynch $6 Mln for Failing to Prevent Naked Short Selling

Article - Media, Publications

FINRA Fines Merrill Lynch $6 Mln for Failing to Prevent Naked Short Selling

Victor Golovtchenk, 28 October 2014

According to an announcement by the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), U.S. bank Merrill Lynch’s Professional Clearing Corp. (Merrill Lynch PRO) got fined $3.5 million for violating Regulation SHO. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) implemented this rule in 2005 to prevent the conducting of a practice called naked short selling.

Merrill Lynch’s affiliated broker-dealer Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (Merrill Lynch) has also been fined $2.5 million for failing to establish, maintain and enforce supervisory systems and procedures related to Regulation SHO and other areas, according to the FINRA announcement. Continue reading “Article: FINRA Fines Merrill Lynch $6 Mln for Failing to Prevent Naked Short Selling”

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Filing: FINRA v Merrill Lynch

Filing

FINRA v Merrill Lynch

27 October 2014

Between approximately July 1, 2008 through July 2012, MLPRO failed to establish, maintain and enforce adequate supervisory systems and procedures, including in some instances written supervisory procedures, that were reasonably designed to ensure compliance with applicable securities laws and regulations including Regulation SHO, the 2008 Emergency Orders issued by the SEC and anti-money laundering requirements.

PDF (20 pages): FINRA v Merrill Lynch

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Article: The Rosen Law Firm Announces Investigation of Securities Fraud Claims Against iBio, Inc. – IBIO

Article - Media, Publications

The Rosen Law Firm Announces Investigation of Securities Fraud Claims Against iBio, Inc. – IBIO

Business Wire, 24 October 2014

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. announces that it is investigating potential securities fraud claims against iBio, Inc. (NYSE: IBIO).

On October 9, 2014, the Washington Post reported that the manufacturer of the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp was seeking additional production capacity from Caliber Biotherapeutics (“Caliber”). On October 16, 2014, iBio issued a press release titled “iBio Responds to Inquiries About its Role in Emergency Response to Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak”, which (among other things) “confirmed [] the applicability of its issued U.S. iBio Launch platform patents and related proprietary technology to further development and production of antibodies that target the Ebola virus” and that it had been working with Caliber. iBio further “offered to assist the U.S. government by making its proprietary technology available [to] address the current Ebola virus outbreak”.
Continue reading “Article: The Rosen Law Firm Announces Investigation of Securities Fraud Claims Against iBio, Inc. – IBIO”

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Article: The Truth Hidden by IBM’s Buybacks

Article - Media, Publications

The Truth Hidden by IBM’s Buybacks

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, 20 October 2014

For many years, the International Business Machines Corporation’s earnings glided smoothly upward. Every quarter, IBM would report higher earnings per share. Even Warren Buffett invested in the company, disregarding his long-held aversion to technology companies as too challenging to forecast.

Virginia M. Rometty, IBM’s chief executive — and recently anointed the most powerful woman in business by Fortune magazine — has talked a good game about focusing on “shareholder value.” For the first several years of her tenure, she managed to prop up the stock by buying back shares by the cartload. In the first six months of this year, the company spent more than $12 billion — that’s billion with a “b” — on its own shares. She’s also been sending shareholders thank-you presents in the form of large dividends.
Continue reading “Article: The Truth Hidden by IBM’s Buybacks”

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Article: STEVE COHEN’S RIGHT-HAND MAN MAKES SURPRISE EXIT FROM FAMILY OFFICE

Article - Media, Publications

STEVE COHEN’S RIGHT-HAND MAN MAKES SURPRISE EXIT FROM FAMILY OFFICE

MICHAEL FINNIGAN, 19 August 2014

Thomas Conheeney, the long-serving president of Steven A Cohen’s hedge fund SAC Capital, which pleaded guilty to insider trading last year, has stepped down from the organisation, less than a year after it converted to a family office. Conheeney, 50, will be replaced by Douglas Haynes, 48, a former director at consultancy firm McKinsey & Co, but will remain on in an advisory role until the end of the year.

Cohen said in a statement that he had worked with Haynes for several years on the board of New York poverty action charity the Robin Hood Foundation and was impressed by his work there so asked him to head his family office. Continue reading “Article: STEVE COHEN’S RIGHT-HAND MAN MAKES SURPRISE EXIT FROM FAMILY OFFICE”

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Article: Criminal investigation into possible price rigging in London foreign exchange market

Article - Media, Publications

Criminal investigation into possible price rigging in London foreign exchange market

Merco Press, 22 July 2014

The United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has launched a criminal investigation into allegations of price rigging in the £3tn-a-day foreign exchange market. The probe will look into allegations of “fraudulent conduct”, the director of the SFO said in a statement.

Around 15 international agencies are investigating allegations of collusion and price manipulation. It is alleged that traders used online chat-rooms to plan the fixing of benchmark prices.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said in October it had joined other regulators around the world in scrutinizing firms over the potential manipulation of the foreign exchange market.

Several investment banks, including Barclays and HSBC have already suspended currency traders due to the investigation by the FCA. And in March this year the Bank of England suspended one member of staff over the probe.

At the time the head of the Financial Conduct Authority, Martin Wheatley, said that currency manipulation was “every bit as bad” as the Libor scandal, where banks including Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS paid fines totaling 6bn dollars relating to Libor fixing.

For the criminal probe the SFO will work in co-operation with the FCA and the US Department of Justice, which announced its own criminal investigation last October.

Earlier this year US prosecutors flew to London to question individuals over allegations of market manipulation.

The Serious Fraud Office is an independent UK government department responsible for investigating and prosecuting serious and complex fraud, bribery and corruption. It is headed by the Director, David Green CB QC, who exercises powers under the superintendence of the Attorney General. These powers are derived from the Criminal Justice Act 1987.

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Fined: Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P. Fined by FINRA (July 2014)

Article - Media, Fined

FINRA Fines Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P. $800,000 for Failing to Prevent Trade-Throughs in its Alternative Trading System

Michelle Ong, Nancy Condon

FINRA, 1 July 2014

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that it has fined Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P. $800,000 for failing to have reasonably designed written policies and procedures in place to prevent trade-throughs of protected quotations in NMS stocks from November 2008 through August 2011 in connection with trading in its proprietary alternative trading system, SIGMA-X.

Read full report.

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Article: How to Explain the Number of Financial Crimes on Wall Street

Article - Media, Publications

How to Explain the Number of Financial Crimes on Wall Street

Robert Lenzner, 17 June 2021

I ask everyone how to explain the stunning number of financial crimes we have witnessed the last several years and never get an adequate clear answer. The reason: it’s not easy to grasp why Bank of America , Citigroup , BNP-Paribas, UBS , Credit Suisse, JP Morgan Chase and a bevy of giant hedge funds are sweating their way through the demand for fines in the tens of billions or potential jail sentences as long as decades.

One reason it’s hard is that prosecution of the crimes comes so many years later than the crimes themselves. It’s hard to contemplate so many banks of marketing garbage mortgages, or laundering money for Iran, Sudan, and other rogue nations or radical groups, or secret bank accounts in Switzerland. The cops on the beat take much more time to act than the actual crimes took. Continue reading “Article: How to Explain the Number of Financial Crimes on Wall Street”

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Article: Osborne to target foreign exchange manipulation in City clean-up

Article - Media, Publications

Osborne to target foreign exchange manipulation in City clean-up

Kamal Ahmed, 02 June 2014

The obscure and complicated foreign exchange market is to be the next target of Treasury action, I have been told.

The chancellor is working with Whitehall officials and the international Financial Stability Board (FSB) on new regulations which will be imposed on the market. At the moment, foreign exchange (known in City shorthand as “forex”) is largely unregulated and left to the bank traders who execute deals on behalf of global companies. Companies use forex deals to move money between different currencies and a large part of the market is dealt through London.

One senior official I have spoken to agreed that the public would be “very surprised” that such a major market was clearly open to abuse. The Treasury is likely to announce a set of measures to “clean up the market”, probably in the next fortnight.

The prices in forex are set by traders who are doing the deals. Traders are able to pick a selection of the trades they have been asked to execute, meaning they can choose those most advantageous to their bank. The prices are set at the 4pm “fix”, a daily City benchmark against which currencies are priced. I have written a short “How It Works” at the end of this blog on the allegation that forex is manipulated.

Regulators around the world including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in London and the US Department of Justice are investigating allegations of forex manipulation. It has been reported that at least 15 banks are involved and nine are thought to have suspended or fired traders. No allegations have been proved and no admissions of fault made.

Martin Wheatley, the head of the FCA, said the allegations, if substantiated, could be “every bit as bad as Libor”, referring to the revelations three years ago that the market which governs how banks lend to each other was regularly fixed.

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Article: The Taming of the Trading Monster

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The Taming of the Trading Monster

Even billionaires have feelings,” Alexandra Cohen had taken to saying. Her husband, Steve Cohen, is the billionaire in question. He’s one of the most successful hedge-fund managers in history—“the Michael Jordan of trading,” in the words of one Wall Street observer.

He’d built SAC Capital Advisors into one of the most profitable hedge funds in the world while amassing a net worth estimated at $11 billion.

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THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?