With Media Absent, a Senator Speaks Out About Naked Short Selling -05/05/09 at 7:53 PM CDTby Mark Mitchell

Last night, CNBC’s Jim Cramer interviewed Senator Ted Kaufman about the problem of abusive short selling. The Senator said: “We gotta have people feel that they’re getting a fair share and the market’s on the level…Clearly, every indication is that things went on in terms of short selling – both in Bear Stearns and Leh...

SEC Enforcement Chief Lands New Job - Overstock CEO and Others Stunned -04/14/09 at 7:37 PM CDTby Perry Rod

During Linda Thomsen's tenure as head of the enforcement division of the SEC, Harry Markopolis, a former investment officer with Rampart Investment Management in Boston, was writing a series of persuasive letters to the SEC informing them of the statistical impossibility of Bernie Madoff’s investment returns.  Despite being intimidated by the S...

Short Selling Activist Asensio Says Naked Short Selling Should Be Legal -04/07/09 at 5:25 PM CDTby Reggie Abaca

In a response to former SEC Commissioner Roel Campos stating that there ought to be a certain level of short selling regulation, New York hedge fund manager and activist short seller Manuel Asensio responded on Bloomberg-TV: "There should be no reason to borrow stock," referring to the requirement that one should borrow stock that they sell short.  H...

Our Watchdogs and the Financial Scandal of the Century -04/04/09 at 1:26 PM CDTby Mark Mitchell

“Accountability – Integrity – Reliability” That’s the motto of the Government Accountability Office, and it almost makes you believe that there really is a functioning watchdog – somebody, aside from us Internet loons, to investigate and report on the incompetence and malfeasance that pervade our public institutions. Ce...

Jim Cramer, The Weasel Who Is Now An Investor Advocate -03/21/09 at 1:10 PM CDTby Reggie Abaca

"I'm trying," he told Jon Stewart, on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." But he didn't say what he was really trying to do. He didn't say that he was "trying" to distance himself from those same manipulators of markets who were once his closest friends.  He didn't say he was "trying" to pretend he did not receive a Securities and Excha...

Should Jon Stewart Be The Financial Journalist Who Exposes TheStreet.... -03/13/09 at 5:29 AM CDTby Reggie Abaca

On his program, Jon Stewart played a Jim Cramer video from "Wall Street Confidential" done for the internet in 2006, where Cramer admitted to spreading rumors and manipulating markets as part of the "game" [see the video in links section here]. It was a breath of fresh air for thousands of investors across the country who were begging for Mr. Cramer to be...

The DTCC: Unregulated Buying, Clearing, Settling and Short Selling -03/05/09 at 11:07 PM CSTby Reggie Abaca

According to Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock (OSTK), The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), which assumes a role that requires government oversight, is completely unregulated. In a message posted on the Deep Capture business blog, Byrne says he hired two securities lawyers to find out who actually regulates The Depository Trust an...

Would General Electric's CNBC Allow Charles Gasparino To Say It On Th... -02/21/09 at 8:44 PM CSTby Mark Mitchell

Charles Gasparino, the CNBC reporter, published an op-ed in The New York Post yesterday. Here’s a part of what he had to say: Earlier this year, high-flying hedge fund Paulson & Co. retained [former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan] for its “advisory board.” The firm is a noted “short seller” of banks and financial st...

Email Exposes Short Seller Plot to Destroy Public Company, Fairfax Fi... -02/17/09 at 11:33 PM CSTby Mark Mitchell

A few years ago, a clique of influential journalists went to extraordinary lengths to cover up the problem of illegal short selling. In the face of indisputable data and evidence, the journalists insisted, over and over, that “naked” short selling (hedge funds manipulating stock prices by flooding the market with phantom stock) rarely occurred...

Bernard Madoff, the Mafia, and the Friends of Michael Milken -02/05/09 at 2:25 AM CSTby Mark Mitchell

In 2005, Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com (OSTK) and future Deep Capture investigative reporter, began a public crusade against illegal naked short selling (hedge funds and brokers creating phantom stock to manipulate stock prices down). He said, over and over, that the crime was destroying public companies and had the potential to trigger a syst...