Foreign Collusion, Naked Shorting (Counterfeiting) & Money Laundering — All Illicit Wealth
Securities Lending Times, 20 August 2013
“Abusive”, “like a form of terrorism” and “funny paper”are three descriptions of naked short selling, given by the Securities and Exchange Committee, a life insurance company CEO, and broker-dealer Jeffrey Wolfson, respectively.
They do not do much to dispel the belief of naked shorting as a practice that is even worse than selling a borrowed security, only to buy it back at a lower price—what we know as covered short selling.
JPMorgan Agrees to $410 Million Fine for Electricity Market Manipulation
ENERGY SOLUTIONS FORUM, 13 August 2013
JPMorgan Chase & Co. has accepted a $410 million penalty to settle accusations of electricity market manipulations in California and the Midwest.
On July 30, 2013, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order approving stipulation and consent agreement that requires JPMorgan Ventures Energy Corporation (JPMVEC) to settle allegations of electricity market manipulation in California and the Midwest between September 2010 and November 2012. The $410M fine includes $285M in civil penalty (to be paid to the U.S. Treasury) and $125M of disgorged profits ($124M to California ratepayers, and $1M to Midwest ratepayers). The agreement also requires JPMVEC to waive claims for additional payments from California Independent System Operator Corporation (CAISO) and adopt additional compliance measures. JPMVEC, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co., accepted the settlement facts without admittance or denial of violations.
FERC initiated investigations in response to multiple referrals by CAISO and Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc. (MISO) market monitors of manipulative bidding practices during 2011 and 2012. It approved four emergency tariff filings from both independent system operators (ISOs) to make tariff changes effective from the filing date rather than the order date. In November 2012, FERC suspended JPMVEC’s electric market-based rate authority for six months with effect from April 1, 2013 for submitting false information.
The Other Side of Stevie Cohen’s Market Manipulation
Smashmouth Investigative Journalism, 02 August 2013
The DOJ showed us they want to turn the world’s most famous hedge fund, SAC Capital, into the most notorious hedge fund when it filed criminal charges against the 1,000 person firm last week. SAC, which stands for Steven A. Cohen its founder, is accused of creating a culture where inside trading was encouraged for over a decade. This means traders who worked under Cohen got non-public material info about a public company and then went long or short the stock–while the rest of main street was clueless. The DOJ filed a long complaint detailing dates and time they think this happen at SAC but the Justice Department missed an element of seediness that happens within the outside hedge funds Stevie Cohen has invested his personal money in. Continue reading “Article: The Other Side of Stevie Cohen’s Market Manipulation”
Steve Cohen: The Feds Get Tough, Sort Of
MATT TAIBBI, 01 August 2013
He’s Wall Street’s ultimate comic-book villain – with his glowing bald head and marble eyes, he looks a little like Lex Luthor. But maybe the best comparison for famed hedge-fund shark and long-suspected insider-trading ringleader Steve Cohen is the Joker. Earlier this year, when the SEC extracted $616 million from Cohen’s fund in two regulatory settlements, he expressed his deep remorse by buying, within weeks, a $155 million Picasso and a $60 million beach house in the Hamptons, right down the road from his other Hamptons beach house, worth $18 million.
It was a big fat middle finger to the government, flipped by a man who clearly thought he was getting away with a slap on the wrist, the way every other brazen Wall Street crook in the past half-decade has done so far. Continue reading “Article: Steve Cohen: The Feds Get Tough, Sort Of”
Indictment Won’t Stop Steve Cohen from Hosting a Hamptons Tuna Party
Nitasha Tiku, 29 July 2013
Try as they might, the feds haven’t been able to slow Steve Cohen’s roll.
Force his $14 billion hedge fund, SAC Capital, pay a $616 million settlement for insider trading accusations? He goes out and buys a Picasso and a second Hamptons manse down the road from his first one. Serve SAC Capital a five-count criminal indictment for insider trading? He throws a flashy party at his 9,000 square foot estate on Further Road. Continue reading “Article: Indictment Won’t Stop Steve Cohen from Hosting a Hamptons Tuna Party”
JP Morgan Chase’s alleged manipulation of electricity markets detailed
Kevin G. Hall
McClatchyDC, 29 July 2013
The federal regulator of electricity markets on Monday accused Wall Street powerhouse JP Morgan Chase & Co. of using multiple trading strategies to manipulate electricity markets in California and the Midwest for profit.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission already had alleged in March that JP Morgan Chase was guilty of manipulating energy markets in California and the Midwest. But late Monday, after the close of financial markets, the agency made public the details in a Staff Notice of Alleged Violations.
CEO Mocks Steve Cohen In Bizarre Full-Page Wall Street Journal Ad
Quartz, 28 July 2013
The background is that Patrick Byrne, chief executive of Overstock.com, is among the most vocal critics of naked short selling, which some investors, including SAC Capital founder Steve Cohen, use to drive down the stock price of companies that they’ve bet against. Byrne once famously called Cohen a “Sith Lord,” referencing a Star Wars villain, for engaging in naked short sales of Overstock.com. Deep Capture, the website referenced in today’s ad, is funded by Byrne. Continue reading “Article: CEO Mocks Steve Cohen In Bizarre Full-Page Wall Street Journal Ad”
Erik Devos, Thomas McInish, Michael McKenzie, James Upson
The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 27 July 2013
Naked short selling and purposeful fails-to-deliver have been identified in the popular press and by the SEC as contributing factors to the stock market decline in 2008. We investigate the market impact of the announcement that fails-to-deliver have occurred for a sample of real estate investment trusts (REITs). We find little evidence that this announcement affects returns or has any market manipulation ability. We find that fails-to-deliver are most consistent with a 1 to 3 days delivery difference between the short sale and offsetting covering trades. These results hold independent of the type of REIT (equity or mortgage REITs). Overall, our findings suggest that naked short selling and purposeful fails-to-deliver may not have contributed much to REIT losses during the financial crisis.
Stephen Cohen’s hedge fund SAC Capital charged with insider trading
Reuters, 26 July 2013
US prosecutors indicted billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s hedge fund for insider trading, a rare move that could end the career of one of Wall Street’s most successful investors and trigger a fundamental change in how traders try to gain an edge over rivals.
The government accused SAC Capital Advisors LP of presiding over a culture where employees flouted the law and were encouraged to tap their personal networks of contacts for inside information about publicly traded companies. Continue reading “Article: Stephen Cohen’s hedge fund SAC Capital charged with insider trading”
A hedge on the edge: SAC Capital’s insider trading scandal
The Conversation, 26 July 2013
After causing the collapse of the Galleon Group hedge fund in 2009, insider trading enforcements have once again shaken the hedge fund industry. Late last week, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Steven A. Cohen, CEO of SAC Capital Advisors LP, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, with failing to supervise two of his managers, Mathew Martoma and Michael Steinberg, who traded on material non-public information concerning three US listed companies in 2008. Continue reading “Article: A hedge on the edge: SAC Capital’s insider trading scandal”
SAC: federal grand jury indicts hedge fund for insider trading
Heidi Moore, 26 July 2013
A federal grand jury has indicted SAC Capital, the embattled hedge fund that has been pursued by financial authorities for years, for insider trading after regulators failed to charge its powerful founder, Steven A Cohen.
The US attorney who brought the charges, Preet Bharara, also hit the firm with civil money-laundering charges that would require the firm to forfeit potentially billions of dollars in assets. Continue reading “Article: SAC: federal grand jury indicts hedge fund for insider trading”
Feds charge billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s hedge fund SAC Capital with insider trading
BARBARA ROSS and BILL HUTCHINSON, 26 July 2013
Wall Street’s richest hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisors, owned by billionaire Steven Cohen, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges of being an insider-trading machine. Prosecutors charge that SAC made “hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal profits” from 1999 to 2010 by recruiting employees based on trade secrets they brought to the firm, or if they had the know-how to get them.
The scheme “was substantial, pervasive and on a scale without known precedent in the hedge-fund industry,” the indictment charges. Continue reading “Article: Feds charge billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s hedge fund SAC Capital with insider trading”
U.S. charges SAC Capital with insider trading crimes
Emily Flitter, Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Jonathan Stempel, 25 July 2013
U.S. prosecutors indicted billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s hedge fund for insider trading, a rare move that could end the career of one of Wall Street’s most successful investors and trigger a fundamental change in how traders try to gain an edge over rivals. Continue reading “Article: U.S. charges SAC Capital with insider trading crimes”
SAC Capital indicted in 6-year US insider trading probe
Patricia Hurtado, 25 July 2013
SAC was indicted on 4 counts of securities fraud, 1 count of wire fraud in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court. Manhattan: SAC Capital Advisors LP, the $14 billion hedge fund founded by Steven A. Cohen, was indicted by a US grand jury as part of the government’s six-year crackdown on insider trading on Wall Street. Continue reading “Article: SAC Capital indicted in 6-year US insider trading probe”
Vincent PitaroHedge Fund Law Report, 25 July 2013
On July 19, 2013, the SEC instituted administrative proceedings against Steven A. Cohen, the embattled founder of hedge fund adviser S.A.C. Capital Advisors, LLC (SAC). Generally, the SEC charges Cohen with failing to supervise two of his portfolio managers, Mathew Martoma and Michael Steinberg, both of whom have been indicted on insider trading charges arising out of their trading for hedge funds advised by SAC. See “Fund Manager CR Intrinsic and Former SAC Portfolio Manager Are Civilly and Criminally Charged in Alleged ‘Record’ $276 Million Insider Trading Scheme, Hedge Fund Law Report, Vol. 5, No. 44 (Nov. 21, 2012). Continue reading “Article: SEC Charges Steven A. Cohen with Failing to Supervise Employees Who Allegedly Engaged in Insider Trading”
THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?
