Overstock CEO Calls Out Jim
Chanos on Insider Trading, Naked Short Selling
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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