Foreign Collusion, Naked Shorting (Counterfeiting) & Money Laundering — All Illicit Wealth
Naked Short Selling, “Wall St. Conspiracy?”
Larry Doyle
Business Insider, 16 May 2012
Regrettably, there has been strong evidence of practices in selected corners of Wall Street which have violated the trust of investors, betrayed any semblance of fair dealing, and destroyed the development of otherwise viable businesses and companies.
Linette Lopez
Business Insider, 16 May 2012
For years, Overstock.com has been in a legal battle with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and more. The online retailer accuses the banks of naked short-selling its stock.
Overstock.com lost that battle, but they’re still trying to get the banks to unseal documents that would prove their case.
Goldman, Merrill E-Mails Show Naked Shorting, Filing Says
Karen Gullo, 16 May 2012
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Merrill Lynch & Co. employees discussed helping naked short-sales by market-maker clients in e-mails the banks sought to keep secret, including one in which a Merrill official told another to ignore compliance rules, Overstock.com Inc. (OSTK) said in a court filing.
The online retailer accused Merrill, now part of Bank of America Corp., and Goldman Sachs of manipulating its stock from 2005 to 2007, causing its shares to fall. Clearing operations at the banks intentionally failed to locate and deliver borrowed shares for clients shorting stocks, including two traders who were fined and suspended from the industry, Overstock’s attorneys said in court filings earlier this year.
Lawyers for Overstock, whose California state court lawsuit inSan Francisco was dismissed in January, asked a judge to make public e-mails sent in 2005 and 2006 that it said “reflect business decisions to put profits and corporate ambition over compliance” at Goldman Sachs and Merrill. The banks’ decisions to intentionally fail to deliver Overstock shares caused large- scale naked short selling of the company’s stock, according to the filing. Continue reading “Article: Goldman, Merrill E-Mails Show Naked Shorting, Filing Says”
Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone, 15 May 2012
The lawyers for Goldman and Bank of America/Merrill Lynch have been involved in a legal battle for some time – primarily with the retail giant Overstock.com, but also with Rolling Stone, the Economist, Bloomberg, and the New York Times. The banks have been fighting us to keep sealed certain documents that surfaced in the discovery process of an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit filed by Overstock against the banks.
Last week, in response to an Overstock.com motion to unseal certain documents, the banks’ lawyers, apparently accidentally, filed an unredacted version of Overstock’s motion as an exhibit in their declaration of opposition to that motion. In doing so, they inadvertently entered into the public record a sort of greatest-hits selection of the very material they’ve been fighting for years to keep sealed.
The Emperor is Naked: David Stockman
Karen Roche, JT Long
The Gold Report cited by NASDAQ.com, 4 May 2012
A “paralyzed” Federal Reserve Bank, in its “final days,” held hostage by Wall Street “robots” trading in markets that are “artificially medicated” are just a few of the bleak observations shared by David Stockman, former Republican U.S. Congressman and director of the Office of Management and Budget. He is also a founding partner of Heartland Industrial Partners and the author of The Triumph of Politics: Why Reagan’s Revolution Failed and the soon-to-be released The Great Deformation: How Crony Capitalism Corrupts Free Markets and Democracy.The Gold Report caught up with Stockman for this exclusive interview at the recent Recovery Reality Check conference.
Naked Short Selling and Market Returns
Thomas J. Boulton, Marcus V. Braga-Alves
The Journal of Portfolio Management, 30 April 2012
Boulton and Braga-Alves study persistent failures to deliver (fails) to better understand naked short sellers’ trading strategies, their ability to profit from their trades, and the market’s reaction to information about their activities. Contrary to recent claims that naked short sellers are momentum traders who drive down stock prices, they find that returns are typically positive just prior to periods of increased naked short selling that result in persistent fails and that returns generally remain positive for several weeks afterward.
SEC Charges optionsXpress and Five Individuals
Involved in Abusive Naked Short Selling Scheme
SEC, 16 April 2012
The SEC’s Division of Enforcement alleges that Chicago-based optionsXpress failed to satisfy its close-out obligations under Regulation SHO by repeatedly engaging in a series of sham “reset” transactions designed to give the illusion that the firm had purchased securities of like kind and quantity. The firm and customer Jonathan I. Feldman engaged in these sham reset transactions in a number of securities, resulting in continuous failures to deliver. Regulation SHO requires the delivery of equity securities to a registered clearing agency when delivery is due, generally three days after the trade date (T+3). If no delivery is made by that time, the firm must purchase or borrow the securities to close out the failure-to-deliver position by no later than the beginning of regular trading hours on the next day (T+4).
SEC charges OptionsXpress over naked short selling
Reuters Staff, 16 April 2012
April 16 (Reuters) – The online brokerage OptionsXpress and five individuals were charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with involvement in an abusive naked short-selling scheme.
The SEC on Monday said the scheme involved a series of sham transactions, violating a regulation requiring that equity securities be delivered when due.
Four OptionsXpress officers and a customer were charged by the SEC. Three of the officials settled without admitting or denying the regulator’s findings.
The SEC said the misconduct lasted from at least October 2008 to March 2010. Charles Schwab Corp bought OptionsXpress last year.
Michelle Ong, Nancy Condon
FINRA, 12 April 2012
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) today announced that it has fined Goldman, Sachs & Co. $22 million for failing to supervise equity research analyst communications with traders and clients and for failing to adequately monitor trading in advance of published research changes to detect and prevent possible information breaches by its research analysts. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today announced a related settlement with Goldman. Pursuant to the settlements, Goldman will pay $11 million each to FINRA and the SEC.
‘Naked short selling’ probed in new documentary
ctpost, 12 April 2012
Years before the financial collapse of 2008, Greenwich writer-director Kristina Leigh Copeland was digging into Wall Street irregularities that she believed could have a devastating impact on the economy.
Along the way, however, her fictional screenplay, “Blue Chip,” evolved into the new documentary “Wall Street Conspiracy,” which Copeland sees as the first in a series of muckraking nonfiction movies about issues with global impact.
“Naked” ban deals further blow to CDS
Christopher Whittall, 04 April 2012
A ban on “naked” sovereign credit defaults swaps trading will be stricter and more far-reaching than market participants had previously thought and could severely damage market liquidity, analysts have warned.
The European Union recently published the final version of new regulation prohibiting participants from using CDS to take outright short positions in sovereigns. The regulation developed in the aftermath of various European politicians blaming sovereign CDS for peripheral bond yields widening during the euro zone crisis, despite a lack of empirical evidence to support these claims.
Puzzle Pieces Falling Into Place
KEVIN D. FREEMAN, 28 March 2012
It appears that the Copper River Hedge Fund was shorting the market during the fall of 2008. By all accounts, that would be viewed as a profitable market position. And, in hindsight, the stocks sold short did ultimately collapse as the Hedge Fund had expected. However, Copper River did not profit from the declines. Continue reading “Article: Puzzle Pieces Falling Into Place”
Anger at Goldman Still Simmers
Gretchen Morgenson
New York Times cited by RGM Communications via Wayback, 26 March 2012
Just before the financial crisis began in September 2008, a prominent hedge fund appeared well positioned to take advantage of any turmoil in the markets. That fund, Copper River Partners, had made sizable bets months earlier against companies whose stocks it expected to suffer.
Within weeks, however, Copper River, once a successful $1.5 billion hedge fund, was out of business, having unexpectedly absorbed losses on the very bets it thought would be profitable.
The rise of the Red Mafia in China: A case study of organised crime and corruption in Chongqing
eng Wang, 20 March 2012
‘Red Mafia’ is the collective term for corrupt public officials in mainland China, mainly from the criminal justice system, who attempt to monopolise the protection business in the criminal underworld by abusing power. In contemporary mainland China, the Red Mafia has developed into an alternative system of governance that can control organised crime groups, enable them to flourish, and protect them where strong government and effective self-protection associations are absent. Continue reading “Article: The rise of the Red Mafia in China: A case study of organised crime and corruption in Chongqing”
Short selling and fraud: The case of Silvercorp Metals
Michael McCullough, 13 March 2012
The letter arrived at the Vancouver office of Ernst & Young on Aug. 31 in an envelope bearing $6 in U.S. postage. There was no return address and instead of salutations, it began with a headline: “Potential $1.3 billion accounting fraud at Silvercorp.”
Rui Feng, the founder and chair of Vancouver-based Silvercorp Metals Inc., was in Beijing at the time. He heard about the letter over the phone from Bob Gayton, head of the audit committee, who’d been alerted by Ernst & Young, auditor to the mining company, which at the time had a $1.5-billion market value, thanks to its two operating lead-zinc-silver mines in China and undeveloped properties in China and B.C. But Feng had an inkling something like this was coming.
Continue reading “Article: Short selling and fraud: The case of Silvercorp Metals”
THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?
