Formerly senior vice president and general counsel for Overstock.com, Griffin has been responsible for the strategic direction and operational effectiveness of the legal team. Under his direction, the legal department has repeatedly seen success in fighting high-profile patent troll suits, and in working with the U.S. Congress, regulatory agencies and state legislatures on key legislation and regulatory matters, affecting the retail sector and public companies. Griffin’s new position will expand his responsibilities in these and other areas.
Article: Currency trading scandals are the next big black eye for banks
Article - MediaCurrency trading scandals are the next big black eye for banks
Mark DeCambre, Jason Karaian
Quartz, 5 February 2014
These days, it doesn’t take much digging to find potentially scandalous behavior coursing through the world’s biggest banks. But the latest round of probes into currency trading are shaping up to be a real doozy.
Already more than 20 traders, which make money for their firms by betting on currencies’ shifting values, have left or been placed on leave by their employers. These banks and traders have not been accused of wrongdoing, but their departures send a message that something is amiss in currency trading.
Article: Florida state professors settle naked short-selling case
Article - Media, PublicationsFlorida state professors settle naked short-selling case
Sarah N. Lynch, 01 February 2014
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two Florida State University professors who specialize in financial markets and physics will pay more than $670,000 to settle civil charges that they carried out an illegal short-selling scheme using an elaborate options strategy, U.S. regulators said on Friday.
Gonul Colak and Milen Kostov settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission without admitting or denying the charges. Continue reading “Article: Florida state professors settle naked short-selling case”
Article: Naked Gold Shorts: The Hows and Whys of Gold Price Manipulation
Article - MediaNaked Gold Shorts: The Hows and Whys of Gold Price Manipulation
Commodity Trade Mantra, 20 January 2014
The deregulation of the financial system during the Clinton and George W. Bush regimes had the predictable result: financial concentration and reckless behavior. A handful of banks grew so large that financial authorities declared them “too big to fail.” Removed from market discipline, the banks became wards of the government requiring massive creation of new money by the Federal Reserve in order to support through the policy of Quantitative Easing the prices of financial instruments on the banks’ balance sheets and in order to finance at low interest rates trillion dollar federal budget deficits associated with the long recession caused by the financial crisis.
Article: Social Rejection?: Hedgie Steve Cohen Wants Out of East Hampton
Article - Media, PublicationsSocial Rejection?: Hedgie Steve Cohen Wants Out of East Hampton
Smashmouth Investigative Journalism, 17 January 2014
The world’s most infamous trader wants to get out of East Hampton, NY. Yesterday I reported for the New York Observer that Stevie Cohen, of SAC Capital, is trying to broker a private deal to sell a $60 million ocean front home he bought less than a year ago. His reasoning, according to a person on the deal, is East Hampton is ‘too Jewish’ and he has instructed people to start looking for another home in other Hampton enclaves.
This one real estate transaction has fueled a social media debate about what he’s really doing. Having lived and worked among Cohen-ites and his SAC Captial traders for the last decade out in Connecticut’s gold coast I don’t think his comment is a signal of anything anti-Jewish. Instead I believe it shows his social network could be failing since the hedge fund he founded plead guilty to supporting a culture of massive inside trading. Continue reading “Article: Social Rejection?: Hedgie Steve Cohen Wants Out of East Hampton”
Article: CGI inks $14.5 million with government, moves futher into B.C.
Article - Media, PublicationsCGI inks $14.5 million with government, moves futher into B.C.
Rebecca Reid, 15 January 2014
It’s been a week of contracts and acquisitions for Montreal-based CGI Group Inc., as the company snagged a big deal with a federal government department and expanded its presence in B.C. with a buy. Continue reading “Article: CGI inks $14.5 million with government, moves futher into B.C.”
Article: Canada watchdog accuses Silvercorp short seller of fraud
Article - Media, PublicationsCanada watchdog accuses Silvercorp short seller of fraud
Cecilia Jamasmie, 20 December 2013
Canada’s British Columbia’s provincial securities regulator has accused hedge fund manager Jon Richard Carnes of fraud committed by writing a false negative report in 2011 about Silvercorp Metals Inc. (TSX, NYSE: SVM) to profit from its falling share price. According to BC Securities Commission, Carnes —who operates the Alfred Little financial blog— began writing negative reports about companies that traded on a North American exchange and operated in China in 2010. The body alleges he sought to profit from his negative reports by shorting—or betting against—the issuer’s securities before publishing the reports, and then covering his short position after the share price dropped in response.
Continue reading “Article: Canada watchdog accuses Silvercorp short seller of fraud”
Article: Canada Regulator Accuses Silvercorp Short Seller of Fraud
Article - Media, PublicationsCanada Regulator Accuses Silvercorp Short Seller of Fraud
Karen Johnson, 19 December 2013
TORONTO—British Columbia’s provincial securities regulator accused hedge fund manager Jon Richard Carnes of fraud when he wrote negative reports about Silvercorp Metals Inc. to profit from its falling share price.
In a statement Thursday, the British Columbia Securities Commission said starting in 2010, Mr. Carnes, who operates the “Alfred Little” financial blog, wrote negative reports about companies that traded on a North American exchange and operated in China. It alleges he sought to profit from his negative reports by shorting—or betting against—the issuer’s securities before publishing the reports, and then covering his short position after the share price dropped in response.
Continue reading “Article: Canada Regulator Accuses Silvercorp Short Seller of Fraud”
Article: SEC accuses Cohen of missing insider trading red flags
Article - Media, PublicationsSEC accuses Cohen of missing insider trading red flags
gcrawford, 18 December 2013
Steven A. Cohen, the billionaire founder of hedge-fund firm SAC Capital Advisors LP, was accused by U.S. regulators of failing to supervise two employees facing criminal charges that they illegally traded stocks based on confidential information.
Cohen received highly suspicious information that should have caused any reasonable hedge-fund manager to investigate the basis for trades made by Mathew Martoma and Michael Steinberg, the SEC said in an administrative proceeding filed today. Cohen ignored red flags and allowed illegal trades that earned profits and avoided losses of more than $275 million, the SEC said.
Continue reading “Article: SEC accuses Cohen of missing insider trading red flags”
Article: 49 Russian Diplomats and Spouses Charged with Medicaid Fraud, But Diplomatic Immunity Bars Their Arrest
Article - Media, PublicationsSteven A. Meyerowitz, 06 Decembet 2013
A total of 49 current or former Russian diplomats and their spouses have been charged by U.S. prosecutors with participating in a widespread health care fraud scheme from 2004 to August 2013 to illegally obtain nearly half a million dollars in Medicaid benefits. Not one of the people charged was arrested, because of diplomatic immunity.
Each of the defendants is a current or former Russian diplomat or the spouse of a diplomat employed at either the Russian Mission to the United Nations, the Russian Federation Consulate General in New York, or the Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in the USA, New York Office. Continue reading “Article: 49 Russian Diplomats and Spouses Charged with Medicaid Fraud, But Diplomatic Immunity Bars Their Arrest”
Article: Man jailed for computer fraud of over €300,000
Article - Media, PublicationsMan jailed for computer fraud of over €300,000
Barry Roche, 26 November 2013
A man has been jailed for five years after he pleaded guilty to computer fraud offences involving the theft of more than €300,000 from a multinational company within months of starting work for the firm.
Dadibaku Ngkupumu (47), McWilliam Green, Fortunestown, Tallaght, Dublin, a Congolese national, pleaded guilty to 17 fraud offences from Avery Dennison at Cork Airport Business Park between November 2012 and January 2013.
At Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, Judge David Riordan described it as “classic case of white-collar crime” by Ngkupumu.
Det Garda Aonghus Cotter told how Ngkupumu had diverted €336,819.27 from Avery Dennison to fake bank accounts set up in Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.
He also attempted to transfer a further €304,188.04 to the same fake bank accounts in another series of transactions while working in Avery Dennison’s financial payments section.
Continue reading “Article: Man jailed for computer fraud of over €300,000”
Article: Hedge fund giant SAC Capital to pay $1.8B penalty
Article - Media, PublicationsHedge fund giant SAC Capital to pay $1.8B penalty
LARRY NEUMEISTER, 05 November 2013
SAC Capital Advisors will plead guilty to criminal fraud charges, stop investing money for others and pay $1.8 billion — the largest financial penalty in history for insider trading — to resolve criminal and civil claims against the hedge fund giant, the government announced Monday.
The government said in a letter to judges presiding over Manhattan cases that the “proposed global resolution” of the criminal and civil cases against SAC Capital Advisors and related companies also includes an agreement that SAC will cease operating as an investment adviser and will not accept any additional funds from third-party investors. Continue reading “Article: Hedge fund giant SAC Capital to pay $1.8B penalty”
Article: Steve Cohen Unclear On Insider Trading Rules In 2011 Deposition
Article - Media, PublicationsSteve Cohen Unclear On Insider Trading Rules In 2011 Deposition
Matthew Zeitlin, 06 November 2013
Steven A. Cohen’s hedge fund SAC capital will pay $1.8 billion fines for violating laws that Cohen once described as “very vague.”
SAC Capital, plead guilty Monday to five counts of wire and securities fraud in what U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara described as insider trading “on a scale without any known precedent in the history of hedge funds.” The fund agreed to pay $1.2 billion in penalties to settle the charges in addition to over $600 million SAC paid in a SEC settlement in March and to shut down its investing of outside money. Continue reading “Article: Steve Cohen Unclear On Insider Trading Rules In 2011 Deposition”
Article: Steve Cohen On Tape: The Scorecard
Article - Media, PublicationsSteve Cohen On Tape: The Scorecard
BESS LEVIN, 06 November 2013
Several years back, SAC Capital manager Steve Cohen sat for two days of deposition as part of a lawsuit filed by Canadian insurer Fairfax Financial filed against a group of hedge funds that included SAC. At one point, Cohen was questioned about insider trading, his fund’s policy on insider trading, and his personal views on insider trading, as reported by Reuters at the time the transcripts were unsealed. Continue reading “Article: Steve Cohen On Tape: The Scorecard”
Article: Exclusive: Watch Billionaire Steven Cohen Stumble Over Insider Trading Rules
Article - Media, Publications
Exclusive: Watch Billionaire Steven Cohen Stumble Over Insider Trading Rules
Rain Media and PBS FRONTLINE have obtained a never-before-published video in which hedge fund titan Steven A. Cohen.
Whose firm this week pleaded guilty to securities fraud, describes federal securities laws as “vague,” and asks for an explanation of the basic Securities and Exchange Commission rule that prohibits insider trading.
