Article: ‘I regret any harm:’ Short seller compensates target in rare move

Article - Media

‘I regret any harm:’ Short seller compensates target in rare move

Lawrence Delevingne, 22 June 2021

BOSTON, June 21 (Reuters) – A small Texas investor who caused shares of a real estate investment trust to plunge 39 percent in a day has agreed to pay the company restitution to settle a lawsuit against him, a rare development that could embolden other companies to pursue such claims.

Quinton Mathews, who published his research on companies online under the pseudonym Rota Fortunae, will pay Farmland Partners Inc (FPI.N) “a multiple” of the profits on his short bet in 2018, according to the terms of the legal settlement announced late Sunday. His research had helped wipe as much as $115 million off Farmland’s market value. Continue reading “Article: ‘I regret any harm:’ Short seller compensates target in rare move”

Journalist: Mark Pittman

Journalist, People

James Mark Pittman (October 25, 1957 – November 25, 2009) was a financial journalist covering corporate finance and derivative markets. He was awarded several prestigious journalism awards, the Gerald Loeb Award, the George Polk Award, a New York Press Club award, the Hillman Prize and several New York Associated Press awards.

Pittman was born in Kansas City, Kansas. Standing 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m), he was a linebacker and first baseman on his high school teams. Continue reading “Journalist: Mark Pittman”

Article: Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose

Article - Media

Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose

Mark Pittman, Bob  Ivry, Alison Fitzgerald

Bloomberg cited by Yonkers Tribune

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn’t require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

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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.

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