Partial transcript of Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne on Fox Business News (06/05/09):
"Let me describe the activity that Jim Chanos is covering up with what I think is smoke and mirrors. The SEC has confirmed an investigation into Jim Chanos. E-mails have emerged from a New Jersey courthouse that document that an analyst at Morgan Keegan was feeding Jim Chanos research before he published it. Jim Chanos was passing it on to SAC, Steve Cohen's hedge fund. They traded in front of it. There's e-mails that even say they knew the date that the research was going to be published. It was a hatchet job on a company. They know the date it was going to be published, they trade ahead of it and there's even e-mails that say we're going to cover on such and such a date when the research comes out we'll cover into the downward pressure. So, that's all illegal. He's talking through his hat trying to make it sound like 'gee, Washington is just cracking down on us poor short sellers.' What he's spinning and what he is covering up is the e-mails document Jim Chanos personally was involved in getting research ahead of the public, passing it, you know, so it's all blue smoke and mirrors."
He continues,
"Short sellers like Jim Chanos are hiring people to pose as journalists, intimidate. In that case, the company under attack, it turns out everything they said was false, the company has done beautifully. One of the people in their network has gone to jail, Spyro Contogouris. So it's just a bunch of dirty tricks."
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