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Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

I think companies are getting wise to the game...But the miscreants know that they can continue to get away with "Companycide" by Naked Shorting and they do it blatantly!!!

Good Life China Corp (GLCC) Recalls Dividends


BEIJING, June 13, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ ----PINKSHEETS: GLCC www.goodlifechina.com Good Life China Corp today after the market closed announced that it has notified Cede Co and Penson of its notice of a dividend recall. The issuer recently issued approximately 12 million shares as a special 1 time 1:1 dividend payout to its shareholders. The issuer verily believes that its security is a subject of naked shorting activities, and that a large short position of its security exists. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_short_selling#Naked_shorts_in_the_United _States and http://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/nakedshorting.asp as an example of naked shorting. The situation is further exacerbated by circumstances beyond the issuer's control.

The issuer also today filed a copy of its recall notice with Pink Sheets http://www.pinksheets.com/pink/quote/quote.jsp?symbol=HKBV which is self explanatory.

To our shareholders, the recall of the dividend does not mean that the dividend is cancelled. It means the issuer intends to re-release these dividends back to its shareholders as soon as it has completed its share count audit and its mission to have and to force the short positions to cover. Moreover the issuer wants to insure that the re-distributed dividend, are properly distributed to its shareholders in accordance with the issuer's instructions.

The issuer's share count remains undisturbed at 450 million authorized and 169 million outstanding.

The issuer's security continues to be listed on the Rule 3210 with Nasdaq Trader (see link) as aggregates continuously fail to deliver its security. http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/Trader.aspx?id=RegSHOThreshold The issuer is of the opinion that the abuse is excessive. The issuer is taking this and other soon to be announced steps to insure that the shorted stock is covered in accordance with the rules.

The company intends to take further steps as it sees fit, as per its previous news release of May 10, 2008 May 20, 2008 and June 10, 2008 including other LEGAL measures that may be available to its disposal to rein in these activities. The issuer, in order to restore its rapidly declined share price and in order to protect the interests of the issuer's common shareholders intends to take further steps without disrupting the trading activities of its security.

The issuer expects its determined critics aka (stock bashers) dressed up as "concerned shareholders" to be out in full force pending this announcement. The issuer brings the following link and AUDIO PRESENTATION to its true shareholders' attention which is self explanatory http://www.minamargroup.net/duallisting.php.

Contact: www.minamargroup.com/helpdesk

Safe Harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Certain forward information contained in this release contains forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties, including but not limited to, those relating to development and expansion activities, domestic and global conditions, and market competition.

SOURCE Good Life China Corporation

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

While we're on topic of looting the US Treasury, can we look at the projected expense of contractors building permanent bases in Iraq while the infrastructure in many US cities and States goes to hell.

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

Bob,

I believe hand in hand with the market maker excemption as the "single largest problem in the markets", is the NSCC's automatic settlement for "un-agreed" or unmatched trades.

http://www.sec.gov/rules/concept/s71304/s71304-26.pdf


See in her June 23, 2004 letter to Chairman Katz where DTCC CEO Jill Considine acknowlegdes the automatic settlement of unmatched trades that needs to be curbed. Here lay one of the major roots of the problem.

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

I think more companies should begin to educate their shareholders like this...

http://www.minamargroup.net/duallisting.php

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

The Federal Reserve and Cohorts have sucked the real wealth from our country through an unscrupulous mainstream media, which collectively holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

To add insult to injury...

AP IMPACT: CEO pay chugs up in '07 despite economy
By RACHEL BECK and MATTHEW FORDAHL,AP
Posted: 2008-06-15 14:35:25
NEW YORK (AP) - As the American economy slowed to a crawl and stockholders watched their money evaporate, CEO pay still chugged to yet more dizzying heights last year, an Associated Press analysis shows.

The AP review of compensation for the heads of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index finds the median pay package added up to nearly $8.4 million. That's a comfortable gain of about $280,000 from 2006.

The 3 1/2 percent pay increase for CEOs came even as the landscape for both workers and shareholders darkened considerably and the economy was choked by a housing market in free fall, layoffs and soaring prices for fuel and food.

At the top of the AP list: John Thain , who took the reins of Merrill Lynch on Dec. 1, 2007. His $83 million pay package was supercharged by a signing bonus and other enticements that lured him from the New York Stock Exchange to lead the investment bank as it was suffering its worst-ever losses.

Collectively, the 10 best-paid CEOs made more than half a billion dollars last year. Yet half the members of this stratospheric club were leading companies whose profits shrank dramatically.

The AP examination of CEO pay in 2007 mined data from the 410 companies in the S&P 500 that filed compensation disclosures with federal regulators in the first six months of this year.

The AP's formula, based on data from the past two years, adds up salary, perks, bonuses, above-market interest on pay set aside for later, and company estimates for the value of stock options and stock awards on the day they were granted last year.

That provides a clearer picture than pay totals required by the Securities and Exchange Commission, compensation experts say, because the SEC totals include expenses companies book during the year for previously granted stock compensation and retirement benefits.

The value of stock and options given to CEOs may turn out to be significantly higher or lower if they are ultimately cashed out, but the numbers in the AP formula do reflect the board of directors' estimate of the likely eventual payout.

The median salary figure of about $8.4 million means half the CEOs in the AP analysis made more than that and half made less.

There were some signs companies were pulling back on pay at the top: Out of the 316 companies in the AP survey that had the same CEO two years running, about two-fifths lowered the total pay package for their CEOs. However, the primary culprit for some was falling stock prices that cut into the value of the shares included in pay packages.

In many more cases, overall pay ballooned.

Rick Wagoner , chief executive of General Motors Corp., announced earlier this month the company had to close four plants that make trucks and SUVs because of lagging demand as fuel prices soar. That followed the posting of a $39 billion loss in 2007, a year when its stock price fell by about 19 percent, without adjusting for dividends.

And Wagoner? His pay rose 64 percent, to $15.7 million.

Last year was rocky for the economy and the stock market, making it a useful test of a concept called pay for performance - a term companies use to sell shareholders on the idea CEOs are being paid based on how well the company does.

According to this concept, trotted out frequently by the compensation committees of corporate boards in their proxy statements, a big chunk of CEO pay is considered "at risk," meaning it could disappear if CEOs don't meet established metrics.

But the AP analysis found that CEO pay rose and fell regardless of the direction of a company's stock price or profits.

Take KB Home , battered by the subprime lending crisis and the weak housing market. According to the Los Angeles-based homebuilder's proxy statement, CEO Jeffrey Mezger is entitled to a cash bonus based on a percentage of KB's profit.

The problem was there was no profit. KB Home lost almost $930 million in 2007 and its stock lost 60 percent of its value. But Mezger still made $24.4 million, as valued by the AP, including a $6 million cash bonus.

He pocketed that bonus because he exceeded certain objectives the board had set out for him. Among them were improving performance on a customer satisfaction survey and developing senior leadership in his first year as CEO.

"Compensation has become a shell game," said Richard Ferlauto, director of pension and benefits policy for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a Washington labor group representing government workers.

"So they take away the bonus," he said, "but then they still come up with ways to make sure the executive gets a big payout."

Pay packages were somewhat smaller in the financial industry last year - banks, investment firms, mortgage companies, insurers and other institutions, all were roiled by the subprime lending disaster.

For companies in the financial sector that had the same CEO two years in a row, median pay dropped 4 1/4 percent to $8.7 million in 2007. But that was still a smaller decline than the 6 percent drop in earnings and 15 percent slump in stock prices before dividend adjustments, according to Standard & Poor's Capital IQ data service.

In some cases, companies appeared at first glance to have kept their promise to base pay on performance - only to have a different picture emerge on closer inspection.

For example, Washington Mutual Inc.'s stock took a nosedive last year - almost 70 percent - because of fallout from the housing and mortgage crises. The Seattle-base banking and mortgage lender lost $1.87 billion in the fourth quarter alone, and $67 million for the year.

WaMu's board decided not to give CEO Kerry Killinger a bonus for 2007. But board members also eliminated real-estate foreclosures and mortgage defaults as factors in whether to award him a bonus this year. After a shareholder revolt, the board decided to revise the formula, though it has not yet announced what metrics will be used.

Profit at insurer XL Capital fell more than 80 percent last year, and its stock price slumped about 30 percent. But Chief Executive Brian O'Hara made $7.5 million, a raise of 23 percent.

In its proxy statement, the company called its profits "unsatisfactory" but said operating earnings, which exclude certain factors, were better than planned.

O'Hara, who plans to retire later this year, was also given 62,500 shares of restricted stock and 250,000 stock options, which were not included in the calculation of his total compensation. The company said that was to "reflect the importance of Mr. O'Hara's role in the CEO succession process."

"The cracks in the idea of pay for performance really start to show when performance falters but pay still rises," said Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at The Corporate Library, an independent corporate governance research firm. "It's always a win-win scenario for executives."

Even companies with huge profits and soaring stock prices can be faulted for not following the principle of pay for performance, according to some experts on corporate pay.

As an example, these experts cite the energy industry, where CEOs in the AP survey chalked up a median 32 percent gain in 2007.

It's no secret that profits at oil and gas companies have raced higher in recent years, and stock prices have followed. But that's not necessarily because CEOs are more skillful at operating their businesses. The boon has more to do with the surge in the price of oil, which this year topped $130 a barrel for the first time on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"The issue of an escalated price of oil shouldn't flow back in to executives' wallets, but to shareholders in the form of higher dividends," said activist investor Gerald R. Armstrong of Denver, who owns shares in XTO Energy Inc.

XTO's CEO Bob Simpson, with annual compensation of more than $50 million, has ranked in the AP's list of the 10 highest-paid chief executives for the past two years.

Pay consultants say that illustrates a weakness in executive pay programs. When outside factors help the bottom line, CEOs tend to benefit personally as well. But the opposite is not generally true, said Bill Coleman, chief compensation officer for Salary.com, which provides corporate pay information.

"How convenient," he said. "I take credit for everything good and I blame external factors for anything bad, but say that shouldn't affect my pay."

There were examples of companies that really did cut back on pay during a bad year.

Department store operator Dillard 's Inc., plagued by falling sales, profits and stock value, cut CEO William Dillard's pay package by two-thirds, to $1.1 million, according to the AP calculation.

Of course, compensation is not always designed to reflect how the company does in the year it's handed out. Sometimes boards give out bonuses to the CEO for a strong performance a year earlier, and sometimes they are pegged to future performance goals.

At investment bank Morgan Stanley , CEO John Mack was paid a total of $41.7 million for 2007, a rough year for the bank. That made him No. 8 on the AP list of CEOs.

But Mack's pay was largely tied to his performance in 2006. The investment bank said in February that Mack would not be taking home a bonus for 2007 because of the company's heavy losses in the subprime lending crisis.

At Merrill Lynch, part of Thain's $83.1 million pay package hinges on whether the stock rises. He got options on 1.8 million shares as part of his signing agreement, but two-thirds of them will only vest if the price of Merrill stock clears specific hurdles for 15 straight trading days.

Right now Merrill shares trade at about $35, far from the $80 a share level that has to be reached for the first bundle of Thain's options to be in the money.

Shareholders aren't in the boardroom when pay decisions are made, but at some companies they are gaining clout and holding directors more accountable.

In May, insurer Aflac Inc. became the first major U.S. company to give investors a vote on how senior management is paid, and shareholder proposals requesting an annual nonbinding vote on pay received slightly more support at U.S. companies this year.

This issue has also spilled onto the presidential campaign trail. Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain support giving shareholders some say on executive pay. Obama wants to legislate it, while McCain says companies should make the move themselves.

The votes would be nonbinding, but they would still shine more light on executive pay.

Also contributing to this story: Business Writers Vinnee Tong, Ellen Simon, Jayna Desai, Tali Arbel, Erin Conroy, Mike Obel, Candice Choi, J.W. Elphinstone, Kristen A. Lee, Ben Berkowitz and Dorothea Degen.

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

Henry established legal precedent that the prime brokerages can witness criminal activity and not be responsible for it.

http://www.sidley.com/lawyers/bio.asp?ID=M497722507

"The amount involved runs up to hundreds of millions of dollars, says one trader, who also claims that the clearinghouses tend to help the hedge funds that short stocks and don't always follow up on rule violations because these funds provide a rich source of business. "

".. this case isn't quickly resolved, it could balloon into another major scandal on Wall Street, considering that several big clearing firms are owned by some of the Street's largest investment banks."

“Even if one accepts that the complaint sufficiently alleges that Bear Stearns did this with knowledge that these brokers were manipulating the securities at issue, the complaint does not establish Bear Stearns primary liability under § 10(b).”

"These firms are paid to clear trades, not to watch customers. Clearing firms will charge more or consider leaving the business if they are asked to police sales practices and that will end up hurting the average customer," says Sidley Austin Brown & Wood lawyer Henry Minnerop, who has represented most of Wall Street's clearing firms over the years.

Henry Minnerop is a partner in the New York office. His practice focuses on litigation and providing regulatory advice in the area of securities law and regulation. Mr. Minnerop represents securities brokerage firms and other financial institutions in a wide range of matters including securities law class actions, SEC and SRO disciplinary proceedings and industry arbitrations.

A significant part of Mr. Minnerop’s practice is devoted to the representation of clearing firms and prime brokers, both as litigation and regulatory counsel. He was a member of the SIA Prime Brokerage Committee that formulated SIA model contracts in the prime brokerage area and has represented and continues to represent the SIA Clearing firms Committee on a variety of issues, including the adoption of the ACT Rules, the development of Clearing firm Best Practices and AML procedures in compliance with the USA PATRIOTS Act.

Mr. Minnerop is a frequent speaker at securities industry conferences and has written extensively on the duties and liabilities of clearing brokers and prime brokers, including: "The Role and Regulation of Clearing Brokers," 48 Bus. Law. 841 (May 1993) and "Clearing Arrangements," 58 Bus. Law 917 (May 2003).

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

There is another question that is also quite important, similar to the question of how Milberg Weiss's "plaintiffs" new which stocks to buy. I want to know, who at the SEC instituted the inevitable investigations that were opened and announced along with the short selling, the media hit pieces and the lawsuits filed by MW? Where do those "public servants" work now?

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

http://tinyurl.com/3klo8x

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

Bobo,

What makes you think the DOJ is interested in the discovery material? Patrick can't see it's deemed "sensitive" so even O'Quinn's legal team can't share it with anyone so the move has to come from the DOJ. Unless they have an existing interests, I don't see why the DOJ would want the discovery materials?

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

Milberg law firm says it will pay $75 million to settle federal kickback case

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Milberg law firm will pay $75 million to settle a federal kickback case involving class-action lawsuits against some of the nation's biggest corporations.
The New York firm said in a prepared statement Monday the deal called for the government to dismiss all charges against it.

The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, which is handling the case, declined immediate comment.

The firm was accused of making $250 million over two decades by filing legal actions on behalf of professional plaintiffs who received $11.3 million in kickbacks.

The firm was charged with aiding and abetting mail fraud and money-laundering conspiracy. A trial had been expected to start in August.

Then known as Milberg Weiss, the firm dominated the industry in securities class-action lawsuits, which involve shareholders who claim they suffered losses because executives misled them about a company's financial condition.

The deal was disclosed in a statement by Sanford Dumain, a member of the firm's executive committee.

"This settlement enables us to move forward with our continuing representation of investors and consumers in class actions and other important lawsuits, and allows us to capitalize on the tremendous talents of the lawyers at the firm," he said.

The firm will make payments to the government totaling $75 million over the next five years, the statement said.

Dumain said the firm risked having to pay forfeitures and penalties of hundreds of millions of dollars if the criminal case had gone forward.

"We wanted to avoid that enormous risk, which we faced solely because of the misconduct of certain of our partners who are no longer with the firm," he said.

As part of the settlement, the firm said it retained a compliance monitor to ensure there are no problems with future class-action lawsuits.

A seven-year investigation has resulted in guilty pleas by three former partners.

The scheme allowed attorneys at the firm to be among the first to file litigation and secure the lucrative position as lead plaintiffs' counsel, according to court documents.

The lawsuits targeted companies such as AT&T Inc., Lucent, WorldCom, Microsoft Corp. and Prudential Insurance.

The settlement announced Monday came two weeks after attorney Melvyn Weiss, the firm's co-founder, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for helping orchestrate the kickback scheme.

U.S. District Judge John F. Walter also ordered Weiss, 72, to pay $9.7 million in forfeitures and $250,000 in fines.

Weiss pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy charge in April as part of an agreement with prosecutors.

Former partner William Lerach recently began serving a two-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

Former partner Steven Schulman pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy charge, and David Bershad pleaded guilty to conspiracy. Both are scheduled to be sentenced later this year.

The lone remaining defendant is attorney Paul T. Selzer. His trial is expected in August.

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

Has anyone ever sued the SEC or DTCC ...and WON?

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

This man is mad! He did 27 million in financings,out of his pocket, for his public jr gold company to keep the crooks out. Now he is starting a movement of companies in the jr mining area to join together and fight back.Here is his plan.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Re: Chairman's Corner - Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Title: Working Together, We Can Defeat Naked Short Sellers
Author: Jim Sinclair

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends,

I respectfully request that each of you send this missive to the management of your precious and base metals junior investment company. Please follow up to make sure it has been reviewed.

Strength In Numbers

The junior producer, along with exploration and development companies, need to consider the formation of a Chamber of Mines for this segment of the industry.

This Chamber should be free of any individual company agenda, free of fees and other interferences, and have the singular intention of protecting our shareholders from being attacked by those in the shadowy part of finance.

There are close to 2000 companies in this part of the industry, many of which are experiencing the same extreme nuisances.

The naked gold short seller is an entity engaged in a criminal act with a goal of doing serious injury for the purpose of profit. Therefore, the entity is a major target in terms of civil liability. The short and naked short pool operations are exactly the same but are more apt to be a conspiracy to injure, then become subject to RICO statutes (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act).

The job of this working Chamber of Mines as a singular unit is to pull these criminals out of the shadows into the light of day. No matter how well they feel they are hidden, there is always a paper trail going back to the perpetrator in this financial world.

Certain financial areas of secrecy in many cases do not protect the spoils of criminal activities. This may be proven soon at UBS where an officer is under arrest in the USA and is due to go to court shortly.

It does not mean anything that neither regulators nor exchanges care about the naked short or short selling pools, regardless of whether they are naked or not. If the stockholders and the company whose values have been injured initiate civil proceedings, discovery will be full of legal opportunity. You cannot erase the paper trail that exists to every transaction.

My request is simple:

Contact the management of every junior precious metals producer, exploration and developer, asking them to pass along their expressions of interest to dan_duval@tanzanianroyalty.com so the Chamber can take form.

There is no hidden agenda here, no money to be collected, no desire to stroke egos, and no desire for private corporate information. I do not wish to be anything but a member. Let the organization elect its officers so we can act as one. We can speak as one. We can win as one even though we are weak and scattered as the industry is now. Organize and we are a legion. Expose the perpetrators and then it is all over. The data is there. It can be organized and it can be dissected, yielding the evidence trail of those who wish to hurt our membership - sometimes simply because they are mean but more often for illicit profits.

You stockholders must push your management hard. Personally there is nothing that I will not do to protect myself and my investors' interests.

I herewith dedicate my time, my fortune and all that I am to the identification of the perpetrators and their conduits. Those sociopaths that take joy by inflicting severe injury for profit by conspiracy and the use of dirty tricks must be the hunted of nearly 2000 companies' determined management and their more than 500,000 very angry stockholders.

There is only one way to defend stockholders and that is through the organization and strategy of a major offensive. Forget attorneys at this point. Regulators are of no help. A Chamber of Mines acting together can prevail. Nevertheless, I will go it alone if necessary.

Together we are legion. Alone and looking the other way we are victims. I have never been a victim. No one depending on me will be a victim.

There is NOTHING I will not do to protect those that depend on me. I am livid. Enough is enough.

We will add risk to the bad guys. That proposition you and they can depend on.

Yours Sincerely,

Jim Sinclair

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2008 TANZANIAN ROYALTY EXPLORATION CORPORATION (TNX) All rights reserved. For more information visit our website at http://www.tanzanianroyaltyexploration.com/ or send email to info@tanzanianroyaltyexploration.com .
Message sent on Tue Jun 17, 2008 at 6:28:03 PM Pacific Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

To add to my last comment. This man has the backgound in the industry as a clearing house owner as well as a former International Brokerage to understand the business. See below:

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodies qui-tacet consentit”
(Who is guarding the guards?)


Our Mission
We are a service orientated teaching forum that uses the daily market as its text and blackboard. We comment, but every commentary carries a lesson. The Spin really does stop here.



Jim Sinclair
Jim Sinclair is primarily a precious metals specialist and a commodities and foreign currency trader. He founded the Sinclair Group of Companies (1977), which offered full brokerage services in stocks, bonds, and other investment vehicles. The companies, which operated branches in New York , Kansas City, Toronto , Chicago , London and Geneva , were sold in 1983.

From 1981 to 1984, Mr. Sinclair served as a Precious Metals Advisor to Hunt Oil and the Hunt family for the liquidation of their silver position as a prerequisite for the $1 billion loan arranged by the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volker.

He was also a General Partner and Member of the Executive Committee of two New York Stock Exchange firms and President of Sinclair Global Clearing Corporation (commodity clearing firm) and Global Arbitrage (derivative dealer in metals and currencies).

In April 2002, shareholders of Tanzanian Royalty Exploration (formerly Tan Range Exploration) approved the acquisition of Tanzania American International, a company controlled by the Sinclair family, for shares in Tan Range . Following this transaction, Mr. Sinclair became Chairman of Tan Range and now leads its efforts to become a gold royalty company.

He has authored numerous magazine articles and three books dealing with a variety of investment subjects, including precious metals, trading strategies and geopolitical events, and their relationship to world economics and the markets. He is a frequent and enormously popular speaker at gold investment conferences and his commentary on gold and other financial issues garners extensive media coverage at home and abroad.

In January 2003, Mr. Sinclair launched, "Jim Sinclairs MineSet," which now hosts his gold commentary and is intended as a free service to the gold community.



Dan Norcini
Dan Norcini is a professional off-the-floor commodities trader and editorial contributor to jsminset.com, goldseek.com, 321gold.com and Le Metropole Café.com, among others. His editorial contributions and supporting technical analysis charts cover a broad range of tradable entities including the U.S. dollar, the Euro, the Canadian dollar, gold bullion, silver bullion, copper and crude oil.


Monty Guild
Monty Guild is the principal of Guild Investments Management which provides management services to U.S. and foreign investors with individual accounts, pension and IRA accounts, as well as domestic and foreign investment companies.

David Duval
David Duval is an internationally-recognized mining author, minerals consultant, technical advisor to the United Nations, expert on the global minerals industry, and a leading authority on the Canadian diamond sector. He is the Managing Editor and co-founder of jsmineset.com in addition to being an editorial contributor to the hugely popular online publication.

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

Official: Charges loom for 2 Bear Stearns execs
By TOM HAYS,AP
Posted: 2008-06-18 16:48:53
NEW YORK (AP) - A federal securities fraud investigation could result in criminal charges as early as Thursday against two former Bear Stearns executives suspected of misleading investors about the risky subprime mortgage market, an official said.

A law enforcement official on Wednesday confirmed reports that Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, both ex-managers of Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds that collapsed last year, have been the target of the yearlong probe by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the outcome of the investigation is pending, said an indictment naming Cioffi and Tannin could be announced sometime Thursday.

The U.S. attorney's office and the FBI declined comment Wednesday, as did a lawyer for Tannin. Cioffi's attorney did not immediately respond to a phone message.

The former Bear Stearns managers are among the most prominent figures to face criminal charges in the wake of the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. The fallout has rattled the global economy and the American housing market.

The implosion of the hedge funds also foreshadowed Bear Stearns' own demise, with the Federal Reserve having to intervene earlier this year to bail out the beleaguered bank. The funds' collapse also fueled the recent credit crisis by showing how much damage the slumping mortgage market could incur on the companies that bought, repackaged and sold the loans.

Despite positive assessments by Cioffi and Tannin, the Bear Stearns hedge funds failed in June 2007. The funds had more than $20 billion in assets before crashing.

Cioffi, 52, and Tannin, 46, already have been named in lawsuits brought last year by hedge fund investors, including Barclays Bank PLC, who allege they were purposely misled.

Barclays accused Bear Stearns of knowing for months that certain assets in the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Master Fund were worth "far less" than their stated values.

The bank alleged Bear Stearns managers "hatched a plan to make more money for themselves and further to use the Enhanced Fund as a repository for risky, poor-quality investments."

The complaint said Bear Stearns told Barclays that the enhanced fund was up almost 6 percent through June 2007 - when "in reality, the portfolio's asset values were plummeting."

Last month, Bear Stearns shareholders approved the investment bank's sale to JPMorgan Chase & Co. for $2.2 billion, or about $10 a share. Back in January 2007, before mortgage defaults began clobbering banks and draining demand from the debt markets, Bear Stearns shares had traded at $171.

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

Got this from the investors village board tonite.

Things are becoming more transparent huh?

Recs: 2 We are smarter than you think....going to bring it on!
N.Y. Fed's private OTC actions under fire
Sun Jun 15, 2008 6:10pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The New York Federal Reserve's closed-door rule making with top players in the massive $60 trillion credit default swaps market came under legal fire on Sunday, as a fair finance activist filed a complaint questioning why it was done in the dark.

"The Federal Reserve seems to think it can engage in rule making in secret only with the industry," said Matthew Lee, executive director of the New York-based non-profit group Inner City Press/Community on the Move.

Lee filed the administrative complaint on Sunday with both the New York Fed and the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. In the complaint, he demanded that the central bankers explain why the meetings earlier this month were private and requested copies of all communications and details about the New York Fed-sponsored talks.

Officials at the Federal Reserve could not immediately be reached for comment.

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

In 1995 Malaysia's finance ministry reportedly proposed caning as a punishment for abusive shorting.

http://tinyurl.com/69qxw3

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

Folk, please read this article. Their secret is OUT!!!


Brokers threatened by run on shadow bank system
Regulators eye $10 trillion market that boomed outside traditional banking
By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch
Last update: 6:29 p.m. EDT June 19, 2008Comments: 20SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A network of lenders, brokers and opaque financing vehicles outside traditional banking that ballooned during the bull market now is under siege as regulators threaten a crackdown on the so-called shadow banking system.
Big brokerage firms like Goldman Sachs (GS:Goldman Sachs Group, Inc
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GS 186.93, +4.16, +2.3%) , Lehman Brothers (LEH:Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc
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4:01pm 06/19/2008

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MER 37.69, +0.14, +0.4%) , which some say are the biggest players in this non-bank financial network, may have the most to lose from stricter regulation.
The shadow banking system grew rapidly during the past decade, accumulating more than $10 trillion in assets by early 2007. That made it roughly the same size as the traditional banking system, according to the Federal Reserve.
While this system became a huge and vital source of money to fuel the U.S. economy, the subprime mortgage crisis and ensuing credit crunch exposed a major flaw. Unlike regulated banks, which can borrow directly from the government and have federally insured customer deposits, the shadow system didn't have reliable access to short-term borrowing during times of stress.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/big-brokers-threatened-crackdown-shadow/story.aspx?guid=%7BFA23DF5A%2D918F%2D41DA%2DB794%2D7E553ADAFAA7%7d

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

Looks like Patrick is starting to bring some pressure to bear on the media over Naked Short Selling. http://www.deepcapture.com/author/admin/
He has listed over 200 email addresses of journalists.
We should all inform the journalists about DeepCapture.com and Sanitycheck.com and Naked Short Selling.A few thousand emails should get the ball rolling.

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

This site is more popular than most of the mainstream news sites put together and it plugged Patrick. We WILL win this battle as it is inevitable for truth to come out.

Overstock CEO offers $75,000 for Wall Street's soul
At a site called Deep Capture - yes, Deep Capture - Byrne and his fellow theorists recently published a nearly 40,000-word treatise detailing his claims that Wall Street, the Wall Street press, Wikipedia, and the Russian mafia have conspired to cover up an illegal stock market manipulation scheme of unprecedented proportions. If you can find a clever way of exposing this sordid tale to the masses, the world's most entertaining CEO will pay you as much as $30,000.

Re: Massive illegal shorting and naked shorting of Silver and Gold ETFs

http://news.silverseek.com/TedButler/1214325521.php

Re: A Random Collection Of Observations On The Decline Of American Civilization

PB has done it again... asking people to drive readers to deepcapture.com and read Mark Mitchell's piece.... hohoho.... and prize money to boot. Why haven't the miscreants sued him? Anyone who is mentioned there has the company of thugs and gangster types... Must be that he can prove everything he says is true. Did Senator Shelby really speak of himself in the third person? Classic..

When there are attempts of intimidation, Patrick raises the ante... and publishes their threats and their idiot behaviors.