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Feb
4
Written by:
bobo
2/4/2009 4:55 PM
It's not so much that I am capable of surprise anymore.
It's more that I never thought that the SEC would stand in a hearing designed to investigate their corrupt bungling of the largest ponzi scheme of all times, and try to bore us to death.
Everyone should watch this amazing clip of Ackerman coring the SEC a new one, and sounding remarkably like your favorite Easter Bunny in his assessment of the SEC's capabilities.
What is startling is the robotic, almost drugged responses from the SEC.
We are treated to fleshy, sweating bureaucrats trying to use their best jargon-speak to explain away how they could get handed the entire ponzi scheme on a silver platter, lovingly explained and footnoted, and still miss it for a decade.
What's even more startling is that the SEC clearly is of the belief that they don't have to answer questions relating to their performance or behavior. They lecture the panel as though it was composed of none-too-bright schoolchildren, and insult the entire nation's intelligence with their demeanor. These are people who clearly view answering the panel's plainly worded questions as optional, and who take the position that they answer to nobody. They basically sound like they are reading from the tax code when asked simple yes or no questions.
This is the face of the facilitators, of an evil so mundane as to be agonizing to watch. It's as though Satan chose the DMV has his new model for destruction of the planet's good - make everyone wait in line for hours, and then spout incomprehensible jibberish at them when their turn at the window arrives. Use tedium and bureaucratese rather than curses and temptation. Bore us with blah blah when confronted, and counter the exorcist with carefully parsed nonsense and jibber jabber.
These people sicken me in a way that is difficult to describe. Ackerman can tell, and he clearly is sickened by it as well. They are the enemy, holding titles that would fool us into believing that they are our protectors. Instead, they are double-speaking, jargon spouting facilitators of fraud and theft, and the destruction of the nation's capital markets. And there's not a trace of remorse in their responses, not a bit of shame or awareness that we are all onto their game.
It's as though they know nothing bad will happen to them for giving the panel the finger. As though they are immune from recourse. Given the Aguirre matter, they are likely right. The SEC can be exposed as committing obstruction of justice, aiding and abetting fraud, etc. etc. etc., and nothing happens. Nobody goes to jail. The worst is the perps go on to million dollar jobs on Wall Street.
How much worse or obvious does this have to be? Watch the clip. Again and again.
The responses couldn't be more non-responsive if they had practiced for years. It's as though serial killers read baking recipes to the jury when asked why they killed everyone. The SEC basically has no answer but a blank stare when asked how the most obvious fraud of all time went on for a decade after they were alerted and warned in an unmistakable manner of the fraud.
The simple and obvious answer is that the SEC doesn't work to protect the public, but rather it works to shield Wall Street's worst predators from any sort of justice. But they can't say that, now can they? Time and time again, the evidence leads us to that place, and yet nobody will just say the words, and push for dismantling of the agency, and prosecution of the criminals who populate the upper reaches of the commission. Nope.
We hear bluster, and outrage, just as we heard bluster and outrage a year or more ago over the Aguirre matter, and yet the same stooges are sitting in the same positions, aiding and abetting, secure that when the smoke clears, their patrons will keep them shielded from recourse and from justice.
Welcome to the modern American market system.
As always, Digg it if you think this deserves greater exposure.
Copyright ©2009 Bob O'Brien
Tags:
30 comment(s) so far...
Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Rather Slack-Jawed....
It's a bitch Bobo. We can only keep trying to get the truth out so it connects with sufficient mass. The internet is like a wild card. If people are fed up with bailouts and bonuses-- how should they feel once they actually understand how the game has been rigged to steal them blind? Hornswaggle `em.
Ever endeavoring to find the words-- and inspired by your own.
Best,
RMR
Says at deepcapture:
February 4th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
re: getting the point across:
SEC and DTCC Let Wall Street Insiders Reap Billions Selling Securities They Never Deliver
(emailed to 48 major financial columnists, national media & pols)
“Mandated by Congress to be the investing public’s “first line of defense against securities fraud,” the SEC leadership over the past 10 years has repeatedly betrayed its duty to the American people; not only by consistently ignoring tons of evidence of criminal activity brought to its attention, but by delegating its fiduciary duty to protect the investing public to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, a secretive, non-transparent entity wholly owned and operated by Wall Street insiders, that acts only to protect and enhance the interests of it’s Wall Street owners– and which has willfully and deceptively enabled the defrauding of investors with a duplicitous 3 card monty style bait and switch non-settlement system that rapes the investing public, rewards the rapists, and is a root cause of the financial disaster confronting the world today.”
read full blog at: http://calltoaccount.wordpress.com/
By rmr on
2/4/2009 6:04 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
I have not yet found a feed to the entire testimony but I did see the part where someone asked Marcopoulo about finra. I heard the word RICO in his response.
By oldfeller on
2/4/2009 8:59 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
I still think it is time for a special prosecutor and this new SEC. person should be eliminated as well as the whole organization. Problem is there is not enough prisons and no one left to choose from unless Joe six pack is up for the job. They should call Dave Patch to the rescue.
By rtwat on
2/4/2009 8:59 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
"Bob" how do we apply enough pressure to congress to force those donothings into dismantling the s.i.c., and throwing those scum into sing sing????? It seems that putting watchdogs in place, with the understanding, that if they fail blatently to proform then the sentence the perps escaped will be meted out on their head......... It could help clean up this fraud. I'd head up the S.E.C. providing I had the power to hire, fire, and procecute.
By Huckstercrusher on
2/5/2009 7:22 AM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
I think that one thing would be to write letters and emails to your congressman calling for two actions:
1) Appoint a special prosecutor, a la Pecora, to investigate the current Wall Street den of thieves. I would propose Gary Aguirre.
2) Dismantle the SEC, and hold the upper echelon liable for behavior that is criminal. If they behaved in a criminal manner while holding a post, they can't just say, "I was following orders." They have to be held accountable for covering-up fraud, theft, etc. We can't allow them to get a free ride. People are doing these things, not offices, and people need to be held accountable.
By bobo on
2/5/2009 8:23 AM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
Bob, I do not understand. It seems nobody activated the Digg before me. That seems improbable.
Could it be that it was cut? Aw, another conspiracy theory! I hate that.
By cutty on
2/5/2009 3:51 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
The corrupt people in the SEC should be lined up against a wal,l along with the crooks they run cover fo,r and be shot! Period,end of story.
By old duffer on
2/5/2009 3:51 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
You'll love this. Mary Shapiro had this to say about the testimony:
"Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro has offered an apology of sorts for the testimony of SEC officials before a House subcommittee hearing yesterday that was looking at the SEC's role in the alleged Bernard Madoff fraud.
“Today's testimony before your subcommittee could not have been satisfactory,” Ms. Schapiro wrote Wednesday in a letter to Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., the chairman, and Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., the ranking member of the House subcommittee on capital markets.
Ms. Schapiro sent the letter after a panel of top SEC officials refused to answer specific questions from panel members about the Madoff case, citing ongoing investigations. At one point during the hearing, SEC acting general counsel Andy Vollmer cited executive privilege and other privileges in declining to answer some questions.
That claim caused a sharp rebuke from committee members.
Executive privilege “was not claimed ... by anybody” at the hearing, said SEC spokesman John Heine today."
Could not have been satisfactory? Huh? That reads to me like yet more of the same lawyerly weaseling that went on during the testimony. Could not? Note she didn't say, IT WASN'T. She chose those very unusual words. As in, for you morons, it could not have been satisfactory - for me and my wall street crook buddies, or course, it was great!
Also note that the lead counsel in fact DID claim a form of executive privilege, and sort of snapped at the panel when he was instructed to just say yes or no. But now, it turns out that he didn't say what he said.
Welcome to the liar's club, where up is down, yes means no, and more lies are all you can expect.
By bobo on
2/5/2009 3:57 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
this amazing clip of Ackerman coring the SEC a new one, has been removed from Youtube.
Anyone know where I can see it?
By ginger on
2/5/2009 6:03 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
Ginger here you go!!!
Here is the whole interrogation. A MUST watch
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=11870658&ch=4226720&src=news
By Sean on
2/5/2009 6:59 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
Bobo I though your blog would included the cause of the coring which was this...
Re: Video of House Hearing on Madoff & regulatory failureHere is a C-Span link to Markopolos's entire testimony:
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/watch.aspx?MediaId=HP-R-15116
By Sean on
2/6/2009 8:14 AM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
Bobo,
Who do these people think they work for? Who do they think they answer to? Wall Street? Now the public knows exactly who these complicit donothihngs are. Volmer should resign. I wonder if the second panel saw the first hearing with Markopolos? Markopolos did exactly what he was requested to do. He gave some very insightful and useful suggestions. The second panel didn't give a suggestion for improvement.
There is a problem with group think... like we need these exotic products that have brought this country to its knees. How about vetting the products and they have to be approved and fit into the regulatory scheme before they are ever sold? If you look at the products that were sold, they only provide profit for those selling them and have no intrinsic value. Value is lost... The creative products are garbage. The people who sold them knew they were worthless... and they should be prosecuted.
By mhelburn on
2/6/2009 8:14 AM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
If anyone is interested in how many of these "exotic products" came into being, or who orchestrates much of what has brought the nation to its knees, I suggest you read the following expose from DeepCapture reporter Mark Mitchell.
And then disseminate it to every chat room and website you know. Bill Cara just features it.
It's a doozy. And there are a lot of familiar names.
http://www.deepcapture.com/bernard-madoff-the-mafia-and-the-friends-of-michael-milken/
By bobo on
2/6/2009 8:16 AM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=11870658&ch=4226720&src=news
Thanks for posting this Sean. I really enjoyed watching this. What I am sure of is that it WAS an act for the american people and that nothing will ever come of it. Sure - I will bet that the SEC is REALLY sorry for not catching on to things like Bernard Madoff, Naked Short Selling, etc - I am sure they are very sorry that they got yelled at for a few minutes in a public hearing. Poor Them. What I am truly sorry about is that this is a real problem and the damage cannot be undone - and here we are - our country has a foreclosure sign on it.
Take Care Bobo and All.
~M
By ThatMakesMeFeelBetter on
2/6/2009 5:33 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
Seems that the madam who got sent to jail for 3 months kept meticulous records and willingly billed corporations.. investment banks for things that would pass the auditors... Going to be on ABC 20/20 tonight. Fraud, theft... 9800 men on her client list. One billed 47,000 hmmmmmm. Wouldn't it be a hoot if the bad guys are all brought down by one little ole hooker... Going to be some real domestic fights tonight unless daddy has the remote...
By mhelburn on
2/6/2009 5:33 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
Mhelburn. Is there anything, and I do mean anything, that Wall Street predators don't do? Read Mark's expose on the mob, friends of MM, and the whole criminal interpenetration - at DeepCapture. I mean, no wonder the street acts like the mob, where there are no laws too large or small to break...the most prominent players there ARE the mob. That sends a powerful message, doesn't it? Wanna become a billionaire? Either be Warren Buffet, or be a friend of MM and get all mobbed up.
Which is easier?
By bobo on
2/7/2009 9:18 AM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
It is impossible to get to be where these guys are and as rich as they are without doing something illegal!!!PERIOD!! The system is set up where if we try to get rich it stops us in our tracks.. taxes, licenses, fees ect. anything that can hinder us will be done so that we can't join that elite club!!!
By Sean on
2/7/2009 5:01 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
Is there any chance someone might approach Markopolos about the FTD problem? He has credibility right now with regulators and legislators. He might be able to help with this problem. He would also appreciate it very quickly, if he is not already aware of it.
By Fred on
2/7/2009 8:43 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
This is so sad and these regulators should be charged with attempted Murder!!!
Recs: 4 SEC shirks duty; whistleblower's head smashed.
MASS. MARKET: SEC leadership is key to restoring investor confidence
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By Jon Chesto
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb 07, 2009 @ 04:10 PM
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QUINCY —
Watching Harry Markopolos of Whitman testify on Wednesday about his repeated efforts to expose Bernie Madoff reminded me of another whistle-blower who trekked from the South Shore to Washington to tell his story.
Almost exactly five years ago, Peter Scannell of Weymouth gave a blow-by-blow account to a Senate subcommittee of what he did to bring to light market-timing abuses in certain Putnam Investments mutual funds.
There are plenty of parallels between the situations. The two men live so close to each other, their kids could have played in the same baseball games last summer.
Like Markopolos, Scannell lived in fear of retribution after deciding to buck a system that helped make many people wealthy. They both displayed the tenacity and audacity that’s often necessary to expose financial wrongdoing when insiders look the other way.
And both men sought assistance from the Securities and Exchange Commission – and were sorely disappointed by the responses they received.
Markopolos went to the SEC nearly 10 years before Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme fell apart in December. Scannell approached the SEC in the spring of 2003, but he had to turn to Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s office before an enforcement action finally was pursued against Putnam. In fact, Scannell suspects someone at the SEC tipped off a Putnam exec, prompting the Boston fund firm to quickly change the names of the mutual funds targeted for market timing.
Now Markopolos and Scannell share something else: The SEC’s inspector general is probing the agency’s responses to both tipsters.
SEC Inspector General David Kotz confirmed to me on Friday that his agency has been in touch with Scannell and is actively conducting an investigation into his allegations. Kotz declined to provide any details about the probe.
Scannell also didn’t want to talk about the specifics of the investigation out of respect for the folks at the SEC who are listening to him.
Of course, there are some differences between the two cases as well. Scannell was a more traditional whistle-blower, in that he was drawing attention to wrongdoing within his own organization. Markopolos started his Madoff investigation while working for a rival money management firm.
Market timing, unlike a Ponzi scheme, isn’t necessarily illegal. But many mutual fund managers say that efforts will be taken to thwart rapid trading of fund shares. The practice can drive up expenses for long-term shareholders. Scannell says he had plenty of evidence that Putnam was actually encouraging certain favored investors – including members of a New York boilermakers union – to market time the funds.
Scannell had repeatedly gone to his supervisors at Putnam to air his concerns before contacting the SEC, according to the testimony he gave in Washington. Scannell’s efforts eventually landed him in Quincy Medical Center. Before going to the SEC in 2003, he was assaulted while drinking coffee in his parked car on a cold, snowy night. A burly, bearded man with a boilermakers shirt repeatedly smashed Scannell’s head with a brick, yelling at him about Putnam and knocking him unconscious.
Markopolos, meanwhile, went to great pains to keep his identity a secret because he was worried a criminal organization could be among those who would want to protect the Madoff scheme. He figured his safety would be jeopardized if the wrong people learned he was on the trail.
Scannell and Markopolos also share another trait: They both view white-collar crime as a potentially far more egregious offense than a stickup on the street with a gun.
Scannell says local police are usually equipped to chase down a low-level criminal – but it’s much more difficult to ferret out the ones wearing white collars. That can be especially true when the regulators who are supposed to protect us end up letting us down.
With the stock market downturn of the past year, many people are more jittery now about investing than they have been at any other time in their lives.
The SEC can play a crucial role in addressing this problem. In the coming months, the agency needs to show that the average investor can be protected from market-timing fund managers and Ponzi schemers. The country’s economy will never fully recover until that confidence is restored.
http://www.patriotledger.com/business/x185007687/MASS-MARKET-SEC-leadership-is-key-to-restoring-investor-confidence
By Sean on
2/8/2009 9:33 AM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
May they all get what they deserve!!!
From:
"Patch, David
To:
thomsenl@sec.gov
Cc:
Schapirol@sec.gov, waltere@sec.gov, aguilarlu@sec.gov, paredest@sec.gov, caseyk@sec.gov, vollmera@sec.gov, kreitmanm@sec.gov
Linda,
I watched the c-Span replay of the hearings held last week regarding Bernie Madoff and have a few questions I wonder if you would mind answering.
1. You continued to refer to the fact that the SEC opened an investigation into Bernie Madoff in 2006. Can you explain what exactly transpired in the window comprising that day in 2001 when Markopolos first approached the SEC and 2006 when the investigation was initiated by the NY Bureau?
2. A 2007 findings report out of the GAO revealed that the SEC was generally slow in closing down enforcement investigations with many cases remaining open well past the 5-year statue of limitations. Can you explain why and how an investigation of this nature was closed down so rapidly based on the allegations presented and the details provided? I can only think of one other such investigation hastily closed in recent years and that involved Gradient Analytics. Like Madoff, evidence after the fact regarding Gradient support the allegations made by Overstock.com and support allegations of wrong doing by Gradient. The SEC had sworn depositions by former Gradient employees that backed up the claims of Overstock.com and yet something motivated the commission to hastily close down that case.
The report reveals a large number of open investigations that, though no longer active, have never been closed. According to the SEC’s internal case-tracking system, 3,700 investigations are now open. Of that number, at year-end 2006, two-thirds (2,467) had been open for two or more years, one-third (1,233) had been open for five or more years, and an eye-opening 481 had been open for 10 or more years. www.gao.gov/new.items/d07830.pdf
3. You repeatedly informed the members of Congress that the people of the SEC "live to bring an enforcement case" and that "the bigger the case the better" and yet the Congressional and OIG investigations into the handling of John Mack and Pequot reveal a very different culture. A culture where "political juice" impacts the agencies motivations to bring a case forward. Do you not think that the very fact that Gary Aguirre was fired for going after a politically connected CEO factors into the energies enforcement attorneys would dedicate to similar members of society? If the Senior staff is going to terminate attorneys who go after people like John Mack, why risk your career going after a similarly respected individual in Bernie Madoff?
4. Finally, one member of Congress asked specifically about details involving the closed investigation and referrals. With the initial investigation closed, the matter is available for public interests under the Freedom of Information Act. Details of enforcement actions, enforcement notices, and referrals is a matter of public record in a closed case and thus the Commission has no authority to deny the public or the members of Congress of this information. Would you care to delve into why you misled the members of Congress on this matter?
I am glad your career at the SEC is being terminated. It should have taken place long ago. You have fallen out of touch with those that work within your Division and fallen out of touch with those you are required to protect - the investing public. Senior staff within the Division of Enforcement are under investigation for perjury charges in cases they brought before the courts, have been recommended for disciplinary actions relative to professionalism in the work place, professionalism relative to individuals under investigation, and for the wrongful termination of an employee. You personally were recommended for disciplinary action relative to your personal interference in a high level investigation. These allegations are not indicative of a well run division, these allegations represent a division out of control and leaderless.
In your tenure as Director of Enforcement you set back the confidence of the investing public and the confidence of those who work within your department. I am glad you received the public flogging the members subjected you to as it has been a long time coming. You appeared arrogant and uninformed in that hearing and let the world witness such incompetence first hand. You presented to the public how many perceive many at the SEC and it was a sight Mary Schapiro will have a long time correcting.
Best of luck to your next employer. Hopefully they will not be so delinquent in terminating such a poor performer as our federal government has been.
Remember; you heard it here first with regards to a full in depth investigation into a captured regulator.
Dave Patch
www.investigatethesec.com
By Sean on
2/9/2009 6:46 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
Another case, the Pequot-John Mack case was also hastily resolved by getting rid of Aguirre. It was shuffled off to the circular file so that Mack could take the CEO position of MS. After the fact, more evidence came up about Pequot and insider trading. Ms. Thomsen was directly involved in the whole matter. She downplayed Mack's potential involvement to Mary Jo White. At that moment, she decided that she didn't want to ruin Mack's career opportunities and once on that path.. the SEC became Mack's protector and the abuse of power spiraled into a whitewash after Grassley got involved. These arrogant, lying, ass-covering mouthpieces then used double-speak and lies to cover up their cowardly corruption. They tried to make Aguirre look like a wingnut rather than doing their jobs. Aguirre didnt come off as the wingnut and everything the SEC did after his Senate testimony was self-serving for the upper enforcement to save face and their positions. They didn't save face and only made it worse by their whitewash. In the internal investigation of the firing, who decided that Aguirre shouldn't be interviewed? Was that solely the former IG? At least his resignation brought us someone who wasn't tainted, but then they got that judge to whitewash the whole thing. The IG is supposed to be independent. If the results of his investigation can be stopped by some judge who isn't independent, what is the point of having an IG? Just get the guys who misuse SEC resources? The SEC has been misusing resources as a matter of habit. They bring investigations against anyone who complains about their oversight, write briefs in favor of the bad guys, and when they get caught, they do a cover-up...
They often don't do a prosecution of a high-profile case until they have their noses rubbed in it.
Why are they even wasting time with Madoff? They will not recover anything. Let the FBI handle it and put the old POS in jail. His assets will be confiscated by the trustee, the criminal courts will handle the rest. They are trying to put lipstick on pig in their handling of this. Let Kotz have all the records and write up the case and don't confuse the matter with closing the door after the horse is gone.. that is a waste of resources.
Will Linda end up with Cutler or JPM?
By mhelburn on
2/10/2009 10:20 AM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
I sincerely hope that the snowball you and your friends have been pushing is about to roll downhill
By Dave on
2/10/2009 10:21 AM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
What a collaboration this could be Michael Moore ands Deepcapture..
This Could Be Interesting: Michael Moore is Making a Film about Wall Street
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php
Will You Help Me With My Next Film? …a request from Michael Moore
February 11, 2009
Friends,
I am in the middle of shooting my next movie and I am looking for a few brave people who work on Wall Street or in the financial industry to come forward and share with me what they know. Based on those who have already contacted me, I believe there are a number of you who know “the real deal” about the abuses that have been happening. You have information that the American people need to hear. I am humbly asking you for a moment of courage, to be a hero and help me expose the biggest swindle in American history.
All correspondence with me will be kept confidential. Your identity will be protected and you will decide to what extent you wish to participate in telling the greatest crime story ever told.
The important thing here is for you to step up as an American and do your duty of shedding some light on this financial collapse. A few good people have already come forward, which leads me to believe there are many more of you out there who know what’s going on. Here’s your chance to let your fellow citizens in on the truth.
If you have any info that would help, please contact me at my private email address: bailout@michaelmoore.com.
For the rest of you on my email list who don’t work in the financial industry, you’re probably wondering, “What the heck is this all about? I thought he said he was making a romantic comedy!”
Well, I just can’t say much right now. I’m sure you can understand why. One thing I can tell you is that you’re gonna like this movie when I’m done with it. Oh, yeah…
So, again, if you work for a bank, a brokerage firm or an insurance company — or if you have seen things or heard things that you believe the American people have a right to know — please contact me at bailout@michaelmoore.com.
Thank you in advance for your help!
Yours,
Michael Moore
bailout@michaelmoore.com
MichaelMoore.com
By sean on
2/11/2009 1:58 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
I told a friend of mine that all Hede Funds are probably ponzi schemes, he said no that I was wrong. Well I am starting to look smart right about now!
This is Huge: Markopolos' 2nd Shoe Drops
Whistleblower Alleges $8 Billion Fraud At Sir Allen Stanford's Offshore Bank
This will be interesting to watch: A whistleblower named Alex Dalmady claims that Stanford International Bank, a large offshore operation run by Texas billionaire Sir Allen Stanford, is an $8 billion fraud, with suspiciously steady year-on-year returns, a la Bernie Madoff.
http://www.businessinsider.com/whistleblower-alleges-8-billion-fraud-at-sir-allen-stanfords-offshore-bank-2009-2
& for those unfamiliar with sir allen, he was welcomed like the 2nd coming on cnbc this past year :
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=739904675
By Sean on
2/11/2009 5:48 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2009/02/12/Criminal-Probe-in-Pequot-Case
Could be a sign of things to come Bobo!!!
By Sean on
2/13/2009 4:00 PM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
Things seem to be looking up!LOL!
Chanos Saw Nonpublic Fairfax Research, E-Mails Show (Update1)
Email | Print | A A A
By Thom Weidlich
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Chanos’s Kynikos Associates Ltd., a short seller of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., learned of negative analyst research on that company before it was published, according to unsealed court documents.
Chanos, Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors LLC and other hedge-fund managers were accused in 2006 by Fairfax of cooperating to drive down the firm’s shares through short sales, according to a complaint by Fairfax seeking $6 billion in damages. Toronto-based Fairfax owns U.S. and Canadian insurers.
Chanos forwarded an e-mail about research by John Gwynn, an analyst with brokerage Morgan Keegan & Co., to rival SAC Capital, the documents show. Morgan Keegan fired Gwynn for telling clients before publication that he planned a negative report. Morgan Keegan and Gwynn were also sued. All defendants denied Fairfax’s claims. Fairfax filed that e-mail and others provided by the defendants with a New Jersey state court to support its claims.
“Last night John Gwinn at Morgan Keegan faxed over to me an outline detailing the issues at FFH, basically those he will be publishing,” Mark Heiman, then an analyst at Kynikos, wrote in a Dec. 21, 2002, e-mail to Chanos that was filed in the case.
FFH is Fairfax’s stock ticker. Gwynn’s name is misspelled in the e-mails, unsealed at the request of Bloomberg News.
Gwynn’s first report on Fairfax was dated Jan. 16, 2003, and released the next day.
Rejects Claim
“Kynikos rejects any claim that it participated in a conspiracy or that it did anything improper when it decided to sell short Fairfax stock,” Peter Haveles, an Arnold & Porter LLP lawyer for Kynikos, said in an interview.
Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for SAC Capital, declined to comment. Gwynn didn’t immediately return a call for comment.
Morgan Keegan spokesman Eric Bran said the company didn’t have an immediate comment. Memphis, Tennessee-based Morgan Keegan is a unit of Regions Financial Corp., Alabama’s biggest bank.
Fairfax filed its complaint in New Jersey Superior Court in Morris County. Fairfax accuses the defendants of racketeering, commercial disparagement, tortious interference with contractual relationships and conspiracy.
The company accused Gwynn of collaborating with the hedge funds to write negative reports on the insurer. The funds knew when the reports would be released and what they would say, Fairfax claims.
When he learned of Gwynn’s research, Chanos began increasing his bet that Fairfax’s shares would fall, a Fairfax lawyer said at a Sept. 25 hearing in the case. A Kynikos lawyer disputed him.
Gwynn sued Fairfax in April. He said Fairfax defamed him by asserting that he had issued fraudulent research. Judge Deanne Wilson, overseeing the Fairfax case, in August ruled against the company’s request to dismiss Gwynn’s suit.
‘Speaks for Itself’
“The evidence demonstrating that Gwynn leaked his research to hedge funds before publication, and his subsequent termination for that misconduct, speaks for itself,” said Marc Kasowitz, a lawyer for Fairfax. “It further proves his prior denials about such misconduct and counterclaim were utterly without merit.”
On Dec. 11, 2002, Heiman wrote his boss Chanos that an insurance analyst at another investment firm told him that Gwynn was going to initiate Fairfax coverage “at ‘underperform,’ with the thesis being that they are extremely under-reserved in the $3-$5 BN area,” according to an unsealed e-mail.
“Just spoke to John Gwinn at Morgan Keegan, and he was more critical of FFRX than I’ve ever heard a sell side analyst,” Heiman told Chanos in a Dec. 16, 2002, e-mail, using Fairfax’s former ticker symbol. “Everything from underwriting to accounting to dishonesty.”
Dec. 18 E-Mail
Chanos, on Dec. 18, 2002, forwarded that e-mail to Jeff Perry, then of New York-based SAC Capital, who’s also a defendant. Perry didn’t return a call for comment.
When a SAC Capital employee asked Gwynn for a spreadsheet on Fairfax, he replied in a Jan. 6, 2003, e-mail that he would send it to him.
Heiman wrote Chanos on Jan. 16: “Just got off the phone with Gwynn at Morgan Keegan -- his piece that rips FFH apart is supposed to be published tomorrow. Should be interesting to see how the street reacts.”
Heiman, now an analyst at Trafelet & Co. in New York, declined to comment on the e-mails.
Gwynn’s January 16 report said Fairfax was short $5 billion of reserves needed to cover future insurance claims, Fairfax said in its complaint. The company’s shares, listed in Toronto, tumbled 28 percent in three trading sessions, to C$85 ($67.93), a seven-year low. Its U.S. shares also plunged.
Short Sale Profits
Hedge funds run by the defendants profited because they short sold Fairfax’s stock, according to the complaint. In a short sale, an investor sells borrowed its shares, hoping to replace them later with cheaper shares, and profiting from the difference.
Two weeks later, in a Jan. 30 report, Gwynn trimmed his shortfall estimate by 40 percent, to $3 billion. Fairfax shares in Toronto jumped 9.7 percent. Gwynn continued to issue negative reports on Fairfax, the complaint said.
Short-selling came under attack last year because of the financial crisis. From Sept. 19 to Oct. 8, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission banned the shorting of financial companies, including Fairfax, after Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer John Mack and New York Senator Charles Schumer blamed the practice for driving companies toward collapse.
Chanos, who only shorts stocks, was one of the early predictor’s of the Enron Corp. collapse. He began betting in late 2000 that Enron’s shares would fall after reading an article about accounting irregularities at the power and natural-gas trader. In December 2001 the Houston company filed what is now the U.S.’s third-largest bankruptcy. Investors sued seeking to recover more than $40 billion.
Largest Shorts
“Fairfax is one of our largest shorts,” Chanos told a TheStreet.com Inc. columnist in August 2002, according to an e- mail unsealed in the case.
Michael Bowe, a lawyer for Fairfax, said at a Sept. 25 hearing in the case that until receiving the advanced notice of Gwynn’s report, Chanos had been covering his short -- buying Fairfax shares to close out his short sale.
“Chanos had been covering his positions up and until the point when he receives the tip that Gwynn is going to issue his report,” Bowe said, according to the transcript. “And between that time and the time of the report coming out, he shorts over five million dollars’ worth of Fairfax shares, half of which he shorts the day before the report comes out.”
Haveles, the Kynikos lawyer, denied that.
Reduced Shorts
“Kynikos continued to reduce its short position in Fairfax after receiving information in mid-December 2002 about the views of Morgan Keegan’s analyst,” he said. “Kynikos increased its long-standing short position in Fairfax by a modest amount on January 16, 2003, but it did not receive information about the imminent release of the Morgan Keegan report until after the close of trading that day and after Kynikos’s trading on that day had occurred.”
Kynikos’s Fairfax trades are still under seal.
In an Aug. 8 hearing in the case, SAC Capital lawyer Martin Klotz said that in the period before Gwynn’s report was published his client was buying Fairfax shares and didn’t short them.
“SAC was not a participant in any conspiracy because we were doing the exact opposite of what they say that we were supposed to be doing,” said Klotz, of Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York.
The case is Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. v. SAC Capital Management LLC, L-2032-06, Superior Court of New Jersey, Morris County (Morristown).
To contact the reporter on this story: Thom Weidlich in New York at tweidlich@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: February 12, 2009 18:18 EST
By Sean on
2/13/2009 4:01 PM
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Publicity
Bobo/Mary/etc - Michael Moore is making a movie about the financial collapse and is actively soliciting input from anyone willing to stand up, provide evidence, and name names. Whatever you feel about him and his movies, this could be an opportunity to get the message in front of a large audience with a sympathetic slant: e.g. You and Patrick would not be portrayed as some kind of nut jobs, hopefully. I don't have the details, but you should be able to google them up.
By Honkytonker on
2/17/2009 8:48 AM
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Geithner's Bank Plan Led Goldman to Call Meeting - Feb 12, 2009
Read CNBC Report and watch video.
Wonder what else these big bankers discussed that was SOOOO important that they hadto call an emergency "secret" meeting with Geithner???
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29163525
By pjstevenson on
2/17/2009 8:49 AM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
Ackerman is in his 13th term in Congress - 25 years, he is Vice chair of the committee (so he's been on it a long time), but he did nothing for all those years while all this was going on - naked shorting, credit default swaps, etc. etc. - and only now is he all outraged.
Ackerman must have received many letters about naked shorting but did nothing. He is every bit as much to blame as the SEC idiots.
By david on
2/17/2009 8:50 AM
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Re: The Face Of Evil Turns Out to Be Sweaty, Fleshy, and Slack-Jawed....
Nuff said
SEC charges Robert Stanford in $8 bln investment scheme
12:03 PM ET | Marketwatch
By Sean on
2/17/2009 11:11 AM
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