I doubt that there will be any leadership from the White House, certainly not any in a timely manner. McCain was correct in asking for Cox’s removal, but came off like a quick-shooter.

If that problem is solved in this fashion all we need do is turn our attention to a bigger problem. Phantom shares, the excess number of shares, over and above the stated outstanding and authorized number of shares need be absorbed.

The question is how. Perhaps a topic for a future blog but honestly, without what is nothing less than “repatriation” by the issuer, this task will be almost impossible.

Imagine having 150% of your stated aurhorized shares trading without the underlying company having the benefit of those shares creating the commensurate add on capital as if issued. In other words, if the shorts cover, the money should go to the issuer. The question becomes, at what price this transfer of wealth occurs.

AMG

New Entry Aaron Morgan Group Blog entry wher we tie the pieces of the puzzle together and show why securities have been falling off the Threshold SHO List. It is not due to finding “locates”.

http://aaronmorgangroup.typepad.com/aaron_morgan_group_blog/2008/10/number-of-secur.html

The New Blog: Citizens for Wall Street Reform

http://aaronmorgangroup.typepad.com/citizens_for_wall_street_/reforming_wall_street/

Educating and bringing awareness to the public is one this. Taking action to the next level is another.

No one could ever thank Mark, Patrick, Judd and all others who centralized this cause. It is up to the rest of us to move it forward.

AMG

mateo

The Chinese company, Origin Agritech (“SEED”), has “….has filed a letter of complaint with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission regarding the naked short selling of the company’s stock.” (see press release link below)

Maybe pressure from Mainland CHINA will trigger the SEC to require a PRE-BORROW on all short sales?

In my view, the manipulation by the Naked Short Sellers caused the Financial Sector crash – which has spread around the world. Until the financial CRIMINALS are hanging high, this manipulative fraud will continue — and all investors (worldwide and in CHINA) have been — and are still being affected — as panic-selling has now set into the markets.

Senator Orrin Hatch estimates that total Fails-to-Delivers amount to $6 BILLION PER DAY. This makes Enron look like an anthill.

May God Bless Dr. Patrick Byrne and Mr. Mark Mitchell (American Heros) and other courageous, brave people for fighting back against these financial criminal cowards – who can only manipulate easy money, not earn money.

Link to Origin Agritech’s news release:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/081006/20081006005989.html?.v=1

On a side note, I hope the State of South Dakota is successful in stopping Fails-to-Delivers in their state. The former Attorney General there has led a charge…and now has a General Ballot Measure for the people to vote on….on November 4th, 2008. Here’s the link to their website:

http://www.voteyes9.com/

With the very strong, powerful, influential Hedge Fund lobby at the Federal level, I recommend that each and every person contact their state legislators (elected officials) to request that legislation be written asap — modeled after the State of South Dakota. It’s the path of least resistance. These financial manipulative criminals can be stopped at the State Level.

If every state gets 19,000 signatures, and General Ballot Measures pass in each state, then the Naked Short Sellers will be prosecutable.

Let’s get some justice back into the markets!

Hang_’em_High

October 22, 2008, 3:15 pm

We See Dead People: $250K Fine for Lehman Short-Sales

Posted by Heidi N. Moore
Sometimes, when Deal Journal closes our eyes, we can picture Lehman Brothers Holdings as it was when it was still alive.

We aren’t the only ones, apparently. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, scores our prize for Great Moments in Delayed Reactions for its fine and censure of Lehman. As Bill Singer’s Broke and Broker Blog discovered today, FINRA has censured and levied a $250,000 fine on the defunct firm, which is in ugly process of unwinding what it owes to creditors.

To give FINRA full credit, the Wall Street self-regulatory group was investigating the complaint before Lehman’s bankruptcy filing in mid September. FINRA’s complaint–all too prescient, as it turns out–was that Lehman didn’t provide enough disclosure about its short sales and didn’t do enough to distinguish between the securities firm’s own short-selling orders and those of customers.

FINRA says: “The Firm’s ability to ensure the accuracy of its trade reports as to whether a particular trade was long or short, and whether a particular short sale was prohibited, was impaired and that, in some instances, this impairment resulted in flawed calculations of net positions….The Firm accepted short sales in securities for its proprietary account and customer short sale orders and, for each order, failed to annotate an affirmative determination that the firm would receive delivery of the security or that the firm could borrow the security or otherwise provide for delivery of the securities by settlement date.”

If Lehman couldn’t guarantee that it was allowed to borrow the stock or would in fact receive the borrowed share, that would count as naked short-selling, a practice that isn’t illegal but was roundly criticized in recent months.

Of course, FINRA isn’t the only one to get its licks in long after Lehman’s bankruptcy surprised the markets. Credit raters Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch infamously downgraded Lehman to a junk rating–after the Sept. 15 bankruptcy filing.

Lehman’s bankruptcy proceedings are teeming with angry creditors trying to figure out just how much the firm had in assets, and how much they can expect to get. Considering that those creditors are trying to figure out where over $630 billion in stated assets went, FINRA’s $250,000 claim is hardly the biggest concern.

Permalink | Trackback URL: http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2008/10/22/we-see-dead-people-250k-regulatory-fine-for-lehman-short-sales/trackback/

Enjoy the read..

Senate Investigators Target SEC Officials

Senate Investigators Target SEC Officials

Inside Knowledge on Bear Stearns Cited

By Amit R. Paley

Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 22, 2008; Page D03

Senate investigators are looking into whether senior officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission provided confidential information to former colleagues working on Wall Street.

The inquiry began after the SEC’s Inspector General received an anonymous tip earlier this month. It alleged that Linda Chatman Thomsen, the agency’s director of enforcement, gave information about investigations into Bear Stearns around March to the general counsel of J.P. Morgan Chase, which at the time was considering whether to buy the troubled investment bank. The Oct. 7 complaint claimed that the inside knowledge obtained by the attorney, Stephen M. Cutler, a former head of enforcement at the SEC, allowed J.P. Morgan to low-ball its bid to purchase Bear Stearns.

A copy of the complaint was also provided to Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee.

In a letter sent last night to the SEC, Grassley asked for information about all SEC investigations into Bear Stearns, as well as communications between SEC officials and J.P. Morgan Chase about those cases.

“Such conduct would reinforce the appearance that Enforcement decisions, and disclosures of information about them, are sometimes based not on the merits,” he wrote in his letter yesterday, “but rather on access to senior officials by influential representatives of power brokers on Wall Street.”

An SEC spokesman declined to comment last night. J.P. Morgan Chase did not respond to a request for comment last night.

The inspector general, H. David Kotz, issued a report last month that criticized what some agency employees called the “common practice” of outside lawyers gaining access to senior SEC officials. He also said the agency should consider disciplining Thomsen for such behavior while she was in charge of an insider-trading case.

Grassley raised concerns last year about improper communications between high-level SEC officials and attorneys at firms under investigation.

Folks if South Dakota can do it why can’t others ? Are all states crooked or owned by Wall Street?

http://www.youtube.com/securitiesreform

Also please look at this other video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KQwbouyCXo&feature=related

So long, suckers. Millionaire hedge fund boss thanks ‘idiot’ traders and retires at 37

Andrew Clark in New York The Guardian, Saturday October 18 2008 larger | smaller Article history

The boss of a successful US hedge fund has quit the industry with an extraordinary farewell letter dismissing his rivals as over-privileged “idiots” and thanking “stupid” traders for making him rich.

Andrew Lahde’s $80m Los Angeles-based firm Lahde Capital Management in Los Angeles made a huge return last year by betting against subprime mortgages.

Yesterday the 37-year-old told his clients that he had hated the business and had only been in it for the money. And after declaring he would no longer manage money for other people, because he had enough of his own, Lahde said that instead he intended to repair his stress-damaged health; he made it clear he would not miss the financial world.

“The low-hanging fruit, ie idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking,” he wrote. “These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government,” he said.

“All of this behaviour supporting the aristocracy only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.”

Lahde became one of the biggest names in the investment industry when one of his funds produced a return of 866% last year, largely by forecasting the US home loans industry would collapse.

In his farewell letter, which concluded with an appeal for the legalisation of marijuana, Lahde said he was happy with his rewards and did not envy those who had made even more money.

“I will let others try to amass nine, 10 or 11 figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck,” he wrote, citing a life of back-to-back business appointments relieved only by a two-week annual holiday in which financiers are still “glued to their Blackberries”.

Lahde’s retirement came amid an implosion among the hedge fund industry – some 350 of the funds have liquidated this year, according to Hedge Fund Research.

. . . and everyone else . . . thanks.

The response aned feedback has been very positive and sincerely appreciated. We all appreciate everything everyone does . . .

. . . time to make the minority the majority.

AMG