Tag: SEC

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Article: Wall Street’s Big Win

Article - Media

Wall Street’s Big Win

Matt Taibbi

Rolling Stone, 4 August 2010

Cue the credits: the era of financial thuggery is officially over. Three hellish years of panic, all done and gone – the mass bankruptcies, midnight bailouts, shotgun mergers of dying megabanks, high-stakes SEC investigations, all capped by a legislative orgy in which industry lobbyists hurled more than $600 million at Congress. It all supposedly came to an end one Wednesday morning a few weeks back, when President Obama, flanked by hundreds of party flacks and congressional bigwigs, stepped up to the lectern at an extravagant ceremony to sign into law his sweeping new bill to clean up Wall Street.

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Article: Europe Comes to Terms With Market Manipulation; the SEC and the American Media Bury Heads in the Sand

Article - Media, Publications

Europe Comes to Terms With Market Manipulation; the SEC and the American Media Bury Heads in the Sand

Mark Mitchell, DeepCapture,  21 May 2010

Well, the current state of the global financial markets is certainly interesting. I mean, you have to be a bit sick in the head, but if you think about it the right way, it really is “interesting” — sort of like, oo-wee, look, the girl in the cute leotard is falling off the tightrope, there’s no net, and she’s going to go “splat” when she hits that pavement. How interesting! And check it out, the circus animals have gone berserk — the tigers are tearing the trainer into bloody shreds, the elephants are stampeding, the tent might very well collapse, maybe we’re doomed, and look at those clowns – they’re still smiling. How deliciously interesting! Continue reading “Article: Europe Comes to Terms With Market Manipulation; the SEC and the American Media Bury Heads in the Sand”

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Article: Goldman to pay $450,000 over short-selling

Article - Media

Goldman to pay $450,000 over short-selling

March Gordon

Associated Press, 4 May 2010

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $450,000 to settle regulators’ allegations that it violated a rule related to short-selling of stocks in 2008-2009, it was announced Tuesday.

The banking company did not admit or deny wrongdoing in paying the civil penalties in agreements with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange’s regulatory arm.

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Filing: SEC v Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P.

Filing

SEC v Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P.

4 May 2010

These proceedings relate to GSEC’s response to the Commission’s September 17, 2008 emergency order enacting temporary Rule 204T to Regulation SHO (“Rule 204T” or the “Rule”). That Rule was an important part of the Commission’s response to concerns about the effects of “naked” short selling upon securities prices.

PDF (8 pages): SEC v Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P.

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Article: Goldman Sachs settles short-sales allegations

Article - Media, Publications

Goldman Sachs settles short-sales allegations

Associated Press business staff, 04 May 2010

WASHINGTON — Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $450,000 to settle regulators’ allegations that it violated a rule related to short-selling of stocks in 2008-2009, it was announced Tuesday.

The banking company did not admit or deny wrongdoing in paying the civil penalties in agreements with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange’s regulatory arm.

The case involving Goldman’s stock-trading business is unrelated to the SEC’s civil fraud charges filed against the firm last month over mortgage securities transactions it arranged. Goldman has denied the allegations in that case and said it will contest the charges in court. Continue reading “Article: Goldman Sachs settles short-sales allegations”

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Video: The S.E.Cs 3.87 trillion dollar lawsuit

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Its the largest fraud case in world history. It is alleged that between June of 2004 and October of 2005, over 2 trillion dollars worth of fake CMKM Diamonds Inc. shares were sold to the public. The companys shareholders are now suing the S.E.C for 3.87 trillion dollars. Tim Barello from the Manhattan Headlines Examiner joins Alyona from New York to tell you more.

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Testimony: Mary Schapiro’s Testimony Concerning the State of the Financial Crisis

Testimony

Testimony Concerning the State of the Financial Crisis

Mary L. Schapiro

SEC, 14 January 2010

I believe the work of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) is essential to helping policymakers and the public better understand the causes of the recent financial crisis and build a better regulatory structure. Indeed, just over seventy-five years ago, a similar Congressional committee was tasked with investigating the causes of the stock market crash of 1929. The hearings of that committee led by Ferdinand Pecora uncovered widespread fraud and abuse on Wall Street, including self-dealing and market manipulation among investment banks and their securities affiliates. The public airing of this abuse galvanized support for legislation that created the Securities and Exchange Commission in July 1934. Based on lessons learned from the Pecora investigation, Congress passed laws premised on the need to protect investors by requiring disclosure of material information and outlawing deceptive practices in the sale of securities.

PDF (29 pages): Testimony Concerning the State of the Financial Crisis

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Article: Former Merrill Lynch official settles Enron allegations

Article - Media

Former Merrill Lynch official settles Enron allegations

Nick Snow

OGJ, 11 January 2010

Daniel H. Bayly, Merrill Lynch & Co.’s (ML) former global head of investment banking, settled civil charges of aiding and abetting the Enron Corp. fraud, the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced.

SEC said US District Court in Houston entered a final judgment on Dec. 31, 2009, ordering Bayly, who neither admitted nor denied SEC’s allegations, to pay $301,000 for deposit in the commission’s Enron Fair Fund and to not serve as an officer or director of a publicly traded company for 5 years. He also was enjoined from violating federal antifraud provisions and from aiding and abetting violations of the periodic reporting, books-and-records, and internal control provisions, SEC said.

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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

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Article: SEC And Manhattan DA Investigate Southridge Capital

Article - Media, Publications

SEC And Manhattan DA Investigate Southridge Capital

Nathan Vardi, 07 October 2009

Southridge Capital Management, a Ridgefield, Conn., hedge fund firm run by Stephen Hicks that primarily employs an investment strategy known as PIPEs, is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

The SEC has opened an investigation into Southridge, according to two subpoenas the SEC sent in late July to companies that had received financing from the firm’s hedge funds.

In the five-page subpoenas, Vyta Corp. and Hyperdynamics Corp., two micro-cap companies that have been fighting Southridge for years in court, were asked by the SEC to produce documents reflecting all transfers of cash between them and the Southridge hedge funds over a four-year period. The companies were also told to provide documents relating to securities they issued to Southridge and communications between the companies and Southridge. Continue reading “Article: SEC And Manhattan DA Investigate Southridge Capital”

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Web: Byrne: SEC Enforcement Division Takes Orders From Short-Sellers

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Byrne: SEC Enforcement Division Takes Orders From Short-Sellers

Gary Weiss

gary-weiss.com, 19 September 2009

Patrick Byrne has a new conspiracy theory to explain why his corporate crime petri dish Overstock.com is under investigation by the SEC. Seems that short sellers, in addition to having a fax machine at CNBC, also have a hotline to the SEC, in which they bark out orders to start investigations against innocent CEOs like Byrne.

Byrne made that comment on Fox Business News, where he is trotted out as an “internet retailing expert,” no doubt because of the skill at which he has eased Overstock into negative shareholder equity. He was brought out this time for a ritual denunciation of new bank compensation rules.

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Article: Judge Rejects Settlement Over Merrill Bonuses

Article - Media

Judge Rejects Settlement Over Merrill Bonuses

Zachary Kouwe

New York Times, 14 September 2009

As President Obama traveled to Wall Street on Monday and chided bankers for their recklessness, across town a federal judge issued a far sharper rebuke, not just for some of the financiers but for their regulators in Washington as well.

Giving voice to the anger and frustration of many ordinary Americans, Judge Jed S. Rakoff issued a scathing ruling on one of the watershed moments of the financial crisis: the star-crossed takeover of Merrill Lynch by the now-struggling Bank of America.

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Article: How Dendreon Is Proving Short Sellers Wrong

Article - Media

How Dendreon Is Proving Short Sellers Wrong

Gary Weiss

Seeking Alpha, 18 August 2009

In other words, Dendreon is not like the third-rate Internet retailer Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK), whose wack-a-doo CEO Patrick Byrne has been weaving wild conspiracy theories over naked short selling for years, ever since it dawned on him that he simply does not know how to run a company. His talents, to the extent he has any, lie elsewhere (standup comedy?), but he has never eked out a profit for his company. His recent announcement of tiny fourth quarter profits was achieved by accounting gimmickry.

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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

 

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