Article: New Castle man sentenced in drug trafficking case

Article - Media

New Castle man sentenced in drug trafficking case

WKBN Staff, 16 June 2021

NEW CASTLE, Pa. (WKBN) – A man from New Castle was sentenced in federal court this week on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

Wesley Cox, also known as Michael Deshawn Carter, 39, was sentenced to 15 and a half years in prison and five years of supervised release. Continue reading “Article: New Castle man sentenced in drug trafficking case”

Article: US courts dismiss manipulation allegations involving Bitcoin Cash

Article - Media, Publications

US courts dismiss manipulation allegations involving Bitcoin Cash

Shaurya Malwa, 02 April 2021

US courts dismissed an antitrust lawsuit that alleged prominent investors and individuals schemed to hijack the Bitcoin Cash network, the world’s thirteenth largest crypto network by market cap.

A controversy around Bitcoin Cash

The complaint, amended in March 2020 and filed by crypto company United American Corp (UAC), named Bitcoin Cash proponent Roger Ver, crypto exchange Kraken founder Jesse Powell, BTC mining giant Bitmain and CEO Jihan Wu, and Bitcoin Cash developers Shammah Chancellor and Jason Cox as the alleged participants in the scheme.

UAC first brought its suit in December 2018 and alleging the named individuals had effectively manipulated and devalued Bitcoin and pushed the firm out of the network after it had invested over $4 million. Continue reading “Article: US courts dismiss manipulation allegations involving Bitcoin Cash”

Article: High Profile Crypto Execs Dodge Bitcoin Cash ‘Hijack’ Lawsuit

Article - Media, Publications

High Profile Crypto Execs Dodge Bitcoin Cash ‘Hijack’ Lawsuit

Andrew Asmakov, 02 April 2021

A federal court in Florida has dismissed an antitrust suit filed against Bitcoin.com founder Roger Ver and several other prominent figures in the crypto industry, accused of market manipulation during a contentious split of the Bitcoin Cash network in November 2018, Law360 reported.

Other defendants in the case included Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, former CEO of Bitmain Technologies Jihan Wu, as well as Bitcoin Cash developers Shammah Chancellor and Jason Cox.

First filed by United American Corp (UAC) in December 2018 and amended in March 2020, the lawsuit claimed that the defendants colluded to manipulate the cryptocurrency market to favor Bitcoin Cash as some participants on the network were engaged in creating a competing clone called Bitcoin SV. Continue reading “Article: High Profile Crypto Execs Dodge Bitcoin Cash ‘Hijack’ Lawsuit”

Official: Christopher Cox

Official

Christopher Cox was the 28th Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He was appointed by President Bush on June 2, 2005, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on July 29, 2005. He was sworn in on August 3, 2005.

During his tenure at the SEC, Chairman Cox made vigorous enforcement of the securities laws the agency’s top priority, bringing ground breaking cases against a variety of market abuses including hedge fund insider trading, stock options backdating, fraud aimed at senior citizens, municipal securities fraud, and securities scams on the Internet. He assumed leadership of the international effort to more closely integrate U.S. and overseas regulation in an era of global capital markets and international securities exchanges. He also championed transforming the SEC’s system of mandated disclosure from a static, form-based approach to one that taps the power of interactive data to give investors qualitatively better information about companies, mutual funds, and investments of all kinds. In addition, as part of an overall focus on the needs of individual investors, Chairman Cox reinvigorated the agency’s initiative to provide important investor information in plain English.

Full Biography

Web: Wikipedia – Naked Short Selling

Web

Naked Short Selling

Naked short selling, or naked shorting, is the practice of short-selling a tradable asset of any kind without first borrowing the security or ensuring that the security can be borrowed, as is conventionally done in a short sale. When the seller does not obtain the shares within the required time frame, the result is known as a “failure to deliver” (“FTD”). The transaction generally remains open until the shares are acquired by the seller, or the seller’s broker settles the trade.

Continue reading “Web: Wikipedia – Naked Short Selling”

Article: Naked Shorting Will Cause U.S. Exchange Exodus

Article - Media

Naked Shorting Will Cause U.S. Exchange Exodus

Bud Burrell

Financial Wire, 5 August 2010

This week, an important online news service released an article that should send shockwaves into our public markets. In very curt form, the article chronicles the many abuses of U.S. public companies by short selling manipulators, particularly through naked short selling and regular and derivative based synthetic shorting. By implication, the article recites the sheer embarrassing ineffectiveness of our regulators, who are engaged in a pattern of systematic conflicts of interest with revolving doors that are a major disgrace to our own government.

Read full article.

Filing: CMKM Diamonds Lawsuit Against the SEC

Filing

These Defendants, acting in the course and scope of their employment by the United States of America as duly authorized Commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a federal agency, through their acts and omissions knowingly, consciously, wrongly, without compensation and without due process of law have effected a taking of property from each of the named Plaintiffs and all who are similarly situated.

PDF (18 Pages): CMKM Lawsuit Against the SEC 9 January 2010

Paper: Regulation of Naked Short Selling by Congressional Research Service

Paper

Regulation of Naked Short Selling

Name Redacted

Congressional Research Service, 31 July 2009

Until the current financial crisis, the SEC did not view short selling of large, blue-chip stocks as a problem. In July 2008, however, the SEC temporarily banned naked short sales of the stock of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and 17 other large financial institutions. On September 18, 2008, the SEC banned all short selling of the shares of more than 700 financial companies in an emergency action that expired on October 8, 2008. On October 1, 2008, the SEC adopted an interim rule requiring short sellers’ brokers to actually borrow shares to deliver to buyers, within one day after the expiration the normal three-day settlement time frame. The rule was made permanent on July 27, 2009, and it applies to all stocks. This report will be updated as events warrant.

Full Text Online with Links

PDF (10 Pages): Paper CRS Regulation on Naked Short Selling

 

Article: Save The Billionaire Short-Sellers!

Article - Media

Save The Billionaire Short-Sellers!

Rch Karlgaard

Forbes, 24 March 2009

My, oh my. Here is a shocker. James Chanos, the billionaire short-seller, opposes any reforms that would tilt the stock market away from shorting selling. Here is his argument. Not surprisingly, Chanos, whose firm Kynikos means “cynic” in Greek, leaves out all the recent history that has made short-selling so lucrative. Such as:

3. Naked short-selling. Cox’s SEC failed to enforce its own rule against naked short-selling. Again, Wikipedia: “Naked short-selling, or naked shorting, is a type of financial speculation. It is the practice of selling a stock short, without first borrowing the shares or ensuring that the shares can be borrowed, as is done in a conventional short sale. When the seller does not obtain the shares within the required time frame, the result is known as a “fail to deliver.” The transaction generally remains open until the shares are acquired by the seller or the seller’s broker, allowing the trade to be settled. Naked short-selling can be used to manipulate the price of securities by driving their price down, and its use in this way is illegal. … Some commentators have contended that despite regulations, naked shorting is widespread and that the SEC regulations are poorly enforced. The SEC has denied these claims. However, the SEC and others have also defended the practice in limited form as beneficial for market liquidity. Its critics have contended that the practice is susceptible to abuse, can be damaging to targeted companies struggling to raise capital, and has led to numerous bankruptcies.”

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Article: Crisis of Convenience for Roiling SEC

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Crisis of Convenience for Roiling SEC

David Patch

InvestigateTheSEC.com via Wayback, 30 October 2008

To say that support for the Securities and Exchange Commission is at an all time low would be an understatement. With Congressional Investigations into the agencies handling of critical investigations and recent reports out of the Office of Inspector General, investors are left guessing as to what exactly the agency is doing to police our markets. Heck, even a presidential candidate has suggested that the SEC Chairman should be fired and it was his party that hired him.

Access archived page.

Article: Cox’s SEC Censors Report on Bear Stearns Collapse

Article - Media

Cox’s SEC Censors Report on Bear Stearns Collapse

Mark Pittman, Elliot Blair Smith, Jesse Westbrook

Bloomberg cited by RGM Communications via Wayback, 7 October 2008

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox’s regulators stood by as shrinking capital ratios and growing subprime holdings led to the collapse of Bear Stearns Cos., according to an unedited version of a study by the agency’s inspector general.

The report, by Inspector General H. David Kotz, was requested by Senator Charles Grassley to examine the role of regulators prior to the firm’s collapse in March. Before it was released to the public on Sept. 26, Kotz deleted 136 references, many detailing SEC memos, meetings or comments, at the request of the agency’s Division of Trading and Markets that oversees investment banks.

Access archived page.

Article: SEC Gave “Preferential Treatment” to Wall Street CEO

Article - Media

SEC Gave “Preferential Treatment” to Wall Street CEO

Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz

abc News, 6 October 2008

The SEC gave “preferential treatment” to Wall Street executive John Mack during an insider trading investigation three years ago because Mack was about to become CEO of the Morgan Stanley investment banking firm, the SEC’s inspector general concluded in a report obtained by ABC News.

The report recommended disciplinary action against the SEC’s chief of enforcement, Linda Thomson, and said the firing of an SEC lawyer was “connected” to his persistent attempts to take Mack’s testimony. Read the report’s conclusion and recommendations here.

Read full article.

 

Article: New SEC Rules Target ‘Naked’ Short-Selling

Article - Media

New SEC Rules Target ‘Naked’ Short-Selling

Marcy Gordon

Associated Press, 18 September 2008

Federal regulators yesterday took measures aimed at reining in aggressive forms of short-selling that were blamed in part for the demise of Lehman Brothers and that some feared could be used against other vulnerable companies in a turbulent market.

The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted rules it said would provide permanent protections against abusive “naked” short-selling. Unlike the SEC’s temporary emergency ban this summer covering naked short-selling in the stocks of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and 17 large investment banks, the new rules apply to trading in the broader market.

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Article: SEC reins in ‘naked’ short selling, will check recent trades

Article - Media

SEC reins in ‘naked’ short selling, will check recent trades

Adam Shell

abc, 18 September 2008

Reacting to concerns that many financial stocks were losing value at an alarming rate due to aggressive bets by short sellers who profit when prices fall, federal regulators on Wednesday acted to stem the abusive practice known as “naked short selling.”

In an ordinary short sale, a short seller borrows stock and sells it, with the hope of buying it back later at a lower price to replace the borrowed shares.

Read full article.

Release: SEC Issues New Rules to Protect Investors Against Naked Short Selling Abuses

Release

SEC Issues New Rules to Protect Investors Against Naked Short Selling Abuses

SEC, 17 September 2008

he Securities and Exchange Commission today took several coordinated actions to strengthen investor protections against “naked” short selling. The Commission’s actions will apply to the securities of all public companies, including all companies in the financial sector. The actions are effective at 12:01 a.m. ET on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008.

Read full release.

THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?