Professor William Black Flunks Bethany McLean for Giving Hall Passes to Goldman Sachs and Wall Street

I first heard of William K. Black over 20 years ago as the regulator who had stood up to the “Keating 5” and come out the hero of the S&L crisis (in which I gained some early experience: hence my awareness of him). Later, as a professor of law and economics at University of Missouri in 2005, Black wrote a book about control fraud,  “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One,” available here. You should read it.

Yet I had never heard Black speak until one night in April, 2009, when he appeared on Bill Moyers. How refreshing it was to see the tabloid analyses be at last replaced with discourse about the system itself (and remember that while the following claims now seem barely controversial, in 2009 most were still heretical):  Banksters. Fraud versus trust. Moral hazard and pathological incentives in the financial system (e.g., lending firms’ Ninja Loans + investment bankers pooling mortgages + captured ratings agencies = toxic waste = systemic risk).  FBI warned on mortgage fraud in 2004, but the Machine failed to react. Bank lobbyists. Glass Steagall. Brooksley Born and Credit Default Swaps. Bailout of the elites. Bank CEOs. Cover-up. Strategy to keep the public from understanding how bad the problem is. Prompt Corrective Action Law: Nationalize zombie banks. WHERE IS OUR PECORA COMMISSION? Scared of insolvent banks being revealed. Mimicking the strategies of Japan’s Lost Decade.  AIG-to-Goldman bailout.  Increasingly horrific give-aways of taxpayer money. Stop hiding the losses.  The current bleak numbers still vastly underestimate the fraud problem.

Black had me at “control fraud.”  I leave it to the community of readers to judge the familiarity of the other claims he made:

 

Alas, Bethany McLean and I are not so sympatico, and in fact have had a challenging relationship. Her side of the story is told  here:

Is Overstock the new Amazon?

PHANTOM MENACE

DeepCaptures’ side, here:

Bethany McLean: your benefit of the doubt is hereby revoked

Rocker Partners and Bethany McLean: the smarmiest guys in the room

David Einhorn, Cheryl Strauss, and the “Unavailable” Bethany McLean

One interesting aside: in the last year I have had numerous journalists bring up to me Bethany’s emails wherein she schemes with a hedge fund (emails obtained by DeepCapture from a New Jersey courthouse and published in Bethany McLean: your benefit of the doubt is hereby revoked). These journalists have told me that they know about it and see it as a tremendous breach of journalistic ethics. So there it sits, an open secret, although not, apparently, a secret anymore, but just something about which one whispers.  In a similar fashion, Jim Cramer’s video sat on DeepCapture for a couple of years drawing no comment, until Comedy Central confronted Cramer with it.

In any case, this week on CNBC Maria Bartiromo invited William Black and Bethany McLean on as guests to discuss the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue criminal charges against Goldman Sachs for its role in the financial crisis in general, and for selling financial products from whose specific failure Goldman profited. Truly remarkable performances were delivered by all, albeit in different ways.

Black responds to Maria’s opening by stating the obvious: Generating liar loans and packaging them for resale is fraud. There is no evidence that there was a significant federal investigation, or that a grand jury was convened. There is an absence of  accountability.  Goldman has been given a pass by Obama and Bush.

Bethany responds with bromides delivered with a dulcet confidence intended to suggest that she knows what she is talking about. Her analysis: I don’t think anybody is giving  Goldman Sachs a pass to be honest. I think this is a tough case to make. I do think integrity needs to be restored to the financial system, but you don’t do that by bringing a case that shouldn’t be made. Goldman Sachs didn’t make liars’ loans –  they actually among the Wall Street firms were not on the ground making mortgages. So if you can’t bring a case against Countrywide how can you possibly bring a case against Goldman Sachs?  … From an overall perspective Goldman Sachs as a firm lost money in the mortgage business. Awfully tough to bring that case to a jury and win, I think… I’m not giving Goldman a pass or any of Wall Street a pass. I think I’m with Bill on that. But I don’t think this was a criminal case.  I think Goldman’s customers should make the call: Do we want to do business with this firm? …

These vapid apologetics draw Maria Bartiromo’s stammering, nodding approval: As you said earlier, stupidity does not mean criminality.

Bethany: Greed and venality do not make a criminal case.

There are two remarkable items about Bethany’s performance. First, note the air of confidence she exudes when in fact (as will become clear) she has essentially no idea of what she is talking about (hence the expression “a journalistic understanding”). Second, note that Bethany is apparently unaware that the man she is debating on-air, Professor William K. Black, knows a lot about what she is talking about. In fact, he is perhaps the nation’s foremost expert on precisely the issue she and Maria are trying to spin to Goldman’s behalf: the federal prosecution of white collar crime at financial institutions.

Professor Black continues like a gentle professor with two weak students: Critical area here…. First, I’m the type of person that was involved in training the FBI agents, the assistant US attorneys, serving as the expert witness in these successful prosecutions where we had a 90% successful rate. Um, clearly people are not understanding fraud mechanisms. In accounting control fraud, the firm – loses – money. Indeed that is one of the defining elements because the way you maximize it is by making bad loans. And Goldman did make liar’s loans, it did it through subsidiaries, and Goldman purchased loans that it knew to be fraudulent, and it packaged them and sold them as if they were good loans. This belief that this is the first virgin crisis in which fraud was not driving it is amazing. Nobody believes it about the savings and loan debacle. No one believes it about the Enron era fraud. And given what you’ve seen in the last three weeks, how can you believe it out of the current…”

Bethany appears to panic slightly then, unable to respond substantively to a single one of Black’s arguments, simply locks into a repetitive, droning regurgitation of the talking points she just delivered a moment earlier (which amplifies my suspicion that some Goldman PR flack gave them to her to memorize). Behold Bethany McLean’s verbatim analysis of legal culpability in the greatest financial collapse of our lifetime (so far):

Maria, I think there was a hue and a cry and a lot of political pressure to bring charges in this case. And I think that if they could have, they would have. And I don’t think that any of our interests are served… I think it’s just as dangerous to bring a case that shouldn’t be made as to not bring a case that should be made. Neither one helps with the integrity of the financial system. I agree – peoples’ behavior during this crisis was unethical, it was abhorrent, it was every word you can come up with for ‘wrong.’ But if you are going to bring a case against Goldman Sachs you have to bring a case against every single other Wall Street firm as well as every mortgage originator as well as every home owner who lied on his or her mortgage application. You cannot single out one firm and say we are going to charge Goldman and we’re not bringing charges against everybody else. That’s wrong.

Maria Bartiromo: That’s a great point.

William Black (like a professor exasperated with dull students he can no longer humor): No, it’s not a great point. It’s a terrible point. You’ve got to start with somebody. Your first prosecution is always your first prosecution. And you can always say where there’s been an epidemic of fraud…”

Goldman Sachs Avoids Prosecution from CNBC.

Bethany’s nails-on-a-chalkboard apologetics have received a fair bit of shocked attention this week:

Columbia Journalism Review: “Bill Black goes on CNBC and shreds Maria Bartiromo and Bethany McLean on whether Goldman Sachs (and others) could and should have been prosecuted for fraud related to the financial crisis…”

Bill Black vs Goldman Sachs Apologists

WATCH: Bill Black On CNBC Debates Wall Street Fraud-Deniers Maria Bartiromo, Bethany McLean

Bethany McLean Demonstrates her Profound Lack of Understanding of Control Fraud, Gresham’s Dynamics, and Justice: “In this painful CNBC segment, former Goldman Sachs employee Bethany McLean provides a heartfelt apologia for her much-maligned former employer. Bethany says it is time for us all to move on for the good of confidence in the economy…In the process of prostrating herself for GS, she demonstrates her complete lack of understanding of control fraud, Gresham’s Dynamics, and how white collar crime can be pursued.”

I think this interview was unusual in that her panic drew Bethany into baring her biases incautiously (though frankly, the first sentence she uttered the first time she called me in 2004 conveyed to me that she is a shill and a Mean Girl). Asserting without argument that  political pressure supported bringing charges against Goldman, Bethany appears literally incapable of considering the possibility that net political pressure ran in the opposite direction, and that in fact were it not for “political pressure” Goldman Sachs would have been prosecuted years ago.

But personally, I think Bethany is not really incapable of considering such a possibility, and that her adamancy thus has other motive.

Daily headlines disappoint with lack of prosecution, making clear that this will go down as history’s “first virgin financial crisis” (in Professor Black’s phrase) in which fraud played no role.  When you read these headlines, imagine Bethany McLean, or someone very much like her, standing in an oak-paneled room in Washington, DC, droning through the same set of talking points to some senior decision-maker, and that decision-maker slowly getting snowed in under the same dulcet non sequiturs as appear in this remarkable exchange.

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  1. I think WE THE PEOPLE MUST have a say in the form of a trial by JURY.
    No more back room deals, no more ‘without admitting or denying’ slap on the wrist fines.No more Congressional ‘hearings’ that result in large amounts of T.V coverage and no convictions.
    JUSTICE!!
    If the average person on the street does not get this soon, then the justice sought may be taken to the streets.
    We sure wont find it through the courts or Washington.
    Wall Street has committed crimes against the American People and must face justice for their crimes.
    Nothing else will stop the rage of the people who have lost all.

  2. You need to edit this blog post. This is not your best work. Take a nap, think it out and then hit send.

  3. UPDATE !! YES !! GREAT

    ONE BIG CONCERN:
    “So there it sits, an open secret, although not, apparently, a secret anymore, but just something about which one whispers. (Just as Jim Cramer’s video sat on DeepCapture for a couple of years drawing no comment, until Comedy Central confronted Cramer with it).”

    Just something about which one whispers?! Do you realize the significance of this? It is smoking gun evidence that Deepcapture.com is an abominable marketer! Or does not like promotion, branding…

    Your Cramer video would have easily gone viral on YouTube, and every European and Asian channel that follows Wall Street if a good strategy was employed. It probably still could go viral given the right video mixing and linking.

    The only reason Comedy Central picked the story up was the sheer luck of the Daily Show having a spat with CNBC at the same time you were on the Daily Show set. That is serendipity.

    You have done absolutely brilliant work with exposing all of this… but seriously, consider getting someone like Stormy onto promoting your crusade against Wall Street criminals.

  4. let them all steal who cares at this point, Whoever fights for this country and gives their life is a MORON. And Bethany and Maria are playing stupid, at they are GREAT at doing that without practice

  5. Goldman, Still Playing in Bayou’s Mud
    By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
    Published: August 18, 2012

    THE story of the Bayou Group, the hedge fund firm that collapsed in a whirl of lies and drugs, was always a little weird. But it just keeps getting weirder.
    Related

    Times Topic: Gretchen Morgenson

    Add to Portfolio

    Goldman Sachs Group Inc

    Go to your Portfolio »

    You may recall Bayou — or at least its founder-turned-con man, Samuel Israel III. To the world, Mr. Israel was a trading whiz. Then, one August afternoon in 2005, the police responded to a 911 call from Bayou’s offices in Stamford, Conn., and found a note explaining how he had perpetrated a giant fraud.

    Mr. Israel, it turned out, wasn’t managing a hedge fund at all. He was running a Ponzi scheme — a small-time version of the Madoff racket that, at that very moment, was still going strong. Mr. Israel, who said he’d become addicted to painkillers, was later sentenced to 20 years in prison — then two more for jumping bail, faking his suicide and going on the lam. His abandoned vehicle was found on the Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson River, the words “suicide is painless” written in the dust on the hood.

    Now, as Mr. Israel sits in jail, this tale has taken yet another twist. It came late last month from, of all places, Goldman Sachs.

    Goldman had executed and cleared trades for Bayou, and there were questions about how well Goldman supervised the account. On July 30, Goldman paid $20.7 million to roughly 200 Bayou investors in the United States. Those investors, unsecured creditors in a separate Bayou bankruptcy case, were awarded that amount by a securities arbitration panel in June 2010.

    It was one of the few bright spots of the Bayou story, but it didn’t last. The same day Goldman paid the investors, the firm filed its own creditor’s claim for the same amount — $20.7 million — in the Bayou bankruptcy. Goldman contended that paying the award had made it, too, a Bayou creditor. If the court agrees, the investors who won their arbitration case — also unsecured creditors of Bayou — will be out of luck.

  6. So, what is it, actually, the Bethany and her crew wish for the rest of us? Wall St. basically is one big pickpocket convention. There was a big car auction this week, and one of the participants said, “If you buy a car for a million, put it in the garage, when you open the garage door in the morning, the car is still there, unlike a stock.”

    Do they think this subterfuge makes everything all right? That the system will protect itself? There has to be a reason, and that reason is, I think, that if prosecution starts, it can’t stop, and lot of elite dance backwards for a long, long time. She took the easy money, now she has to work to defend her employers. A guess, but as good as any.

      1. How close do you think America is to understanding that they have just been fleeced by these crooks?

        1. All you can do , is what you can do. Anybody here knows more than his peers. Just keep telling the story. I know the Deepcapture boys will bug the top tier of this, but our job, as I see it, is to tell everybody that has an interest. We’re a lot better off than we were at the beginning of this.

          I think, the more people keep looking around, knowing SOMETHING is wrong, will understand this is part of it. N ever get up or lose hope. That’s what they’re counting on.

          1. I have not checked those links for a while.
            I wish things would stay working once linked, but that just can’t seem to happen.
            I am sorry if they do not work, they lead to some great information.
            Feel free to update links as they quit working.
            I wish some one computer savvy could post a active copy of the survey.One that could keep track of how many people answered which question what way.
            A interesting data field could be generated.
            Who knew what and when.

    1. Anonymous,

      That’s the least of it!!

      What they do not mention is that upon receiving his subpoena, Jim Cramer immediately began selling his shares of TheStreet.com without informing the public of his subpoena! According to his own lawyer, Jim Cramer had never previously sold TheStreet.com stock).

      https://www.deepcapture.com/how-not-to-respond-to-a-subpoena-by-the-sec/
      https://www.deepcapture.com/what-we-should-learn-from-jim-cramer-vs-the-daily-shows-jon-stewart/

      Hedgefunds can’t touch this website because lawsuits require a pre-trial phrase called “discovery” that legally allows Deepcapture access to more evidence.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_(law)

  7. can you have body language experts look over these media videos investigating planned facial expressions and write about it… bill black interview looks rigged… designed for disinformation into the market.. ask bill to make a post about potential of all cnbc capture and

  8. and orchestration of how maria and bethany should act and how they should speak. bethany has idea what she is doing and why she is doing it. it is disinformation done purposely. the body postures from two media people do not add up to honest discussion.

    #First, note the air of confidence she exudes when in fact (as will become clear) . no, wrong, this is wrong.

    :::: this is done to discredit bill black and same body posture of maria always agreeing with bethany and making body language that doubts bill black, trying to downplay all his points, cutting him off with doubts and shrugs at the end. watch bethany roll her eyes, when bill says he was not on the team, this is a fake planned eye roll, not honest one. have any body posture expert analyze this.

    she has essentially no idea of what she is talking about (hence the expression “a journalistic understanding”) :::: this is false she worked at goldman, wrote enron and big book contract because james chanos, … she prepares to disinform, maybe coached by her husband. she knows is acting for a purpose, she is a criminal look at the collusion with cohodes .

    Second, note that Bethany is apparently unaware that the man she is debating on-air
    ::: impossible, this is rigged, prepared interview and wikipedia article on Bill makes information easy

    interview did not draw panic in bethany, her gasp was only because the plan was not being followed so she needed 1-2 seconds to think about how she has been coached, then decide on how to act base on coaching.

    watch video again focus on body postures, planned

  9. Dr. John L. Faessel
    ON THE MARKET
    Commentary and Insights
    Aug 21, 2012
    Attn: Mark Zuckerberg – Illegal Naked Shorting Is Killing Your Share Price ― Wake Up!
    Attn: Mark Zuckerberg
    Some Wall Street gangsters are in the process of destroying your public company, stealing the wealth off of it through an illegal practice called naked short selling. (A Google search of “naked short” yields 190,000,000 results.)
    Before I begin my appeal to you, Mr. Zuckerberg, let me begin by saying that I believe that the legal shorting of stocks is OK. I’m all for it and use the practice myself at times.
    In a legal short sale, traders borrow stock before they sell it. In illegal naked short sales, traders do not borrow shares before selling them. They simply sell shares that they do not have. They are in essence counterfeiting stock. They are flooding the markets with phantom shares-phony supply that drives down prices.
    In this case, they are driving down Facebook’s share price.
    This practice has been exposed by (among others) a Bloomberg News article and an excellent and informative documentary titled Phantom Shares, an Economist magazine article, and the magazine story of Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone’s highly respected financial journalist. In every case, these media outlets described naked short selling as being the equivalent of counterfeiting stock. Moreover, they have all stressed that the creation of this “phantom stock” has done massive damage to share prices and has often destroyed the companies that were targeted.
    Mr. Zuckerberg, Facebook has been and is being targeted. More than that, “your” company has become the premier “target de jour,” and you need to do something to protect both your company and your investors. To date Facebook shares have been cut in half since the IPO and the market-cap is down $40 billion in 90 days.
    I highly recommend that you contact Patrick Byrne, CEO of internet retailer Overstock.com Inc. (OSTK). His company was attacked by naked short sellers and since then he has become an expert on this illegal practice. He has filed one lawsuit (which was settled before going to trial) against a short seller who was using other tactics to drive down OSTK’s share price, and has filed another lawsuit against prime brokers who were facilitating naked short selling for their clients. Discovery in the lawsuit against the prime brokers yielded documentary evidence (cited in stories by Rolling Stone, Bloomberg Newswires, and others) that the brokers were “failing to deliver” stock because it had been naked shorted. That is to say, the traders did not borrow stock and in fact did not have stock before they sold it. They “failed to deliver” the stock because they were selling counterfeited phantom shares.
    Not only will a few moments’ conversation with Mr. Byrne educate you about the practice of naked short selling and help you to understand the damage that it has done to your company and many others as well; once you become familiar with the practice, you might be motivated to do a great service by helping to inform the wider public about this problem. No one has a better platform than you for getting an important message to the public.
    Given the full-scale onslaught by Wall Street against Facebook (FB), it is essential that you come to understand this crime and become a leader in the fight to stop it. You have built a fabulously successful company and you need to do what you can to protect it. In addition, you have established yourself as a leader-and your leadership is needed to help others who are being hurt by this crime.
    Once you become familiar with the problem, I think you will understand the need to educate regulators at the SEC who have failed to prevent the crime. You will also learn that other important organizations, such as the DTCC, have facilitated the criminal practice. Both the SEC and the DTTC have, to some extent, allowed themselves to become beholden to outfits like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), Bank of America (BAC), and JP Morgan (JPM), which profit extensively from naked short selling and spend large sums on lobbying efforts that have had some success in convincing regulators to look the other way.
    Central to this theme is that the DTCC-the quasi-regulator responsible for ensuring that stock sold short is not phantom stock, and that the stock does not “fail to deliver”-is owned by the banks and brokers that are doing the naked short selling.
    See this DTCC page that makes clear that the rules are for the benefit of the broker-dealers, not for the benefit of the investing public.
    It is not just companies that are affected by naked short selling. The investing public-average Americans-have lost billions to this practice. As average Americans have begun to learn more about the crime, some have begun to call on officials in Washington to address the problem, but their voices alone are not enough. Many victims have yet to be sufficiently educated about the problem to effectively speak out.
    I have been writing about the unlawful practice of naked short selling for over 10 years and I have watched it needlessly destroy many companies and harm countless investors. The more companies that fight back, the better-and FaceBook could / should be the new poster child for the fight against this prohibited, dishonest, and illegal practice.
    To date, the penalties dished out by the courts and regulatory bodies have been token hand slaps. They are what I like to call “Fines for Crimes.” And the legal teams from the major investment banks are formidable and they can string out litigation for decades. Indeed, this is precisely what they have done.
    When traders on Wall Street plunder, they do not use a gun. It is easy for people to understand a mugger with a gun, but the crimes of Wall Street are more difficult to understand and they are often perpetrated without attracting the attention that they deserve. Too many investors do not even realize that they have been robbed, their investments wiped out. This is especially true in cases of naked shorting.
    Although media outlets like the Economist, Bloomberg, and Rolling Stone have brought attention to the problem of naked short selling, generally the media has not done enough. However, a documentary film on the subject has now been made. Here’s a short clip.
    There are many who know that Facebook has been targeted by naked short selling, and that is in part why some well known investors such as Mark Cuban have abandoned their interest in your company. A growing number of investors believe you can’t fight the big boys on Wall Street. But they are wrong. You have the platform to fight back, and you can make a big difference.
    As I noted, I have been in this slog for a long time, and many others have been waging the battle as well. But for the naked short sellers it has been business as usual, and the regulators whose job is to protect investors have let us down.
    Now it is your company-Facebook-that is under attack. It is your investors who are getting hurt. But this time is different in one respect. Facebook is considered by many people to be not just a company, but a new American icon. The people who use Facebook consider themselves to be part of it. They are an enormous community of 995 million active users, and if they were to know that Facebook were under this illegal and destructive attack, maybe they would voice their objections, and perhaps their collective voice would be heard. This is an opportunity like never before to spread the word.
    But even your voice alone would make a big difference. Because you are the face of Facebook, you are in a unique position to help tackle a problem that has caused immense damage to companies, the markets, investors, and the American economy.
    It is with considerable hope that I (on behalf of thousands of others) now ask you to stand up and fight.
    Contributing to an already bad technical situation, on Thursday Facebook freed up 271 million of its shares, as a ‘lockup expired for early investors adding 60% the number of shares that could be traded adding to concerns that have weighed on the stock since the company’s initial public offering. The FB shares sold off 6% and closed at new lows of $19.87. On Friday it closed down another 4.13% at $19.05 hugely down from its IPO opening price of $42.05. Wall Street’s naked shorts considers this to be a free shot-a chance to steal; they yell “Fire!,” and like a machine gun they shoot out sell tickets in an avalanche to overwhelm the natural buyers. That’s right; they steal by driving the price of the stock down and cover on the sale of these shares as the longs throw in the towel. While this “bear raid” is an old practice, now with computer driven sell programs it’s like swimming against the torrent of Niagara Falls.
    Left unchecked, Wall Street will continue the practice of the naked short attack and drive the stock as far down as possible to make the sellers sell at lowest possible price. They will do all they can to create panic in the market; indeed, obviously the well-crafted panic has already set in. Moreover, the shorts will plant negative stories about Facebook in the financial media, throwing more gasoline on the fire and driving the stock still lower. As I’m sure you know, some are even calling for your removal as CEO.
    So to Mr. Zuckerburg-and to all your young co-workers, and to all the investors who believe in Facebook-a grand welcome to the very tawdry world of Wall Street. You can continue to stand by and watch this happen over and over again, or you can play a major, even decisive role in stopping this singularly brazen heist.
    Mr. Zuckerburg, it is your call.
    One more lick: Is it any wonder that the investment public is abandoning the stock market? As the New York Times recently reported: “Investors withdrew a staggering $33.12 billion from domestic stock market mutual funds in the first seven months of this year, according to the Investment Company Institute, the mutual fund industry trade group.”
    Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

  10. Your Bethany Mclean article is most excellent, as is your Gary Weiss article. Could you please write a “caught plagiarizing article” comment or article for the three articles below. We are biased about Enron and need you objectivity, philosophy professor.

    1. Jonathon Weil September 2000 Enron piece: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB105545983187165000.html

    2. Felony McLean March 2001 smear piece of Enron: http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/13/news/companies/enronoriginal_fortune/index.htm

    3. Jim Chanos Prepared Witness Testimony: http://www.actwin.com/kalostrader/EnronTestimony.htm

    1. Buffett is a coward that lent a helping hand to evil. He choses the temporal pleasure of McLean’s lips on his ass over exposing her ongoing criminal behavior.

      You still have the chance to join the good side Warren — just expound on her emails to Cohodes at the next Berkshire Conference. Don’t let Charlie’s jihad against exercise and nutrition fill up your calender too!

  11. To Patrick:I see that NYP Holdings,Teri Buhl,Sykes and David Patch are mentioned in the Bankruptcy Trustee’s case and his claims involving SpongeTech.Today the news was found on SPNGQ’s Message Board on Yahoo Finance.I think it’s for 10 million bucks damages for certain statements made over various forums and websites.Looks to me like the Bankruptcy Trustee from NY (Silverman) is gaining traction in this case.Conspiracy is a wide net that is cast in these Bankruptcy cases and is a very efficient and effective law.Compare to IEAM case and what lawyer Thomas did for them.Very good,going after Baker & McKenzie for 500 million and winning.Not saying any on the Trustee’s list are guilty until proven otherwise.This type of law needs to be expanded and explored by others.Very interesting angle of law.

  12. JOHN L. FAESSEL

    KENNETH D. LAUB, Plaintiff, v. JOHN L. FAESSEL and WORLDCO, L.L.C.

    The complaint alleges that, in 1993, defendant John L. Faessel introduced himself to plaintiff Kenneth D. Laub as a “duly registered investment advisor, specializing in advising high net worth individuals” regarding the stock market. In particular, Faessel represented that he had “extensive training and expertise as a technical analyst and chartist” and that he was regularly and successfully providing advice to a broad client base. Unbeknownst to Laub, however, none of this was true — Faessel’s only formal training is as a dentist. Relying on these misrepresentations, Laub retained Faessel as an “investment advisor” and paid him $ 18,000 between January 1, 1995 and June 30, 1995.

    In July 1995, Faessel falsely told Laub that he had become a consultant to defendant WorldCo and encouraged Laub to continue to use his services, now with the purported benefits of WorldCo’s resources.

    In reliance on these false statements and Faessel’s continuing misrepresentations as to his qualifications and expertise, Laub paid $ 17,500 for and relied upon Faessel’s advice in purchasing securities. These investments resulted in a loss of $ 15,557,848.

    Faessel then falsely told Laub that he had become a registered representative with WorldCo and was qualified to execute trades for Laub’s WorldCo accounts. Faessel encouraged Laub to consolidate several of his accounts at WorldCo and to allow Faessel to clear Laub’s trades through a “prime brokerage account” at Spear, Leeds & Kellogg (“SLK”) because he said
    such accounts supposedly offer “priority over retail accounts.”

    Apparently these statements were also false. Laub, ignorant of the deception, agreed to open an account at WorldCo and a prime brokerage account at SLK and on December 8, 1995, he extended Faessel “limited trading authorization” to Faessel on his account.

    Relying on Faessel’s recommendation, Laub bought and sold securities with WorldCo through Faessel which resulted in further losses of $13,988,362.

    In May 1996, Laub discovered that Faessel was neither a registered investment advisor nor a registered WorldCo representative and that he had no formal training in analyzing securities.

    Note: The complaint was dismissed but the factual findings by the Court remain

  13. Mitchell’s writing style makes the Dendreon and Miscreant story almost unreadable. Consider making a a table or infographic of all the players involved. Then create a new story without all of the “remember X, he was the person who did a, then b, with c, who knew d, doing jail time for e, partners with f and g. That mess can be solved with interactive visuals.

    1. To kill the root of all evil you need Roundout (which is Agent Orange from Viet Nam) made by Monsanto.

      Death to Evil by Death Merchant. The devils playground.

      1. RoundUP is a derived from Glyphosate. pretty much it’s ground up rocks.

        Mixing two phenoxyl ( 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D ) makes Agent Orange.

        While Monsanto made both – they are vastly different.

        1. I was thinking more along the lines of ‘burning’ these institutions by making them delivery to the buyers full value of EVERYTHING they sold and never again allowing them to ‘sell’ what they do not ‘own’.
          That would burn the whole ‘growth’ at this point.
          Hypotheification has never been at higher levels.
          Not even before 2008.

          1. My point is you do not know what you are talking about.

            And that in regard to both subjects.

          2. The entire meltdown in value of the worlds finances, Real estate, stocks and bonds.
            The destruction of economies the loss of jobs, all these things have happened they are real.
            The peasants in China did not do it.
            The average Joe six pack has continued to work more for less money and IS paying his bills he did not do it.
            Facebook’s IPO price was twice what the company is worth now, is it facebooks ‘fault’.
            I do not think so.
            Since you have the opinion I do not know what I am talking about, as may well be true, then please explain why these things are occurring in YOUR opinion.
            I would LOVE to hear it.
            Until then a empty phrase like ‘you do not know what you are talking about’ has no meaning either.
            You cannot dismiss a idea without at least a better hypothesis being presented.
            So what is yours?
            I promise not to dismiss your theories with empty statements.

          3. Large banks broken up, financial criminals put into stocks at prison shower facilities.

  14. Dendreon at $4.49.

    Somewhere Mitch Gold is driving a Ferrarin and Grandma is eating dog food.

    Company is burning capital like a Ferrari goes through fuel.

  15. Also William Black does not mention that Lehman’s downfall was because of naked short selling:

    Testimony before Congress on the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers

    On April 20, 2010, Black testified before the House Financial Services Committee in a hearing titled “Public Policy Issues Raised by the Report of the Lehman Bankruptcy Examiner.” He testified about the role that Alt-A mortgages, what he called “liars loans,” on residential real estate played in the downfall of Lehman Brothers. His testimony was that “Lehman’s failure is a story in large part of fraud. And it is fraud that begins at the absolute latest in 2001, and that is with their subprime and liars’ loan operations.”[10] As explained in his prepared statement, his reference was to Aurora Loan Services, Inc., which was a subsidiary of Lehman: “Lehman’s principal source of (fictional) income and real losses was making (and selling) what the trade accurately called ‘liar’s loans’ through its subsidiary, Aurora. (The bland euphemism for liar’s loans was ‘Alt-A.’) Liar’s loans are ‘criminogenic’ (they create epidemics of mortgage fraud) because they create strong incentives to provide false information on loan applications.”[11]

    On the same page in his prepared testimony Black referenced an article from the Denver Post dated September 16, 2008, the day after Lehman filed for bankruptcy. The article reported on the uncertain fate of Aurora Loan Services, which was based nearby, and quoted Lehman’s chief financial officer as saying the previous week that, “The majority of our write-downs were in Alt-A driven by an increase in.. . delinquencies and loss expectations.” The article also said that Lehman was “among the first of its peers to originate home loans and securitize them for sale across the globe, and it fueled the growth of the Alt-A loan.”[12]

  16. DONALD STOECKLEIN DEPOSITION, 1-24-06
    In said deposition, Donald Stoecklein testifies that naked short expert Jim Decosta, with 25 years of experience, told both Bill Frizzell and him that a 14 to 1 short position exists in CMKM stock.
    That means that for every one legitimate share that exists, 14 naked short shares exist, which in turn means that numerous naked short sellers exist. In said deposition, Donald Stoecklein testifies that they obtained a NOBO list and the number of CMKM shares on that NOBO list exceeded the number of CMKM shares on the list of 1st Global Stock Transfer, which in turn means that naked short sellers exist. The Coalition demands that Jim DeCosta’s report be made public along with the cert pull deposition which shows the Authorities made false statements in this case to cover up the crimes of many Wall Street brokers by making it look like corrupt insiders were the only sellers of unregistered shares of CMKX stock.

    “The NSS of CMKX did to my family in 2004 what the deteriorating economy my do to many other families in 2009 – and imho, the 2008-2009 market collapse which has been blamed on the Collateralized Debt Securitization (CDS) of mortgages to bogues was greatly exaserbated if not caused almost totally by the same problem: UNBRIDALED NAKED SHORT SELLING of the stock even of the financial pillars of our economy.” (Jim DeCosta)

    http://noahltl1.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=cmkx1&action=display&thread=3526

    1. CMKX should have been a red flag to alert the investing public to the disaster to come.
      The CMKX ‘smell of smoke’ should have been heeded then the whole economy would not have ‘burned’.
      Instead we had the top regulators and enforcement arms of the financial community telling everyone naked short selling did not exist.
      This is akin to the fire Marshal telling theater patrons there is no smoke it does not exist as the theater burns down killing all inside.
      All because the fire Marshal’s buddies have a heavy insurance policy on the theater and want to collect.
      Criminal charges are not enough.

  17. It would appear (again) that Patrick and Deepcaptures’ account of the actions of Mr. Pink and his Cohort miscreants are being corroberated by a jilted spouse. Sound familiar (Steve Cohen same thing last year) Could Perry buy the justice system like Cohen did and get this thrown out again? Only time will tell.

    Fairfax in the news recently

    The estranged wife of a hedge fund executive is suing her husband (Jeffrey Perry) in federal court after she says he hid assets from her in the Cayman Islands and engaged in a wide-ranging fraud to destroy a financial services company.

    Her name is Elizabeth Bingham-Perry. She says much of Jeffrey Perry’s wealth was acquired illegally, after he and his partners at Third Point devised a scheme to destroy a Toronto-based financial services company, Fairfax Financial Holdings, to make money from short-selling Fairfax’s stock, or, betting on it to lose. “Hell Hath no fury like that of a woman scorned”

    Fairfax in the news recently

    The estranged wife of a hedge fund executive is suing her husband (Jeffrey Perry) in federal court after she says he hid assets from her in the Cayman Islands and engaged in a wide-ranging fraud to destroy a financial services company.

    “Her name is Elizabeth Bingham-Perry. She says much of Jeffrey Perry’s wealth was acquired illegally, after he and his partners at Third Point devised a scheme to destroy a Toronto-based financial services company, Fairfax Financial Holdings, to make money from short-selling Fairfax’s stock, or, betting on it to lose.”

    http://www.lohud.com/article/20120904/NEWS/309040082?nclick_check=1

  18. Fairfax loses lawsuit against U.S. hedge funds
    Published 52 minutes ago
    Share on twitterShare on facebookVanessa Lu
    Business Reporter

    A New Jersey judge has tossed out an $8 billion lawsuit filed by Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. against U.S. hedge funds accusing them of conspiring with analysts and researchers to drive down Fairfax’s stock price.

    Superior Court Judge Donald Coburn dismissed the long-running case, filed by the Canadian insurance and investment firm in 2006, on Wednesday.

    The suits against other hedge funds including Third Point and S.A.C. Capital had been dismissed earlier, so the remaining defendants were Exis Capital Management Inc., a New York-based hedge fund, and Morgan Keegan, the brokerage firm that has since been sold to Raymond James.

    “We were getting ready to pick a jury, and there were a few other motions,” said Exis lawyer Mark Werbner in a telephone interview. “Then the judge tossed the case …that there was no legal support for the claims they were making.”

    In its lawsuit, Fairfax, which is led by Prema Watsa, accused the hedge funds of a massive and fraudulent disinformation campaign that began in 2003 which included negative stock analyst reports and the accumulation of short positions that drove the share price down.

    Werbner said Exis is pleased the case has been thrown out because the lawsuit had a negative impact on the fund, given it has dragged on for six years. He added the judge amended the claim amount to $3.2 billion in August.

    “I think the result today shows that criticizing a company, shorting the stock, stating honestly held opinions are part of the market system,” Werbner said. “I think analysts’ right to express their opinion was vindicated.”

    Lawyers for Fairfax said the court acknowledged that Fairfax suffered economic losses in this particular case, but that the law did not permit a means for the company to recover the damages.

    “We strongly disagree with the decision that the massive damage caused by that indisputable and intentional conduct is not recoverable,” said Michael Bowe in an email.

    “We will appeal this erroneous ruling and are confident the appellate court will find there is a remedy for what the trial court has described as ‘a scheme of tremendous proportions.’”

    1. I wonder how much a Judge Donald Coburn costs?
      All the gold men will want one for Christmas now.
      Maybe Overstock could carry them, there seem to be a lot of Judges for sale around.

        1. When you take a job with a OATH OF OFFICE the perks are great and so is the responsibility.
          Death before dishonor.
          Big part of what it means to be a defender of the people through the law.
          As a judge he should know that is working for the American people and justice.
          Anything else is dereliction of duty under fire.
          Treason.
          Don’t they shoot traitors?

          1. Would a police officer or a member of the military please try enlightening anonymous?
            I am neither, just a simple person who has studied history, the Constitution, and American government.
            I feel that there is someone with more personal experience in this particular subject who may be better suited to take this one.

          2. bbhindyou,

            Yeah, I agree — the better suited person would be the judge coming on the message board here and explaining himself to us. Throwing out the case before trial by jury… ugh. Could have been a hero but he pussied out.

            For rampant corruption among law enforcement, prohibition era in the USA is a good example.

          3. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121005/METRO/210050382/Tiny-Michigan-town-rallies-around-an-injured-native-son?google_editors_picks=true

            The fight for OUR freedom has many battlefields.
            We need our domestic defenders to be as committed to preserving the rule of law and justice as those who fight outside of America to keep US free.
            From the courtrooms to the streets of America WE must uphold the ideals that have been hard won for US by the blood of patriots.

          4. Veterans Day.
            Lest we forget.
            Those who have given all for freedom.
            Not freedom for the powers that be to abuse the people who they rule, not for only the rich and powerful but for all of the people who ARE ruled to have the freedoms outlined in the AMERICAN CONSTITUTION.
            Was a central bank a institution our forefathers WANTED for the PEOPLE?
            How about taking of tax money from Americans to send to banks around the world , because they are too big to fail, without the knowledge or permission of the people or their elected Congressional and Senate representatives?
            Are the rulers and legislators working for the Constitutional freedoms they are sworn to protect?
            Have our veterans been betrayed?
            What freedoms are preserved here now that have been so hard won with the lives of our loved ones?
            Lest we forget….
            I honor you veterans by never giving up as I know YOU have fought for ME.

  19. Lapdog leaving SEC…. to be replaced by another

    SEC you later, pal! Schapiro may be heading for the exit
    By KAJA WHITEHOUSE& MARK DECAMBRELast Updated: 12:46 AM, September 18, 2012

    Wall Street’s abuzz that its top watchdog — Mary Schapiro — is considering resigning even before her term expires in June 2014, as she recuperates at home from a recent illness.

    Execs inside and outside the Beltway are speculating that the 57-year-old Securities and Exchange Commission chief, who has served nearly four years, is mulling leaving her post and may announce her plans as early as November after the presidential election is decided.

    “I suspect sometime after the election — regardless of how the election turns out — she will say, ‘I’m outta here,”’ said one former SEC official.

    Chatter surrounding Schapiro’s status at the regulatory agency has reached a crescendo in the past few days as an undisclosed medical procedure has resulted in her taking a leave of absence — set to end tomorrow.

    An SEC official told The Post that Schapiro has been on medical leave since last Thursday and has been working from home as she recovers.

    Schapiro, who was appointed SEC head by President Obama in 2009, replacing Chris Cox, has been a lightning rod for criticism.

    Sources say that Schapiro is chafing under the political gridlock in Washington that she feels has stymied a number of her initiatives.

    “Part of the problem for [Schapiro] is that the tone in Washington has been so partisan,” said Christopher Whalen, of Tangent Capital Partners.

    The chairwoman’s recent handling of talks surrounding new rules governing money-market funds, some detractors say, has also created bad blood within the SEC. “She’s just frustrated,” Whalen noted.

    However, Schapiro’s critics say she hasn’t cracked the whip hard enough on Wall Street bad guys.

    One former Washington insider said that Schapiro is liked by President Obama and would stay on until a replacement is named, should he win re-election.

    One possible early front-runner to replace Schapiro may be FINRA CEO Richard Ketchum, sources speculate.

    Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/sec_you_later_pal_peruFt7YLLFvSAf4B9OrYJ#ixzz26povZ0Ov

    Post from InvestorsvillageOSTK board.

  20. But before Mr. Burkle’s name ever appeared in Page Six, before he ever met Mr. Clinton, he was a dental school drop-out getting rich on supermarkets.

    In 1986, he co-founded The Yucaipa Companies, a private investment firm. Thanks in part to Michael Milken’s junk bonds, he was able to start buying supermarket chains such as Food 4 Less, Fred Meyer and Ralph’s. He converted Ralph’s into one of the most popular grocery stores in Southern California. In 1998, he sold his holdings to the Kroger Company, making billions in the deal. In 2000, according to The New York Times, he attempted to repay Mr. Milken for his early help by lobbying President Clinton to grant Mr. Milken a pardon. His efforts were unsuccessful.

    http://observer.com/2006/04/the-complete-ron-burkle/

  21. In February 2004 Mr. El-Batrawi negotiated with the Ron Berkle’s Yucaipa Companies, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, on behalf of Piccadilly Restaurant investment Group, LLC to acquire the assets and ongoing operations of Piccadilly Cafeterias, Inc. pursuant to Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code. Piccadilly Cafeterias is one of the largest cafeteria restaurant chains in the United States and is the dominant one in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions. Founded in 1944, Piccadilly currently operates 132 cafeterias in 15 states. The Company expects to generate $260 million in net sales in the first twelve months following acquisition.

  22. It is estimated that JPMorgan is now short over 31 percent of the Comex futures market in silver all by themselves…

    When is CFTC going to STOP this crime that has been going now for many years? And is weekly documented by required governmental reports?

    Ted Butler posted another article on this ongoing crime yesterday called:

    Transparency
    Theodore Butler | September 24, 20
    http://www.silverseek.com/commentary/transparency-6501

    Ted Butler’s article in part says:

    “…
    In the same true spirit of transparency and of honesty being the best policy, three weeks ago I wrote to each member of the board of directors of JPMorgan. Since my main intent is to see the silver manipulation ended and not to hurt JPMorgan, I wanted to give them time to respond before publishing the letter. I didn’t want to sandbag or sucker-punch the bank by rushing to make public something I undertook on a good faith basis. If someone at JPMorgan had contacted me indicating the matter was being genuinely reviewed, I would have held off. However, the lack of response suggests to me that it may be business as usual as far as no one in charge moving against a blatant crime in progress. I’m not prepared to patiently wait indefinitely until someone decided to respond.

    My allegations in silver are incredibly specific. I believe that JPMorgan, by virtue of a massive concentrated short position in COMEX silver futures, is manipulating the price of silver lower than it would be otherwise. If JPMorgan’s concentrated short position did not exist, the price of silver would be substantially higher. It does not matter if the bank is hedging or engaged in market-making; the mere existence of such an unprecedented large and concentrated short position proves manipulation. That’s a key feature of commodity law and is why the CFTC monitors concentration closely.

    For some reason, however, the Commission treats silver differently than other commodities. In addition to ignoring the concentrated short position, it glosses over the results of the concentration on price. Silver witnessed, among other large and uneconomic sell-offs, two distinct sell-offs in 2011, in which the price fell 30% and 35% within a few days. Not one word was heard from the Commission on the two most pronounced sell-offs in modern commodity history. Yet, this week Commissioner O’Malia promised that the Commission was looking into the 4% price decline in oil. A decline in oil of 4% gets same day comment; 35% down in silver is not worthy of any comment. This amounts to a level of discrimination that is not tolerated in society or in regulatory matters.

    In addition to being specific, my allegations around JPMorgan manipulating the silver market are consistent and continuous. Four years ago, instead of responding directly to public complaints about JPMorgan’s concentrated short position, the Commission chose to investigate as a way of kicking the can down the road. After four years, the issue remains because JPMorgan’s concentrated short position remains. No one in authority wants to make the issues around this short concentration more transparent; not the CFTC, not the CME, not JPMorgan itself. Transparency is good in principle and for the other guy; but when it comes to silver, not so much.

    I ask you to read the letter as if you were a director on JPMorgan’s board. These are responsible people who have a duty to guide and protect the bank and to make sure the company is operating with ethics and within the law. As a director, how would you react to allegations that the bank is manipulating the price of silver lower? What about reputational damage? Would you just ignore the allegations? For a list of directors and as a launch site to JPM’s code of conduct, start here – http://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/About-JPMC/board-of-directors.htm Also, try to reconcile the oft-stated words of JPM’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, that he and the bank are only interested in doing the right thing. Is manipulating the price of silver the right thing to do?”

    …. MORE AT LINK,,
    http://www.silverseek.com/commentary/transparency-6501

  23. Goldman Sachs and Yankees stiff waiters.

    =======================================

    “The servers claim that the 20-percent service charge that Yankee Stadium patrons paid went straight into the pockets of the Yankees and Legends Hospitality LLC, a corporation created to run the stadium’s concessions. Legends Hospitality was formed by the Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys and Goldman Sachs, meaning pretty much everyone in America has a visceral dislike of at least one of its prongs. (Legends Hospitality did not return a Yahoo! Sports inquiry seeking comment.)”

    ..Waiters: New York Yankees owe us between $500,000 and $1 million in unpaid tips
    18 hours ago
    ……..Two words guaranteed to make sports fans sick to their stomach: service charge.

    You know, that little extra fee that teams or ticket brokers tack on to your purchase to skew the final cost higher, sometimes much higher than you expected. Every industry exists to make a profit, but the “service charge,” by its very existence, is all too often a naked profit grab, a way of squeezing a few more bucks out of customers you’ve already hooked. Fans’ passion is teams’ business, and its teams’ business to make money off fans’ passion.

    Certain sections of Yankee Stadium offer waiter service from your seat. (Getty Images)Even worse than a service charge, though, is a service charge that’s not going to the place its payers expect. Consider, for instance, the service charges fans paid in Yankee Stadium’s elite Field Level section for food and beverage service from 2009 to 2011. While sitting in seats that cost between $100 and $300 a pop, fans could order food off a menu and have it delivered to them without ever getting up, albeit for an extra 20-percent “service charge” that was noted on said menu.

    That’s a mandatory tip going to the server, right?

    Not so, according to 32 Yankee Stadium servers. They’ve banded together to seek payment from the Yankees for their justly earned gratuities – between $500,000 and $1 million worth over the course of three seasons.

    The servers claim that the 20-percent service charge that Yankee Stadium patrons paid went straight into the pockets of the Yankees and Legends Hospitality LLC, a corporation created to run the stadium’s concessions. Legends Hospitality was formed by the Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys and Goldman Sachs, meaning pretty much everyone in America has a visceral dislike of at least one of its prongs. (Legends Hospitality did not return a Yahoo! Sports inquiry seeking comment.)

    Even so, before we go full-on Occupy Yankee Stadium, let’s remember: This particular service charge did have its purpose. Patrons were indeed paying for a “service,” and if the actual service providers didn’t have a deal that stipulated they received that “charge,” well, is that the Yankees’ fault? Or responsibility?

    Yes, says the lawsuit, which charges that state law specifically speaks to this question. The waiters note that from 2009 to 2011, the “service charge” was added to customers’ bills as a mandatory fee, and a line on the menu noted that “additional gratuity is at your discretion.” (The service charge was discontinued after the 2011 season.)

    The lawsuit submits that customers assumed that the charge was a tip for the wait staff, and that the team owes the waiters between $500,000 and $1 million in unpaid gratuities. The suit seeks payment of those gratuities, plus liquidated damages and attorney’s fees.

    The complaint, the server’s attorney Brian Schaffer said, is “based on what the menu said and what the customer believes. It’s a New York State law. Does it happen a lot? Yes, in bars, nightclubs and now stadiums.” Schaffer was not aware of any other labor-related complaints at the new Yankee Stadium that had reached a courtroom.

    The waiters, dubbed “in-seat service” personnel, receive a flat rate of $35 per game plus 4- to 6-percent commission on all their sales. Schaffer said that at the high end, a waiter could receive $20,000 for a full season in shift payment plus commission.

    For purposes of comparison, a waiter in New York City will either earn $7.25 per hour (minimum wage) or $5.00 per hour with a “tip credit” (generally 12 percent of revenues, for tax purposes) plus tips, according to the New York State waiter-watchdog website WaiterPay.com.

    (Of note: The retention of the “service charge” is by no means unique to Yankee Stadium; WaiterPay lists it as No. 4 on its “Top Ten Violations” committed by restaurants against their employees.)

    The lawsuit was filed on Friday in the Bronx. The Yankees have not yet responded to the complaint.

  24. Vindication…yet again. I can wait for the spin from some of the Anonymi. LOL..

    Five SAC Traders Implicated In Insider Trading Case
    Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/25/2012 – 16:55 Dell Insider Trading New York Stock Exchange SAC Securities Fraud
    Two years ago nobody would dare touch Steve “Blue Eyes” Cohen’s firm. Then we dared to ask some questions. Then the entire expert “information arbitrage” network pyramid got exposed (with a one year delay after ZH) and hedge funds returns aka “alpha” plunged. And now this. From Bloomberg:

    •FIVE SAC CAPITAL EMPLOYEES HAVE BEEN IMPLICATED IN INSIDER CASE
    •SAC MANAGER SAID TO BE UNCHARGED FIGURE IN HEDGE FUND SCHEME
    •SAC FUND MANAGER MICHAEL STEINBERG SAID TO BE TIED TO PROBE
    •SAC CAPITAL’S STEINBERG SAID TO BE UNINDICTED CO-CONSPIRATOR
    How long until we go from unindicted, i.e. extensively questioned, to indicted? Just which bigger fish are these “unindicted co-conspirators” expected to throw under the bus? And what happens to the NYSE if/and or when the firm that trades 10% of its daily volume is busted?

    .
    .

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-25/five-sac-traders-implicated-insider-trading-case

    1. Maria Bartiromo is married to a Steinberg, Jonathan “Jono” (son of Saul who was in Milkins inner circle according to “The Fall of the House of Steinberg”) nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/3421/index1.html
      Prior to being Director and CEO of WisdomTree Investments Inc a look back in history shows Jono
      http://www.writenews.com/2001/071001_individual_investor_sells_list.htm
      founded Individual Investor Group, Inc. a financial media company. The company’s properties include individualinvestor.com, ShortInterest.com and Individual Investor’s Special Situations Report newsletter. The company also owns the intellectual property to the family of America’s Fastest Growing Companies indexes.

      Have Maria or Bethany reported about the US Mortgage take force to take action soon?
      http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/20/idINL1E8KKM2220120920

  25. If Germany can see theissue and the corruption why can’t the U. S.? I’ll tell you why.. because they are captured and corrupt!!!

    Germany Does What The SEC Hasn’t – Prepares To Ban HFT
    Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/26/2012 – 11:30 Circuit Breakers Commodity Futures Trading Commission Dow Jones Industrial Average France Germany HFT Securities and Exchange Commission Trading Systems
    The EU assembly just voted affirmatively to impose a spate of rules to control ‘high-frequency-trading that, as the WSJ reports, was advanced by Germany following their concerns that speedy traders have brought instability to markets. It is somehow reassuring that three-years after we first brought HFT to the mainstream’s agenda, at least one nation is taking it seriously, doing something about it, instead of being filibustered into the ‘liquidity-providing’ meme. The rules will initially require registration, collect fees on excessive use of HFT methods, and install circuit breakers with the goals to “limit the risks associated with high-frequency trading” per a senior German FinMin; but the more stringent rules to come will have the greatest impact as they intend to include requirements for orders to rest on the exchange book for at least half-a-second, and potentially order-to-trade ratio caps. Not surprisingly, the HFTs believe a “one-size-fits-all approach would be very harmful.” Indeed – to their profits.

    .
    .

    Comments: 100Reads: 8,450

  26. Oldepro,

    DC needs your help to win!

    Wikipedia editors have set a nice standard for white collar fraud: An FBI wiretap is up on the Rajat Gupta and McKinsey page, and a detailed analysis is on the trial page. This is a great start.
    See the standards here:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajat_Gupta
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insider_Trading_2011
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raj_Rajaratnam
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Kumar
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinsey_%26_Company

    The same standard on the Galleon case articles applies to all other white collar criminals. Deepcapture details the activities of many white collar criminals and crimes…

    I need your help, and other help, with information for other criminals. We can use the DC comment section for evidence synthesizing, then I will update the Wikipedia article.

    As this article is about Bethany McLean, we start with her, and we follow the template on:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insider_Trading_2011
    “The tapes caused concern for several reasons:”

    Ref: https://www.deepcapture.com/bethany-mclean/
    Bethany McLean’s Fairfax Financial emails have raised concern at business corruption blogs for several reasons:

    1. _______: McLean’s participation was ______, as though it were _______.

    2. _____: McLean’s participation was _______, as though _____

    3. _____: McLean’s response after not moving the stock price with her article was of __________, as though ____

    4. _______: McLean’s response “I’m getting the same question from other people”, as though _______________

    5. _______: McLean meeting with a former SEC Attorney Richard Sauer, as though _________________

    6. _____ : ______

    7. ______ : ___________

    8. ________ : McLean’s response “Maybe it’ll be a long, slow thing..” as though _______________

  27. Silver Manipulation Update:
    “I would contend that the effort to force the CFTC to end the silver manipulation (and their continued silence) has legitimized the allegations.

    Let’s face it, in making public allegations about [and to] the CFTC, JPMorgan and the CME Group, we are at the very top of the financial hierarchy. That these entities can’t respond to the allegations openly, is empowering”.”
    – Silver Analyst Ted Butler, 03 October 2012

    (http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/eye-equities-gold-bears-head-hills)

  28. It seems obvious, at least to some who know the basis of most current fraud, that it resides in our currency system, which like a rotten apple has set about and spoiled the whole basket, meaning everywhere on planet Earth.

    So Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and the whole crime syndicate linked to central banking has as the genesis of its criminal intent fraudulent currency systems, otherwise defined as fiat money.

    So this is something that no politician (but a couple who get publicly ignored for their efforts) or individual high in the Federal court system will attack. The whole issue of fiat money is at the heart of virtually all current fraud. It is not in the judiciary’s interest to do so since it is so pervasive it is obvious that they feel they could not survive in their capacity, were they to take on the money powers of the central banking systems, despite a legitimate basis in the US Constitution. This is the REAL deep capture. So much for all the rhetoric pumping up William Black, or any that he takes issue with, such as Bethany McLean. They all know what the basis of fraud is, but prefer to beat around the edges of the problem to retain themselves in the spotlight.

    Some speak as though the public is unaware and ignorant of monetary fraud visited upon all of us by governments and corporate villains who find it in their best interest to see it continue. The Occupy Wall Street movement has dismissed the argument of widespread ignorance of this basic fraud in many ways, and so has been infiltrated to destroy its credibility. However, like all attempts to visit boundless tyranny through monetary means it will fail, just as it always has throughout history.

    Of course the countervailing argument will be that in order to kill the basis of monetary fraud, counterfeit money, you first have to attack some of the big players. But when the basis is NEVER discussed it becomes obvious that killing the basis is insincere, and therefore so are any presumed attempts on the usual suspects. If you listen to any of William Black’s interviews available on the Internet he NEVER addresses the issue of counterfeit (fiat) money. Instead he takes the typical academician’s stance, relying on the type of economics flowing out of university systems whose economics departments receive substantial support from the Federal Reserve System in this country. But what else would you expect from a bank regulator, like William Black?

    It is somewhat interesting the total seeming lack of understanding of the basic fraud, counterfeit money, flowing out of all posts on this website. Certainly there are many others who have a well grounded understanding of this on other websites, which begs the question as to whether there is substantial removal of posts that make this argument. We shall see, at least on this end.

  29. Occupy OKC Could Reach Settlement in Lawsuit Against Del City

    OKLAHOMA CITY, OK– Occupy OKC demonstrators involved in the “Occupy Walmart” incident on Black Friday may reach a settlement in their pending lawsuit against the City of Del City.

    “We think it is very significant,” said Mark Faulk, a demonstrator arrested after the incident, “both in our cases and across the country.”

    Faulk filmed the group’s encounter with Del City Police Officers, he says charges against the ten protesters could be dismissed as early as this week. All ten protesters were charged with disorderly conduct, Faulk says some were also charged with resisting arrest.

    Faulk says he believes officers used excessive force against demonstrators.

    “It is not okay for them, to act against their citizens in an overly aggressive manner,” he said.

    Del City Police and the City of Del City would not comment on the case, but the group’s attorney Brittany Novotney says she hopes Del City will re-evaluate their practices after they reach a settlement.

    “Hopefully we don’t see one of these incidents pop up again,” she said.

    Faulk says as members of the Occupy OKC mark the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, the movement is far from over.

    “A movement is not a location, a movement is not a tent, a movement is not people spending the night in a park,” he explained, “a movement is a concept that eventually awakens something in everyone’s heart.”

    Occupy OKC’s one year anniversary is October 10.
    Occupy OKC Could Reach Settlement in Lawsuit Against Del City

    Posted: Monday, September 17 2012, 09:24 PM CDT

  30. Settlement between Del City, Occupy OKC could resolve charges, lawsuit

    By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press
    Published: 9/20/2012 2:33 AM
    Last Modified: 9/20/2012 4:05 AM

    OKLAHOMA CITY – An attorney for 10 Occupy OKC protesters who were arrested last year for chanting at a Del City department store said Wednesday that she is nearing an agreement with city officials.

    Attorney Brittany Novotny said she has reached an “agreement in principle” with city officials in the working class suburb east of Oklahoma City that could settle criminal charges against the protesters and a potential lawsuit from the group.

    Novotny declined to discuss details of the agreement, and the city attorney for Del City did not return a telephone message.

    The protesters are scheduled to appear in court next week. Criminal charges against them and a potential tort claim from the group could be settled if an agreement with the city reached, Novotny said.

    “A settlement hasn’t been signed officially,” she said. “I’m awaiting paperwork on that, but it looks like this should be officially settled within the week.”

    The 10 protesters were arrested by Del City police Nov. 25 after conducting a group chant inside a Walmart store. They were jailed for disorderly conduct. One member of the group also was charged with resisting arrest.

    The group was inspired by the national Occupy Wall Street movement that began one year ago and was protesting wage disparities between store workers and high-level company officials.

    Occupy OKC participant Mark Faulk said the store in Del City was the third the group had visited that morning and conducted a group chant. In the first two stores, both in Oklahoma City, the group headed toward the exits after being asked to leave, Faulk said.

    He maintains that Del City police used excessive force by tackling and handcuffing participants who were heading toward the exit after being asked to leave.

    “It’s very obvious that their intent all along was to aggressively detain and arrest us,” Faulk said.

    Del City Police Capt. Jody Suit said he could not comment because of the pending cases.

    Original Print Headline: Settlement between Occupy OKC, Del City could clear legal issues

    By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press

    Copyright 2012 World Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  31. If you want to see a reasoned protest against the criminal activity in the financial markets Google, or use whatever browser you are familiar with, the name, Captain Midnight and Chris Savvinidis. His protest among the OWS movement was reasoned and perfectly within the guidelines of the US Constitution’s 1st Amendment.

    Savvinidis was interviewed by Judge Napolitano and Peter Schiff. He was the voice of many who point to the real threat to our way of life under a system that rewards criminal activity within the financial system, and specifically emanating from the Federal Reserve System which underwrites the losses, at taxpayers’ expense of course. Jon Corzine, of MF Global, by the way, has not been charged for his role in that company’s use of its customers’ funds which stole from the segregated accounts of many customers, among whom was the well known financial commentator, Gerald Celente.

    And going back to the original premise, most all current crime in the financial markets is linked to the usage of counterfeit money. And this is the REAL Deep Capture. There is no way current financial crimes could exist with an underpinning of honest money because that presumes that assets so described would place those involved in the theft of those assets in prison, instead of all the smoke and mirrors displayed by financial crimes of the “too big to fail”. Unfortunately, many in business have a certain dependency on the continuation of the current system of counterfeit money. They can raise their prices, secure in the knowledge that the reason can all be laid to the banksters’ definition of such price increase as “inflation”. They can also fail to pay their employees unfairly by refusing to acknowledge the declining value of their current pay rate. The whole system relies on the money printing scheme of those who have been given the authority to print it. So, yes, FTDs are a form of counterfeiting. But the concept got its genesis by way of the introduction of counterfeit (fiat) money, and failure to acknowledge this raises questions of just how sincere are those who want to bring justice back so integrity is again installed in financial markets.

    1. ” failure to acknowledge this raises questions of just how sincere are those who want to bring justice back so integrity is again installed in financial markets.”

      James, your posts would be much better if you dropped the needless rhetoric.

      FTDs are like fiat currency without a reserve requirement… and stock certificates can be used as medium of exchange, as a store of value, and as a unit of account.

      1. “…FTDs are like fiat currency without a reserve requirement…”

        So you think there is a reserve requirement for counterfeit (fiat) money? When is the last time you took one of your Federal Reserve Notes to the bank and requested that they issue you specie in exchange? No one who is aware of the scam is going to be impressed by YOUR rhetoric, which by all appearances is to back bankster fiat money deceit. Again, to repeat, counterfeit money preceded FTDs and paved the way for them to be created along with all the other criminal activity on Wall Street.

        Stock certificates rarely are held by investors, contrary to what you are implying. There has been much discussion on this web site of how that plays into the current FTD fraud associated with naked short sales and inadequate clearing house procedures.

        Assigning stock certificates the quality of a “store of value” is laughable when markets plunge, and plunge they will when fiat money becomes widely recognized as having no intrinsic value.

        Please assign yourself a screen name so you can be distinguished from all the other “Anonymous” posters.

        1. James, only one sentence you write is factual. The rest are rhetorical, false, or useless.

          Stock manipulation takes place regardless of the monetary system, and problems associated with naked shorting have been around for 300 years.

          So I will pretend one of your false assertions is true (“There is no way current financial crimes could exist with an underpinning of honest money”) and ask you this:

          Do you also get aroused denigrating physicians and scientists developing medicine for health problems caused by obesity because the real culprit is poor exercise and nutrition?

          1. “…Stock manipulation takes place regardless of the monetary system, and problems associated with naked shorting have been around for 300 years. …”

            Sooo? If the assertion was a bit over the top, your tendency to soft pedal fraud, LARGLY emanating from counterfeit money, speaks volumes about where you are coming from.

            Perhaps Barry Goldwater said it best: “”Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice… and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

            However, being on the opposing side of the counterfeit money issue… and its handmaiden, counterfeit stock (naked short sales and related FTDs), if understood by enough people, will again return integrity to financial markets.

            But enough moderates, like you, just insure the continued drift into ignominy. It is fact that no country, or civilization, has survived intact under a system of counterfeit currency, nor will ours by continuing to allow counterfeit stock (FTDs) to exist in a manner not unlike Federal Reserve Notes and all the other types of smoke and mirrors the Fed engages in like QEs, Operation Twists or any of their electronic equivalents. All these criminal operations have had seemingly authoritative names attached to them to befuddle average individuals so they are unaware of the scams being perpetrated on them. This parallels the complexities of FTD operations so they remain hidden from most by a private banking system, the Fed, that implies deceitfully that it is part of the Federal Government.

          2. There was a reply from this screen name to your post. Unfortunately it was not published, either because it was censored, or for some technical reason.

            Basically what it said was Byrne’s comments about the Fed way back in 2009, more than 3 years ago on a YouTube interview, is far too little and too late. People in the business community are the ones to come together and demand, as a group, an end to the Federal Reserve System. What anyone writes here is of no consequence unless it moves the above named in that direction. You are included, Anonymous. The fact that it has not so far means they are as much “deep captured” as the crooks who have been exposed on this website.

            Another way to say this is that all that is required for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing. All of this weeping and gnashing of teeth regarding lesser crooks is nothing but a distraction not dissimilar to the jailing of Bernard Madoff as the sacrificial lamb to quiet the restless natives. Meanwhile people like Jon Corzine of MF Global are free to continue their life of crime.

            If this doesn’t post either, the conclusion will be obvious, at least on this end.

          3. Patrick is the chairman of the Milton Friedman’s legacy foundation — Milton was a vocal critic of the Fed, and Patrick’s position on ending the Fed goes back long before 2009. So that’s good. My guess is that Patrick’s approach is cutting off the arms of the Vampire Squid to get a better shot at striking the center.

            If the media was not corrupt, then more publications would be calling to end the Fed and for punishing Jon Corzine. So there are media tentacles in need of slaying.

            Deepcapture has shown that Bethany McLean is likely a media plant from Goldman Sachs. She protects Goldman Sachs, by extension she would protect Corzine.

            I have an idea, James R. I propose we update all of Bethany McLean’s open articles out on the internet to reflect the fact that she is a criminal, thus cutting off a Corzine tentacle, and moving in the right direction. I’ll start with an outline, and we can fill it out over time:

            Criticisms
            >Plagairism
            >Enron
            >Market Manipulation
            >>Fairfax Financial Holdings
            >>Fairfax emails
            >>History of Fortune articles
            >Shilling for Goldman Sachs

          4. Bethany McLean: Plagiarism.

            Thanks for having such a great idea to focus on criminals related to Goldman Sachs, James R, it is a great tie in to this Bethany McLean article.

            Let’s start with the plagiarism header I listed below:

            Looks like Bethany McLean has been lifting from articles for at least a decade without attributing the source. The internet has caught up to her now that smaller magazines are putting their print editions online.

            Her article on IBM in Fortune in 2000 was taken from an independent research firm that circulated print copies:

            “Hi, Bethany. Are you aware of my articles from 4-5 years ago on the stuff you’ve just written about IBM?”
            “And when the [McLean] Fortune story did venture into offering some of its own opinions, their stupidity was staggering.”

            http://www.truthinmedia.org/Bulletins2000/tim2000-6-6.html
            (The website is now mirrored by the way)
            I’m sure you will enjoy stabbing a tentacle of Goldman Sachs, James R. What is your analysis of Bethany McLean here?

            How does this compare to the treatment of Fareed Zakaria by the New York financial press? Where he was later vindicated? Do you remember that media circus? Would you say Bethany McLean’s instance of plagiarism in 2000 is also isolated and unintentional? Can you help check that?

            https://www.deepcapture.com/bethany-mclean/
            When McLean is emailing Rocker Parter, Marc Cohodes, about the smear article they are planning for Fairfax Financial, McLean writes “Makes sense. Send me whatever you can think of – the more documents the better!” If the hedge funds are sending McLean documents to cut, paste, and rephrase, does that constitute plagiarism, or is this just speculation on my part? What’s the analysis, James, should that just go under the Market Manipulation header?

            What is everyone getting from Googling McLean + plagiarism? Anything more?

    1. Is your request meant to imply that those who criticize short sellers are ignorant of the positive benefits? And are you therefore implying that the previous connections made between the growing threats of counterfeit (fiat) money have no similarities to illegal naked short selling?

      Of course this statement assumes that you are the same “Anonymous” that replied to “James R”. If the assumption is correct, why don’t you establish a screen name to distinguish your remarks? That way it will be much easier to attach ownership to statements whose intent is to destroy the notion that there is no connection between counterfeit “money” and counterfeit shares (FTDs), both of which sprang from the same sort of criminal mindset.

      Here’s a little logic to readers of this post:

      FTDs are to fiat “money”, as covered short sales are to specie. The first is engaged in by crooks. The second exists in markets exhibiting integrity.

      The absence of naked short sales is comparable to a system that only allows honest money, in other words money, or its proxie, that is fully backed by specie. This, by the way, is the only type of securities transaction that is allowed in some other countries in order to extinguish the ability to defraud.

    2. I doubt you’ll find what you’re looking for from the 80’s cuz she was born in 1970, graduated college in 1992, apparently worked as an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs for 3 years until 1995 (two years in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department and one year in Real Estate Principal Investing) then joined Fortune as a reporter, and left 13 years later as editor-at-large by going to Vanity Fair in July 2008 as a contribuiting editor and a columnist for Slate since October 2010. …
      JournalismJobs.com: But how did you come across Fortune of all publications?

      Bethany McLean: The guy I was dating at the time, his father knew someone at Fortune. I said, “Why don’t you send my resume there,” and he’s like, “yeah, right.” …

      how did she got into GS because she had been quoted as saying: “I went to a liberal arts school and never read The Wall Street Journal.” makes one wonder why she left a high paying job at Gs with the help of the father of some guy she was dating, and who he is don’t it?

      as to asensio who ever had his back should be exposed too!
      http://www.asensioexposed.com/

      1. Raven, Yeah that’s interesting. Great information.

        McLean called out for shilling for Goldman Sachs because of this William Black interview by multiple publications;
        Deepcapture exposing her with the fairfax financial;
        The other side of Enron exposing her on Enron;
        her first publications and following years at Fortune follow research reports of Manuel Asensio.

        This supports the hypothesis of various non mainstream media publications stating she is a media plant for Goldman Sachs/Wall Street.

        Would be nice to get the opinion of that ex-boyfriend and father

        1. her claim to fame (yuk) was enron, right?
          per wikipedia: …In May 2008, McLean married Sean Berkowitz, a partner with the law firm, Latham & Watkins. Berkowitz is the former Director of the Enron Task Force;…
          makes one wonder how much advancement was from pillow talk!

      2. Raven,

        Yes, Bethany McLean’s previous claim to fame was Enron. The claim to fame now is continuous participation in market manipulation schemes and covering up financial crimes.

        Bethany McLean plagiarizes too.

        What do you think her intentions are kissing Warren Buffett’s ass?

  32. Naked Short Selling and High Frequency Trading to be Featured on Tim Connolly’s Winning Strategies Friday, October 12 at noon CT

    HOUSTON, Oct. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Tim Connolly’s Winning Strategies will feature naked short selling litigator Wes Christian, Overstock.com CEO Patrick M. Byrne and Robert J. Shapiro, the Chairman and Co-Founder of Sonecon, LLC. They will discuss naked short selling and high frequency trading, as well as The Wall Street Conspiracy ( http://thewallstreetconspiracy.com ), a new documentary film premiering in Houston at the South Texas College of Law on October 18. The Wall Street Conspiracy exposes the international collusion surrounding illegal naked short selling. Listen live at noon central on Friday, October 12 on http://www.winningstrategies.net . CRN Digital Talk Radio Network on CRN 4, broadcast by over 200 affiliate stations nationwide listed at http://www.crntalk.com . Winning Strategies is Co-hosted by bond expert Marilyn Cohen, CEO of Envision Capital Management, Inc.

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/naked-short-selling-and-high-frequency-trading-to-be-featured-on-tim-connollys-winning-strategies-friday-october-12-at-noon-ct-2012-10-11

    1. Patrick and his website strategists apparently think that discussions can be opened up by allowing “Anonymous” postings. Unfortunately what this allows is confusion about the source of what is presented. So it becomes impossible to refute in any sort of direct way what “anonymous” people write.

      It’s a funny thing about responding accurately and critically to those who post their flawed views under a screen name. Eventually they go away because it becomes apparent, even to them, that their comments are not appreciated by the majority of those who access the website.

      FTDs are a serious threat to the integrity of financial markets, which has as its genesis counterfeit fiat money. Providing a way to counter that threat over the Internet on websites such as this can have the effect of moving policy makers in the right direction when the pressure to do so becomes apparent.

      But this is just a suggestion and as the saying goes; “If you don’t like, leave.”

      The following is quoted from the book, “The Creature from Jekyll Island”, by G. Edward Griffin.

      “…The basic plan for the Federal Reserve System was drafted at a
      secret meeting held in November of 1910 at the private resort of J.P.
      Morgan on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia. Those who
      attended represented the great financial institutions of Wall Street
      and, indirectly, Europe as well. The reason for secrecy was simple.
      Had it been known that rival factions of the banking community
      had joined together, the public would have been alerted to the
      possibility that the bankers were plotting an agreement in restraint
      of trade-which, of course, is exactly what they were doing. What
      emerged was a cartel agreement with five objectives: stop the
      growing competition from the nation’s newer banks; obtain a
      franchise to create money out of nothing for the purpose of lending;
      get control of the reserves of all banks so that the more reckless
      ones would not be exposed to currency drains and bank runs; get
      the taxpayer to pick up the cartel’s inevitable losses; and convince
      Congress that the purpose was to protect the public. It was realized
      that the bankers would have to become partners with the politicians
      and that the structure of the cartel would have to be a central
      bank. The record shows that the Fed has failed to achieve its stated
      objectives. That is because those were never its true goals. As a
      banking cartel, and in terms of the five objectives stated above, it
      has been an unqualified success. …”

      If anyone has doubts about the PERVASIVE threats of counterfeit (fiat) money on financial markets even a cursory reading of its contents will cause them to think otherwise. The book is available online free of charge, and is electronically searchable. But all who take the suggestion to read it are urged to buy it on Amazon, or directly from the author at his website. It currently sells for approximately $20 and is over 600 pages of assertions and obvious conclusions based on quotes taken directly from the people involved, their descendents or historical documents.

      One has to be virtually brain-dead not to notice the tight linkage between counterfeit (fiat) money and financial market fraud. But then, as previously stated, that is the last thing any of the mobsters occupying the financial markets wish to become apparent.

      1. So James R. —- All knowing about the intentions of mobsters, yet ignorant of the beliefs and positions of Ron Paul, Jim Grant, or Patrick Byrne?? Right… Right… Right… We believe you…

        Overstock.com CEO “Abolish the Federal Reserve” – YouTube
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAb1aGaZX6g

        “In 1992, the Minneapolis federal reserved asked Milton Friedman, “what’s the biggest economic challenge facing the US?” And Friedman told them, “The #1 economic challenge facing the US is ‘how do we get rid of the Federal Reserve?'” “That’s probably too outside the box for most people, but the federal reserve… this is all a natural progression and a natural function of the fact that we have fiat money. There may become, there’s James Grant…”

        James Grant:
        “What Does the Fed Do?” with James Grant — Ron Paul Fed Lecture … ► 63:41► 63:41
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRipVd5wxhI
        23 Mar 2012 – 64 min – Uploaded by CongressmanRonPaul
        Rep. Ron Paul sponsored this Congressional lecture on…

        1. While you might find Grant to be the brain trust of within the very small population of Fed critics, he does not speak to the vast majority that have their financial lives damaged by Fed operations. That follows from what has been its policy from its founding. It was founded as a cartel to empower certain individuals at that time to increase their power over all of mankind. The makeup of those who came together at Jekyll Island in a highly secret meeting in 1910 to create their cartel makes clear what their intention was, and it had nothing to do with any of the statements made by Grant. He is nothing but an apologist that attempts to postulate the argument that if they have erred it was through incompetence. Nobody looking at past history, not among the naïve, buys that argument. The following, from “The Creature from Jekyll Island” is a comedic representation of the mind twisting machinations of Fed operations:

          The following exchange was published in the British humor magazine, Punch, on April 3, 1957. It is reprinted here as an appropriate introduction and as a mental exercise to limber the mind for the material contained in this book.

          Q. What are banks for?
          A. To make money.
          Q. For the customers?
          A. For the banks.
          Q. Why doesn’t bank advertising
          mention this?
          A. It would not be in good taste. But it is mentioned by implication in references to reserves of $249,000,000 or thereabouts. That is the money that they have made.
          Q. Out of the customers?
          A. I suppose so.
          Q. They also mention Assets of $500,000,000 or thereabouts. Have they made that too?
          A. Not exactly. That is the
          money they use to make money.
          Q. I see. And they keep it in a safe somewhere?
          A. Not at all. They lend it to customers.
          Q. Then they haven’t got it?
          A. No.
          Q. Then how is it Assets?
          A. They maintain that it would be if they got it back.
          Q. But they must have some money in a safe somewhere?
          A. Yes, usually $500,000,000 or
          thereabouts. This is called Liabilities.
          Q. But if they’ve got it, how can
          they be liable for it?
          A. Because it isn’t theirs.
          Q. Then why do they have it?
          A. It has been lent to them by customers.
          Q. You mean customers lend banks money?
          A. In effect. They put money into their accounts, so it is really lent to the banks.
          Q. And what do the banks do
          with it?
          A. Lend it to other customers.
          Q. But you said that money they lent to other people was Assets?
          A. Yes.
          Q. Then Assets and Liabilities
          must be the same thing?
          A. You can’t really say that.
          Q. But you’ve just said it. If I put $100 into my account the bank is liable to have to pay it back, so it’s Liabilities. But they go and lend it to someone else, and he is liable to have to pay it back, so it’s Assets. It’s the same $100, isn’t it?
          A. Yes. But …
          Q. Then it cancels out. It means, doesn’t it, that banks haven’t really any money at all?
          A. Theoretically ….
          Q. Never mind theoretically. And if they haven’t any money, where do they get their Reserves of $249,000,000 or thereabouts?
          A. I told you. That is the money they have made.
          Q.ell, when they lend your $100 to someone they charge him interest.
          Q.How much?
          A. It depends on the Bank Rate. That’s their profit.
          Q. Why isn’t it my profit? Isn’t it my money?
          A. It’s the theory of banking practice that …
          Q. When I lend them my $100 why don’t I charge them interest?
          A. You do.
          Q. You don’t say. How much?
          A. It depends on the Bank Rate.
          Say half a per cent.
          Q. Grasping of me, rather?
          A. But that’s only if you’re not going to draw the money out again.
          Q. But of course, I’m going to draw it out again. If I hadn’t wanted to draw it out again I could have buried it in the garden, couldn’t I?
          A. They wouldn’t like you to draw it out again.
          Q. Why not? If I keep it there you say it’s a Liability. Wouldn’t they be glad if I reduced their Liabilities by removing it?
          A. No. Because if you remove it they can’t lend it to anyone else.
          Q. But if I wanted to remove it they’d have to let me?
          A. Certainly.
          Q. But suppose they’ve already
          lent it to another customer?
          A. Then they’ll let you have someone else’s money.
          Q. But suppose he wants his too… and they’ve let me have it?
          A. You’re being purposely obtuse.
          Q. I think I’m being acute. What if everyone wanted their money
          at once?
          A. It’s the theory of banking practice that they never would.
          Q. SO what banks bank on is not having to meet their commitments?
          A. I wouldn’t say that.
          Q. Naturally. Well, if there’s nothing else you think you can tell me … ?
          A. Quite so. Now you can go off and open a banking account.
          Q. Just one last question.
          A. Of course.
          Q. Wouldn’t I do better to go off and open up a bank?

  33. Patrick writing in Ron Paul for President of the United States.

    http://www.dailypaul.com/258369/ceo-patrick-byrne-im-writing-in-ron-paul

    Patrick !! — You are linked on Daily Paul. Do you have an account to post on the forums at Daily Paul? There are great people over there. A great place with people that will help with your efforts if you can provide project ideas.. lead, guide, and direct (and market and promote well). Such as “new movie out, The Wall Street Conspiracy!”

    You got linked onto Daily Paul in 2008…. but in 2008 you seemed to be in the “internal scorecard” mode and not giving a shit about what people write about you. This allowed Weiss/Antar/Others to walk all over you on the Daily Paul forums. They made quite a good smear campaign and left most everyone with a foul impression of both you and Overstock.com. You should of had tens of thousands of Ron Paul by now!

    1. “Patrick writing in Ron Paul for President of the United States.”

      Writing in Ron Paul is a waste of Patrick’s vote, or that of anyone else for that matter. He is no longer a serious candidate. It would be more effective to cast one’s vote for Gary Johnson, past Governor of New Mexico.

      Wikipedia lists Johnson’s legacy as follows:

      “Andrew Sullivan quoted a claim that Johnson “is highly regarded in the state for his outstanding leadership during two terms as governor. He slashed the size of state government during his term and left the state with a large budget surplus.” According to one New Mexico paper, “Johnson left the state fiscally solid”, and was “arguably the most popular governor of the decade . . . leaving the state with a $1 billion budget surplus.””

  34. Down with the 1% that try to control our political system. That goes for you to Patrick Byrne. Your family is the largest political donors in the state of Utah

    —————————————

    Munger Siblings Spend $54 Million to Sway California Vote

    By Alison Vekshin – Oct 12, 2012 Siblings Molly Munger and Charles Munger Jr., whose father is vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), have poured $54.4 million into California ballot measures, stoking a battle with Governor Jerry Brown and powerful labor unions.

    Molly Munger, whose plan to raise taxes to help schools is competing with the governor’s budget-balancing tax proposal, has spent $31 million, according to MapLight, a nonpartisan research organization. Her brother has given almost $23 million to oppose Brown’s proposal and pass one barring unions and corporations from using payroll-deducted funds for politics.

    “They’ve emerged as a major power in California because of their money,” said Bob Stern, who was president of the former Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, a group that examined the initiative process. “They’ve set the agenda for California in many ways.”

    The Munger-supported initiatives are among 11 ballot measures state voters will consider Nov. 6, the most in a single California election since 2008. Voters will decide whether to require labeling of genetically modified food, abolish the death penalty and increase penalties for human trafficking.

    Direct Democracy
    California is among 24 states that allows unelected individuals such as the Mungers to circumvent the Legislature and take their ideas directly to voters. In 2010, a ballot measure financed largely by Charles Munger Jr. won approval, stripping California lawmakers of responsibility for drawing the boundaries of congressional districts and giving a commission the authority to do so.

    “In recent years, I have supported political reforms that have placed more power back in the hands of citizens,” Munger, 55, a physicist who lives in Palo Alto, said by e-mail.

    His sister, a 64-year-old lawyer in Los Angeles, says she’s “not a political person.”

    “I’m a civil-rights lawyer, I’m an advocate,” said Molly Munger, a partner with English, Munger & Rice. “We have an enormous problem in California with our underfunded schools, and I’m just trying to do what I can.”

    At Loggerheads
    Her initiative, Proposition 38, would increase taxes for 12 years on income of more than $7,316 from 0.4 percent for the lowest earners to 2.2 percent for those making more than $2.5 million a year. It would raise $10 billion annually. While 30 percent of the added revenue would pay down school-bond debt for the first four years, all the money would go to educational operations for the remaining eight years.

    Brown, a 74-year-old Democrat, is campaigning for Proposition 30 to avoid deep cuts to schools. It would temporarily boost the state sales tax to 7.5 percent from 7.25 percent and raise the levy on income starting at $250,000. A rejection by voters would trigger $5.5 billion in education cuts. The budget he signed in June counts on more than $8 billion from the higher taxes.

    If both measures pass, only the tax increases from the proposal that gets the most yes votes would take effect, under the state constitution.

    “Unfortunately, because of their resources, they are able to attempt to drown out the voices of the united education community that is supporting Prop. 30,” said Dan Newman, a spokesman for the pro-Proposition 30 campaign.

    ‘Money Tie’
    Charles Munger Jr. has donated $21.9 million to the Small Business Action Committee, which opposes Brown’s measure. The group also supports Proposition 32, which would ban corporations and unions from contributing directly or indirectly to candidates and candidate-controlled committees. The proposal also would forbid unions from using payroll deductions for political purposes.

    “It prevents an organization with power over an employee, whether it be a corporation or a union, from taking money automatically out of an employee’s wages to pursue politics the employee doesn’t support,” Charles Munger Jr. said.

    The measure “also cuts the money tie that allows corporations and unions to make direct contributions to influence elected officials,” he said. “These reforms place more power back in the hands of the citizens.”

    Charles Munger Jr. has also given more than $872,700 directly to the campaign for Proposition 32, according to MapLight data.

    Outsider Effort
    “In a certain sense, both of these people — the Mungers – – are sort of policy entrepreneurs,” said Jack Citrin, a political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “They have ideas, they want to implement them, they know they can’t get it through the Legislature, so they have this opportunity.”

    Apart from the initiative process, any state tax increase would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

    Molly Munger dismissed criticism of her use of family wealth to shape California politics.

    “I’ve given years of my life to influence policy,” she said. “I’ve trudged around Sacramento. To me, being able to help a big coalition of people fight for kids is just a natural extension of work that I’ve done for a very long time.”

    San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, 60, said voters will look past the money spent to understand the issues involved.

    “We have been very much used to, and we have a lot of examples throughout the state, where there was a lot of money spent on special-interest groups and the public has been able to pierce that,” Lee said.

    Making Enemies
    Both Mungers said they’re not interested in public office.

    “I have absolutely no interest in ever running for political office,” Molly Munger said in a telephone interview.

    Charles Munger Jr. said, “If running for public office had been my intent, I would have been well-advised not to raise up as many adversaries as my quests to pass political reform have done.”

    Their father, Charles “Charlie” Munger, 88, has served as vice chairman of Warren Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based company for more than 30 years. His net worth is estimated at more than $900 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

    Propositions 30, 32 and 38 are among 11 measures facing voters, the most in a single California election since 2008.

    A campaign to make California the first state to require labeling of genetically modified foods, Proposition 37, has drawn more than $34 million from opponents including Monsanto Co. (MON), the world’s biggest seed producer, DuPont Co. (DD), the biggest U.S. chemical maker by sales, PepsiCo Inc. (PEP), the world’s largest snack-food maker, Nestle SA (NESN)’s Nestle USA and Coca-Cola Co. (KO)

    Proposition 31 would create a two-year state budget cycle. Proposition 33 would allow auto insurers to set prices based on whether a driver was previously covered by insurance.

    Shadow of Death
    A proposal to abolish the death penalty, Proposition 34, would change the maximum sentence to life without parole, and would apply retroactively to prisoners now on death row.

    Proposition 35 would increase penalties for human trafficking. An effort to change the state’s three-strikes law, Proposition 36, would reduce the prison sentence for third-time offenders whose latest crimes were “nonserious, nonviolent felonies” from the minimum sentence of 25-years-to-life.

    Proposition 39 would require multistate business to calculate their California income-tax liability based on the percentage of their sales in the state.

    Charles Munger Jr. also gave more than $463,700 to support Proposition 40, according to MapLight data. The measure would let voters approve or reject the state senate redistricting plan approved by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.

    To contact the reporter on this story: Alison Vekshin in San Francisco at [email protected].

    To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman in New York at [email protected].
    .

    1. Patrick has been trying to put Utah back into the hands of the 99%. Everyone in Utah who follows politics and education has known this since at least 2007. Just read his comments about Huntsman Jr.

      Patrick’s philosophy stems from Adam Smith, FA Hayek, and Milton Friedman. Aligned with Ron Paul.

      Charlie Munger, on the other hand, listen to all his inane comments about Singapore. It is clear he is an elitist who favors top down central planning, and I wouldn’t be surprised if his children want crowns too.

      For central government, Government Sachs is calling the shots at the moment. If the 1% always controls the political discourse, who of the 1% would you want calling the shots?

      Patrick Byrne or Goldman Sachs?
      Deepcapture.com or Goldman Sachs?
      (Milton)Friedman Foundation or Goldman Sachs?

  35. Politcal Maverick Arlen Specter dies at age 82
    Thank You Arlen for attempting to correct a wrong in regards to naked short selling, you will always be remembered for standing up for what is right!

  36. Silver Manipulation Update:
    “…And as has been stated by GATA and others, this is probably a U.S. government-backed operation…and is the big reason that the CFTC can’t, and won’t, move against the “da boyz” no matter how overwhelming the evidence.

    And there’s enough evidence contained in the Commitment of Traders Report, the Bank Participation Report…and the quarterly OCC Report on Derivatives to lock up the top managements and boards of directors of all these companies [and the CME Group] for the rest of their natural lives. When the regulators won’t move against the collusive behavior of these traders, no matter what their own reports show, you know that the system is corrupt to its core…and no one at the top gives a damn, because they will never have to pay for their sins. This is a case of absolute power corrupting absolutely.” [written by Ed Steer]
    (http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/john-dizardfinancial-timesas-money-hides-away-gold-heads-blow)

    1. “…And there’s enough evidence contained in the Commitment of Traders Report, the Bank Participation Report…and the quarterly OCC Report on Derivatives to lock up the top managements and boards of directors of all these companies [and the CME Group] for the rest of their natural lives. …”

      Do you have anything against the death penalty for these SOBs? Their criminality is worldwide. If the Coinage Act of 1792 is not going to be enforced in the United States it is only a matter of time before a bankster in some other country will become a recipient because of the massive fraud counterfeit money is reeking on all of mankind. At that time the impetus to impose more of these penalties elsewhere will be unstoppable. It is outrageous that such massive fraud continues unaddressed while news stories of petty theft with penalties measured in years are a commonly occurring news event. It does appear that we are nearing the tipping point as financial markets are signaling a massive downturn in the very near future, the likes of which will eclipse that of 1929.

  37. Hello ! ! !!

    I have an idea to share with everyone !!!!!!

    Someone asks me to loan them $10 and I don’t think much of it readily accept the fact that it might not never come back. Even if they returned the money, and with interest two years later. Whoop-de-doo, one or two extra dollars.

    So 10,000 people on $10. That’s good funding.

    So much like Groupon, Group Coupons. I suggest a Group Loan business where instead of coupon price, amount of coupons, and product/service descriptions… there is a loan amount, number of loans, and idea/purpose descriptions.

    It can be called Groan. Sounds like Grow, and own too. Chewbacca of Star Wars can be the mascot, GERGRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAEERRR

    Alex Baldwin and Harrison Ford an be the spokespeople
    .
    Let’s just say we’d like to avoid any banking entanglements.

    Well, that’s the trick, isn’t it? And it’s going to cost you
    something extra. Ten dollars, all in advance.

  38. Patrick lecturing on the education guilt and government schools:

    “The Department of Philosophy sponsored the event at Alexander Library on the College Avenue campus, where more than 80 students came together to hear Byrne’s lecture “Praxis, Praxis, Praxis: How Entrepreneurship, Philosophy and Libertarianism Made Me 2007’s ‘Most Hated Man on Wall Street.’”

    http://www.dailytargum.com/news/university/ceo-analyzes-government-s-education-budget/article_071bf4f8-1808-11e2-9c6c-0019bb30f31a.html

  39. I can’t wait to find out how well Patrick and Co. come out regarding the Goldman law suit. I stop around the website once a week to find out the outcome. Can’t wait! I’m confident they will win!!

    Patrick is by far my personal hero!

  40. “Patrick is by far my personal hero!”

    Past US President, Andrew Jackson, is mine, except for his stand on slavery and American Indians. He destroyed the 2nd Bank of the United States (forerunner of the Fed). The impact of this was far, and away, more important than placing FTDs, or any related derivatives, as the most important fraud to confront. I would also place those who attend OWS movements in somewhat the same category, except for the infiltrators whose objective is to destroy them wherever they appear by behaviors that can be broadcast in the most negative of terms.

    1. Overstock.com CEO “Abolish the Federal Reserve” – YouTube
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAb1aGaZX6g
      12 Jan 2009 – Overstock.com CEO “Abolish the Federal Reserve”

      Also donates to and is voting for Ron Paul(end the Fed), chairing Milton Friedman’s legacy foundation(~1993 — end the Fed), and supports, has attended OWS(many protesters calling to end the Fed)

  41. Been looking for an answer all over the site/forum, so figure I’ll just ask here since it’s the most recent post.

    What happened to Miscreants’ Global Bust-Out. Had to stop reading in the middle because of the Canadian court gag order, but I thought you guys won that battle and the story would be going back up? Are we never going to get to finish reading that report?

      1. I don’t remember how many chapter’s I’d read, but I was current when they pulled the story. Can’t even tell you where I left off, because even the part that I’ve already read haven’t been put back up.

        Just curious if the report is ever going to be restored/completed.

          1. Thanks for the link, Anon, but I’m not sure if you sent the right one. That link just sends me to the first 21 chapters of the report as they were originally posted, which is where I had left off before. I looked around on that thread and didn’t see any comments about what’s going on now.

            I followed things after the injunction was lifted, saw Mark Mitchell put the first chapter back up again (although that link just leads to a blank page now), and nothing has followed.

            So it’s nice to have an archive of the story as it appeared before, but are we ever going to see the rest? And should we be worried about the delay?

          2. Yes, it does seem that only the first 21 chapters are available – though there are rumours of a mystery Chapter 22. I haven’t managed to find this anywhere yet.

          3. Yeah, the story was definitely not finished at 21. There was a big buildup, then kaput. I’ve been hoping to see it finished, but at this point I’m worried that maybe there’s been more legal shenanigans or threats that are preventing that from happening. Figured I’d finally chime in and aks what’s up.

        1. I think Deepcapture wrote about IP addresses from the offices of Michael Milken and SAC Capital regularly follow the articles… evolving their criminal activities after new information comes out.

          Patrick also mentioned something about being way ahead of the curve on the Miscreant’s Global Bust Out story, gaining a dedicated following from Saudi Arabia.

          My guess is that they handed material over to the NSA and CIA… and publishing new information would impair bringing criminals to justice.

          1. Dear ‘Anonymous’
            Gave info to the NSA and the CIA? Please stop drinking at 9:30 in the morning.

          2. But then, if the NSA and CIA are anything like the SEC, they would impair bringing criminals to justice, would they not?

  42. It seems obvious from the Market Watch report that President Obama has been involved with the racketeering spelled out in the article. If that isn’t “high crimes and misdemeanors”, what is?

    But then again it seems all those in high places these days get a pass when they break the law.

    1. James I think you need to go further back in history to find the true ‘master’ behind the master plan.
      Central banking and fiat currency are just the most recent manifestations of the plan.
      It has to do with restoring the rulers over the people, the separation of law one set of laws [ or no laws] for the ruler and other laws for the ruled, religion,education, and industry.
      Key things to research are What happened AFTER the Magna Carta was signed.
      The inquisition what information and behavior was REALLY suppressed.
      England during the French revolution and during the Napoleonic wars.
      America and the people in charge of its political foundation in the 1670-1790’s.
      Why were the slaves not freed without a civil war, and who did that war benefit the most.
      Why De-industrialization makes a population easier to control, and speaking of making a population easier to control the chemistry behind endocrine disruptors BPA and others what were the initial experiments using these chemical and how did they end up in everything.
      I have spent too much time and brain effort in trying to figure it all out only to come to the conclusion I have no idea what is going on myself but I do not think it is MY best interests as a member of the rapidly vanishing middle class of America.
      I also know more is going on here than I will ever know.
      I will continue to bang my head against this mass of information until it makes sense or I lose all ability to reason.
      NOT GIVING UP.

      1. bbhindyou,

        When you realize that most of the rest of the population knows only a tiny fraction of what you’ve posted you will also realize what the real problem is.

        On your comment: “…Why were the slaves not freed without a civil war, and who did that war benefit the most. …”

        Lincoln supported the Fugitive Slave Act, therefore it is obvious that the war was not about creating freedom for that segment of the population. Thank goodness for the Internet. It is certain that most in the North knew little about details such as that, since as has been said, “The first casualty of war is the truth.”

          1. Interesting stuff. Speaking of Ponzi schemes and unbridled fraud, why can’t the Federal Reserve be disbanded?

            I refer you to the following quote taken from the book, “The Creature from Jekyll Island”. If you follow the logic it is obvious that Carlo Ponzi was preceded for many centuries by the concept of “fractional reserve” banking. Ponzi merely adapted the model for his own particular brand of fraud. And that is why “banking” is the basis of most fraud, which finds it easier to exist when the business community is accommodated with the proceeds of the fraud, making it nearly impossible to erase it.

            It has given rise to things like “unionism”, in which their leadership also are willing participants by promising their membership wage increases to offset the continued devaluation of the currencies of the particular nation they reside in. There have been countless stories of the mob activity within the various labor unions where the bosses are mostly the ones who gain monetarily, speaking of the “mobsters” you refer to. And that is just one of many, many examples.

            Q. What are banks for?

            A. To make money.

            Q. For the customers?

            A. For the banks.

            Q. Why doesn’t bank advertising mention this?

            A. It would not be in good taste. But it is mentioned by implication in references to reserves of $249,000,000 or thereabouts. That is the money that they have made.

            Q. Out of the customers?

            A. I suppose so.

            Q. They also mention Assets of $500,000,000 or thereabouts. Have they made that too?

            A. Not exactly. That is the money they use to make money.

            Q. I see. And they keep it in a safe somewhere?

            A. Not at all. They lend it to customers.

            Q. Then they haven’t got it?

            A. No.

            Q. Then how is it Assets?

            A. They maintain that it would be if they got it back.

            Q. But they must have some money in a safe somewhere?

            A. Yes, usually $500,000,000 or thereabouts. This is called Liabilities.

            Q. But if they’ve got it, how can they be liable for it?

            A. Because it isn’t theirs.

            Q. Then why do they have it?

            A. It has been lent to them by customers.

            Q. You mean customers lend banks money?

            A. In effect. They put money into their accounts, so it is really lent to the banks.

            Q. And what do the banks do with it?

            A. Lend it to other customers.

            Q. But you said that money they lent to other people was Assets?

            A. Yes.

            Q. Then Assets and Liabilities must be the same thing?

            A. You can’t really say that.

            Q. But you’ve just said it. If I put $100 into my account the bank is liable to have to pay it back, so it’s Liabilities. But they go and lend it to someone else, and he is liable to have to pay it back, so it’s Assets. It’s the same $100, isn’t it?

            A. Yes. But …

            Q. Then it cancels out. It means, doesn’t it, that banks haven’t really any money at all?

            A. Theoretically ….

            Q. Never mind theoretically. And if they haven’t any money, where do they get their Reserves of $249,000,000 or thereabouts?

            A. I told you. That is money they have made.

            Q.How?

            A. Well, when they lend your $100 to someone they charge him interest.

            Q.Howmuch?

            A. It depends on the Bank Rate. Say five and a-half per cent. That’s their profit.

            Q. Why isn’t it my profit? Isn’t it my money?

            A. It’s the theory of banking practice that …

            Q. When I lend them my $100 why don’t I charge them interest?

            A. You do.

            Q. You don’t say. How much?

            A. It depends on the Bank Rate. Say half a per cent.

            Q. Grasping of me, rather?

            A. But that’s only if you’re not going to draw the money out again.

            Q. But of course, I’m going to draw it out again. If I hadn’t wanted to draw it out again I could have buried it in the garden, couldn’t I?

            A. They wouldn’t like you to draw it out again.

            Q. Why not? If I keep it there you say it’s a Liability. Wouldn’t they be glad if I reduced their Liabilities by removing it?

            A. No. Because if you remove it they can’t lend it to anyone else.

            Q. But if I wanted to remove it they’d have to let me?

            A. Certainly.

            Q. But suppose they’ve already lent it to another customer?

            A. Then they’ll let you have someone else’s money.

            Q. But suppose he wants his too … and they’ve let me have it?

            A. You’re being purposely obtuse.

            Q. I think I’m being acute. What if everyone wanted their money at once?

            A. It’s the theory of banking practice that they never would.

            Q. SO what banks bank on is not having to meet their commitments?

            A. I wouldn’t say that.

            Q. Naturally. Well, if there’s nothing else you think you can tell me … ?

            A. Quite so. Now you can go off and open a banking account.

            Q. Just one last question.

            A. Of course.

            Q. Wouldn’t I do better to go off and open up a bank?

  43. Patrick on Fox News talking about Overstock
    http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1927023724001/

    Ideas for Fox News:
    DA: Overstock.com, a company where talking about stock price is grounds for employment termination, has seen share prices rise 40% this week and triple since April lows.
    DA: Talking with us today is Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne
    PB: Nice to be here.
    DA: Recent price advances have created an ideal opportunity for Overstock to ensnare uncultured employees. Any plans for a Monday phishing trip with spoof websites? “CNBC: Overstock.com price crashes 50% after huge run up” linking to termination notices? YOU’RE FIRED!

  44. Silver Manipulation Update:
    The real reason I can get away with labeling JPMorgan as crooked and have the bank remain silent is because a 33% market share by one participant in any futures market is against every concept of commodity law and US antitrust policy intent. Do you remember past days of the discussion of position limits and how disappointing it was when the CFTC ignored thousands of public requests for a position limit of one percent (of either world production or total open interest) and established a formula instead calling for 2.5%? The agency further wimped out and sided with the CME in goosing the formula to as much as 5% for markets the size of COMEX silver (how convenient). Please think of those proposed numbers – 1%, 2.5% and 5% and compare them to the 33% that the crooks at JPMorgan now hold in silver. And just so I’m clear, without JPMorgan’s manipulative position in silver, the price would now be well over $100 right now. It is not possible to make that assertion in any other market. – Silver analyst Ted Butler…27 October 2012
    (http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/der-spiegel-snickers-about-germanys-gold-avoids-serious-questions)

  45. http://buzz.money.cnn.com/2012/11/02/stock-certificates-sandy/

    The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp (DTCC) holds trillions of dollars of stock certificates in trust for their owners, through its subsidiary Cede & Co.

    DTCC subsidiary Deriv/SERV also clears substantial volumes of derivatives such as credit default swaps.

    The international headquarters for DTCC and its Cede & Co. and Deriv/SERV subsidiaries is located at 55 Water Street in Manhattan, and the vault storing trillions in stock certificates and other instruments was apparently flooded by Hurricane Sandy.

  46. Patrick Byrne says Goldman Sachs is an enemy of the Republic on the Q3 2012 Overstock.com earnings call. Jonathan Johnson provides Goldman Sachs lawsuit update:

    “two big things are happening in that case. We’ve recently filed our response to the Goldman and Merrill filings of whether the documents that the judge looked at in dismissing the case should be released to the public. It’s called a motion to unseal or motion to seal by Goldman. So that is in front of the court. And we will see that, I would suspect, in the springtime. The court will decide whether to unseal those documents.

    The other big thing that’s coming up is we will file our appeal of the judge’s dismissal of the case and that filing will happen in early December. I would think sometime early fall or so all the briefs will be in and the court will be considering that. But, we like the work that our lawyers have been doing on this.

    We expect to win on the unsealing and we expect to win on the appeal, so that we can get back to trial sometime in the next years.”

    http://investors.overstock.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=131091&p=irol-calendarpast_pf

    http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/Plaintiffs%20Opp%20to%20MSJ.pdf

  47. The following link is additional information on the Spire Law Group lawsuit against major government officials and mega-banks. Within there is also information on the murder of the children of the CNBC exec whose children were murdered just after he authorized release of the story. It indicates the nanny was the culprit, but because her throat was slashed she is unable to speak. (Hmmmmm!) It is assumed that she can read and write, however.

    http://www.dailypaul.com/260706/cnbc-digital-vps-children-murdered-after-43-trillion-bankster-lawsuit-suit-post-post-removed

  48. Knock knock…
    Anybody home?
    There has been a whole lot of shakin going on in the world lately from the impact of a hurricane and the hero’s and questions [wet cert’s?] that emerged from that, to the elections and the ‘resignation’ of some top people for some dubious reasons on several fronts.
    No comment?
    The silence is getting louder all the time.
    I will have faith.
    C’mon guys, we need you.

  49. The wet cert. thing is ridiculous after they lost all their records (original in WTC 1 and backup in WTC 2). Didn’t it occur to someone that an underground vault could get flooded?

    Ridiculous or do they just want to get rid of paper certs. that could prove that the DTCC thieves only fractionally back share, debt and other security ownership.

    It makes you wonder where the value goes. When us investors are left with a fraction, who gets the value from the remaining fraction that was resold to someone else?

    The biggest problem is the foxes run the hen house.

  50. Silver Manipulation update – By Ted Butler.. Let me speak in simple terms. JPMorgan is stuck in silver, in my opinion. They bought a pig in a poke when they bought Bear Stearns in 2008 and took over the manipulation of the silver price. Armed with US Government financial assistance that probably included a promise of immunity against being charged with manipulating the price of silver, JPMorgan plunged headlong and willingly into that manipulation. Armed with virtually unlimited capital and regulatory carte blanch from the government, JPMorgan set out to dominate the paper silver market, just as Drexel Burnham, AIG and Bear Stearns did before that. Because the counter party technical funds could be bamboozled into and out of the market by the rigging of prices, JPMorgan came to “own” the silver market. But they became too clever for their own good. JPMorgan became such a dominant force in silver that the tables became reversed and it is unclear if whether silver now owns JPM. That may sound extreme, but let’s look at the facts.

    There is an unusual concentration on the short side of COMEX silver. So unusual is this concentration that the CFTC, when faced with hundreds of complaints about the concentration began a formal investigation more than four years ago, unresolved to this day. In response to requests from lawmakers back then, the CFTC (inadvertently) identified JPMorgan as the biggest silver short. Since then, it has been easy for me to calculate JPMorgan’s continuing concentrated position. Even though it is perhaps the most aggressive and litigious of all financial firms, JPM has remained silent to continuous allegations that it is behaving illegally in silver. That silence has only help spread the growing awareness of JPMorgan as being the big silver crook.

    No one reading this has ever witnessed a giant financial organization ignoring allegations that they are breaking the law. That includes me and I admit that it seems other worldly to me that I am the one making the allegations, as that was never the plan. But that doesn’t change the fact that whatever JPMorgan does will determine the price of silver. JPMorgan recently added 100 million oz in paper shorts because no other combination of traders was willing to do so. If JPM hadn’t sold short such large quantities of paper contracts, silver prices would have exploded, threatening to expose that silver had been previously manipulated in price. Having added such a manipulative short position, JPMorgan must now somehow rig prices lower to force the technical longs to sell so that JPM can buy back its manipulative shorts. When you get to the extreme position that JPMorgan holds in silver, you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. I hope this is simple enough.

    (http://goldsilverworlds.com/gold-silver-experts/silver-manipulation-explained-in-a-simple-way-by-ted-butler/)

  51. It’s sad to see an spirit developing in this country that says: Can’t do”, along with no will for shared sacrifice for a common good.

    1. I’m all for can do and shared sacrifice and I bet most of the readers are, too.

      Despite what the counterfeiters that run this country think, most Americans want the world to be a better place and are willing to help their neighbors.

      We just need to extricate the parasites from the system, so the country can become healthy again.

      We need more guillotines and less sanctimonious .00001% rhetoric.

  52. Hi Patrick.

    Did Mark Michell read this before he wrote about Elgindy? This is from David Patch’s web site

    http://www.investigatethesec.com/drupal-5.5/files/Elgindy%20unsealed%20testimony%20part%202.pdf

    A similarly false allegation that the government seeks this Court’s approval to put before the jury is an accusation that came from Matt Tyson, a person who by the government’s own description was an Uestranged fonner Elgindy business associate” and who was at the time involved in a lawsuit against Mr. Elgindy. (Gov’t Mem. at 13.) Tyson reported, among other things, that Mr. Elgindy had donated $5000 to an organization called “Mercy USA,” an organization he believed was previously known as “Mercy International.” (A Confidential 0062.) While Tyson originally described this organization as a “charity to benefit children in developing nations,” he soon thereafter advised the FBI that a published letter he had viewed indicated that Mercy International “purchased the vehicles that were used by Osama Bin Laden to bomb the U.S. embassies both in Kenya and Tanzania.” (Gov’t Mem. at 15-16; A 3681.) The implication that Tyson apparently hoped to suggest through his reports -that Mr. Elgindy had contributed to a charity that supports terrorism -turned out to be false. As indicated in a later FBI 302, Mercy International Relief Agency, the terrorist-supporting-organization, and Mercy International-USA, the legitimate charity, were separate and distinct entities and the FBI was “unaware of any association Elgindy might have with” the former. (A Confidential
    The government’s memorandum never expressly acknowledges the falsity ofthis allegation; instead, the first and only reference to the falsity ofthe allegation comes on page 20. when the government simply quotes a later FBI report refuting the earlier allegation.
    -62
    3
    Case 1:02-cr-00589-RJD Document 692 Filed 01/05/2007 Page 9 of 26
    3697-98.) Nevertheless, the government wishes to parade this highly inflammatory accusation before the jury.3
    A second fact that is significant (but which the government nowhere expressly
    acknowledges) is that the proposed testimony ofthe government’s star witness Derrick
    Cleveland -a convicted cocaine dealer and now two-time cooperator -would put before the jury
    a dramatically exaggerated and inaccurate version of the allegations the government was
    investigating, significantly exacerbating the already highly prejudicial nature ofthe
    government’s proposed evidence. For example,

    Cleveland apparently will testify that Royer told him that the FBI was looking into allegations that, immediately prior to September 11 th, Mr. Elgindy ‘”had liquidated a $6 million trustfund at Smith Barney, which Elgindy had established for his children, as well as a $3 million account at Schwab.” (Gov’t Mem. at 23 (emphasis added).) In fact, the FBI was looking into something an order of magnitude smaller: a Smith Barney broker’s report that Mr. Elgindy had attempted -butfailed -to sell less than $300,000 in securities in his children’s accounts on September 10,2001. (A Confidential 3678-80.) And there had never been any allegation, much less evidence, concerning any liquidation ofadditional millions from an account at Schwab or anywhere else.4

    In addition, Cleveland apparently is prepared to tell the jury that Royer told him the FBI was looking into allegations that “”Elgindy donated money to several Middle Eastern charities ofwhich two or three had ties to Al Qaeda .. (emphasis added), and that the FBI had ufound a solid money trail between Elgindy and
    A visit to the mercyusa.org web-site shows that Tyson’s initial description was accurate: the Mercy organization to which a contribution was made under Mr. Elgindy’s name helps children around the world and is funded by the U.S. government as well as the United Nations.
    As with so much ofthe innuendo reflected in the government’s proposed proof, the attempted but failed stock sales on September 10th -which Mr. Elgindy openly spoke about that day over the internet -can be explained by wholly innocent facts, including, among other things, recent major losses in those accounts and Mr. Elgindy’s perfectly legitimate and stated beliefs that the market might soon suffer a major setback for reasons having nothing to do with terrorism. (See Gov’t Mem. at 14 n.6 (excerpts ofSeptember 10,2001 chat log); ELG 53769-73, ELG 53883-89, ELG 53523-27 (Adam, Gabriel. and Sammy Elgindy Smith Barney Account Statements indicating significant decline in managed stock portfolio from previous period). attached hereto as Exhibit C; A Confidential 3679 (FBI 302 ofDavid Ross stating that Mr. Elgindy would have received these statements on approximately September 3, 2001).)
    -7Case
    1:02-cr-00589-RJD Document 692 Filed 01/05/2007 Page 10 of 26
    some questionable organizations that were linked to terrorism.” (Gov’t Mem. at 23.) But the FBI reports disclosed by the government tell a very different storyindicating that there was only one suggestion ofone contribution by Mr. Elgindy to a terrorist-supporting charity and that charity turned out to be a U.S. government sponsored charity supporting children in developing nations. (See A Confidential 0062, A Confidential 3681, A Confidential 3697-98; supra, at 6 n.3.)

  53. This site is obviously gagged because of the Nazeralli case. Is there another site we can continue the fight at in the mean time?

  54. Hey Sean,

    My guess is that DC is constrained from all of Patrick’s other obligations and his disposition to be a recluse. Totally a hermit. DC needed(still needs) a media machine and some organizers, but it’s hard to get people to go up against organized crime.

    One easy thing for DC to do is have regularly updated timelines of news articles, research reports, and short positions (of interest) of DeepCapture miscreants. I think you actually suggested this in the comments somewhere 3 years ago. Ridiculously easy to do, would provide DC with regular news that gets linked to, and would help the website spread.

    Patrick is probably constrained by the Rocker settlement, other under the table dealings with the miscreants, or threats of some sort.

    Patrick! You have at least one person that will contribute a small amount of time every month to update timelines for DC. Once the timeline structure/architecture/format is set in place, comments posted from readers make updating even easier(user contributions for all those wanting to help you!).

  55. Anon, you speak with Forked tongue. Patrick and Deepcapture are not constrained by anything. Are you trying with these childish antics to illicit some sort of response? If so “Very Weak” on you.When has Patrick or D.C. ever asked for any donations of any kind to shine a light on u/these roaches? The D.C. team is painting a masterpiece, and it is not quite done yet. When it is you will know and trust me you and your cohorts will rue the day you went up against this man and his company.One other thing I don’t this Patrick is the kind of individual that can be “Constrained” by anyone, let alone these miscreants. Just my honest opinion and observation. Peace and lets continue enjoying watching the house of cards fall apart as predicted by the good Dr. on CNBC years before it began. LOL!! Peace ANON!!!! p.s. If I am wrong about you, my apologies in advance.

    1. Hey Sean,

      This is the same Anon.

      1. The Rocker settlements had agreements. Patrick can’t (legally) talk about some of the things, he mentions this in his interview with Gnostic Media, peace revolution podcast.

      Patrick honors verbal agreements too, he is a very nice guy. Probably too nice.

      2. It’s my opinion that DC should ask for people’s time, and direct some user contributed projects.

      3. DC has many masterpieces that no one knows about, and I think a regularly updated website would help “spread the word”

      4. You are probably completely wrong about me, but that’s OK. You are a “watcher” and “observer” type… there are other users that are/would be/want to be contributors.

      5. I don’t think the word hermit/recluse is insulting. The Doug Fabrizio interview on UtahNOW spends the most time discussing Patrick’s introverted personality type.

  56. Hi Patrick.

    Do you think Mark Cuban is right by calling this a scam product?

    ———————————————
    Mark Cuban rips NBA over bracelets
    Updated: November 26, 2012, 4:17 PM ET
    By Tim MacMahon | ESPNDallas.com

    Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban believes that one of the NBA’s marketing deals is “a scam,” and he said Monday that he banned the product from the team’s locker room.

    Cuban made his opinion clear in a video he posted to YouTube last week in which he criticized Power Balance bracelets before throwing the display case that was in the Mavericks’ locker room in the garbage.

    “See this stuff?” Cuban said on the video, grabbing the display. “It was a scam when they were on ‘Shark Tank.’ It’s still a scam. I don’t care if the NBA was dumb enough to sign an agreement; this is going where it belongs.”

    At that point, Cuban put the display case in a trash can.
    “But have no fear, we do recycle,” Cuban said. “What are you thinking, NBA?”

    The NBA declined comment Monday afternoon.

    The rubber bracelets have a distinctive hologram that is “based on Eastern philosophies of health and wellness,” according to the company’s website. Power Balance bracelets featuring NBA team logos in the hologram are available for $32.99 on the league’s official website.

    However, Cuban said via email Monday that he will not allow the product in the Mavs’ locker room.

    In November 2011, Power Balance LLC reportedly agreed to a $57 million settlement to a class action false-advertising lawsuit by some customers who alleged that the company intentionally exaggerated its products’ ability to improve balance, flexibility and strength.

    Cuban hastily dismissed a similar product when watches with holograms were pitched on “Shark Tank,” the ABC entrepreneurial reality show on which he stars.

    “No, I’m allergic to scams,” Cuban said on the February episode of “Shark Tank.” “Seriously, this is not new. It’s been disproven. What you saw is the placebo effect. There’s athletes that wear it. It’s a joke. It’s a scam. It’s not real.”

  57. WaMu Trust Alleges Naked Shorting By Goldman, Seeks Probe
    By Lisa Uhlman

    Law360, New York (December 04, 2012, 5:34 PM ET) — Washington Mutual Inc.’s liquidation trust asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge Friday to let it investigate Goldman Sachs & Co. for potential breach of contract claims, saying new evidence shows Goldman betrayed its client by driving its stock price down through a naked short-selling scheme.

    The WMI Liquidating Trust asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary F. Walrath for authorization to conduct a limited examination of Goldman and its affiliates, arguing that evidence recently developed by its litigation subcommittee suggests that breach of contract and other claims could be a source of substantial value to the trust’s remaining creditors and WMI’s former equity holders.

    Goldman served as WMI’s investment bank before its bankruptcy, underwriting several of its securities and assisting it in raising capital and identifying investment partners, according to the motion. Those services became increasingly important as the financial crisis worsened and turbulence in the mortgage markets threatened WMI unit Washington Mutual Bank.

    WMI relied on Goldman’s expertise and reputation to bolster market confidence in WaMu and prevent a collapse as the parent sought a reliable source of liquidity, and it paid the company millions of dollars in fees to assist it, the motion says.

    “Instead of providing this promised support to WMI, it appears that Goldman Sachs may have decided it could make more money by betraying its client,” the motion said.

    “In this motion, WMILT seeks evidence of Goldman’s participation in a scheme to drive WMI’s stock price down as a way of generating massive profits for Goldman and its favored investor partners,” it added. “Such conduct, if it occurred, was directly contrary to the obligations Goldman undertook in its investment advisory agreement with WMI.”

    The trust argues that in the final months before WMI filed for bankruptcy protection, major investors participated in a scheme to drive down its share price through a so-called bear raid, or a slew of short sales and other securities transactions that weakened its share price.

    Investors betting against a stock through short sales can generate huge profits by “fomenting a self-perpetuating cycle of panic,” the trust says, noting that financial institutions are especially susceptible to bear raids because their value depends on public perception of their strength. Stock crashes can cause bank runs, further dropping the stock price and continuing the cycle — exactly what happened with WaMu, it says.

    In naked short sales, investors seeking to profit from a bear raid will agree to sell stock short without first finding shares to sell, the trust says. Large amounts of naked short sales can artificially depress a stock’s price by increasing the supply of shares, and naked short selling is recognized as abusive market manipulation that is almost always illegal.

    The trust says there is overwhelming evidence that WMI’s stock was subjected to naked short selling and that the decline in its value is largely due to naked shorting, not to any weakness in WaMu.

    “This potentially unlawful trading activity created a classic death spiral for the bank,” the trust said.

    It asks the court to allow it to conduct discovery to determine if Goldman participated in or facilitated the shorting and naked shorting of WMI’s stock, arguing that if evidence of that behavior exists, there would be a basis for a breach of contract claim and possibly market manipulation and other securities-related causes of action against Goldman.

    It argues that the trading records it needs to determine Goldman’s involvement are solely within the investment bank’s possession, but that even without them there is good reason to believe the bank participated. Goldman’s involvement in other bear raids and naked shorting has been widely reported, and it’s been named as a defendant in several suits over alleged naked short-selling, the trust says.

    It wants to conduct discovery of certain trading records, arguing that the request shouldn’t put a significant burden on Goldman because of its limited scope.

    “On the other hand, the potential benefit to WMI’s creditors and other stakeholders is substantial given the magnitude of the damages at issue,” it said. “Granting this motion will facilitate WMILT’s efforts to fulfill its fiduciary obligation to its constituents to identify and liquidate all claims that it received from the estate.”

    The trust is represented by Scott D. Cousins, Paul D. Brown and Mark D. Olivere of Cousins Chipman & Brown LLP and Edgar Sargent and Justin A. Nelson of Susman Godfrey LLP.

    Counsel information for Goldman was not immediately available Tuesday.

    The case is In re: Washington Mutual Inc. et al., case number 1:08-bk-12229, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

    –Editing by Richard McVay.

  58. Humpty dumpty getting ready for that big fall. Stevie is about to join Rocker and Samberg for the Hedge Funds that just go POOF in the night!!!

    Citi Tells Clients To Avoid Steve Cohen
    Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/05/2012 12:59 -0500

    CitigroupCohenFBIGETCOSACSteve Cohen

    If the beginning of the end started two years ago as we predicted, is this end of the end?

    •CITIGROUP PRIVATE BANK SAID TO PUT SAC CAPITAL ON `WATCH’ LIST
    •CITIGROUP SAID TO ADVISE CLIENTS AGAINST ADDING MONEY TO SAC
    •CITIGROUP PRIVATE BANK ALLOCATES CLIENT MONEY TO HEDGE FUNDS
    Next up: all other private wealth groups halt capital allocations to SAC? Redemptions of all non-employee funds and liquidations? FBI raids, but only after orderly winddowns? It sure gets interesting…

    And without Stevie Cohen running stops 24/7 in ES and every other stock that is still widely traded, what then? Will GETCO run the entire market?

    Average:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-05/citi-tells-clients-avoid-steve-cohen

  59. Silver Manipulation Update: The unavoidable attention that will attach to the termination of the silver manipulation is also one of the main forces delaying the coming resolution. If ever there was a can that needed to be kicked down the road by important insiders, the sudden end to the silver manipulation is surely that can.

    JPMorgan and the CME, as well as the various federal agencies involved, are dreading the resolution of the silver manipulation, probably as much as informed silver investors are cheering for it. In a nutshell, this is why it has taken so many years to put a wooden stake through the heart of the silver manipulation; those who should be ending it know that in its termination they will be exposed for not ending it sooner.

    After all, there is a documented 25 year history of the CFTC being continuously alerted to the silver manipulation with the agency always rejecting the allegations. There’s no way any termination of the silver manipulation won’t be connected to the clear prior public warnings. No one rushes to their own funeral. Postponing the shame is particularly relevant in the case of many at the CFTC, as an oath of office was taken to protect the public and the public’s pleas for relief were ignored. – Silver analyst Ted Butler…05 December 2012
    (http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/bbcs-panorama-killed-report-exposing-silver-market-manipulation)

  60. They’ve completed their objective.. screwing over the investors and protecting their future employers. Now its time to collect those (or return) to those cushy jobs that they’ve been promised as a reward!!

    By JESSICA HOLZER
    WASHINGTON—The Securities and Exchange Commission’s top markets official is leaving the agency, the latest top staffer to head for the exits as SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro prepares to step down next week.

    Robert W. Cook has been atop the SEC’s markets and trading division since 2009, a period marred by the 2010 “flash crash” and several other stock-market glitches.

    Enlarge Image

    Close
    Zuma Press

    SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro confers with Robert W. Cook at a Senate hearing in May. Mr. Cook, the agency’s top markets official, is leaving
    .
    A handful of Ms. Schapiro’s lieutenants have left the agency over the summer amid speculation that her tenure was coming to a close. She said last week that she would leave the agency next Friday. The Obama administration named SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter to take over for Ms. Schapiro as chairman but signaled that the choice was temporary and it was looking for a permanent chairman.

    Also Wednesday, the SEC said the agency’s general counsel, Mark Cahn, would step down.

    The departures of Ms. Schapiro’s top staffers may complicate the job for her close friend and successor, Ms. Walter, who may find it difficult with so many vacancies atop the agency.

    Any new chairman could have a difficult job attracting talent to the SEC, said former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, Jr., who said the “constant harassment” of regulators by Congress has made public service less appealing at many federal agencies. Still, Mr. Levitt said Ms. Walter is well-suited to recruiting key people to the agency because “she has been so involved in the fabric of the commission for so many years.”

    Mr. Cook plans to leave the SEC after helping with his successor’s transition to the new role, the SEC said Wednesday. One possible successor is Mr. Cook’s deputy, James Burns, who had been a member of Ms. Schapiro’s staff since March 2010.

    Mr. Cook led the SEC’s review of the causes of the flash crash, when hundreds of stocks plunged in a matter of minutes, and he oversaw the implementation of some pieces of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law. He also played a role in building a framework for a new computer system to help the SEC track stock trading across markets.

    Under Mr. Cook’s watch, the SEC turned its attention to the dominance of high-speed traders, though critics said the agency has done little to rein them in.

    On Tuesday, the SEC announced that Meredith Cross, a close adviser to Ms. Schapiro and the head of the division that reviews companies’ public offering documents, would leave at the end of the year to return to private practice.

    Robert Khuzami, the SEC’s enforcement director, is an outside contender to take over from Ms. Schapiro. But he could also leave the agency as part of a change in leadership, people familiar with the matter said.

    Mr. Khuzami, whom Ms. Schapiro recruited in 2009, has led the agency in bringing a record number of cases but faced criticism over the perceived leniency of some of the deals reached with Wall Street firms.

    —Scott Patterson contributed to this article.
    Write to Jessica Holzer at [email protected]

      1. Recent lecture by Patrick at Rutgers:

        Praxis, Praxis, Praxis: How Entrepreneurship, Philosophy and Libertarianism Made Me 2007’s “Most Hated Man on Wall Street”

        Patrick M. Byrne, who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford University, is Chairman and CEO of Overstock.com, Inc. The billion-dollar business, which has 1,300 employees, was named the best retailer to work for in America by Forbes in 2010. At the time, the magazine noted that Byrne’s 92% employee approval rating was the highest of any CEO in the nation. So why is Byrne so much less popular among investment bankers, traders, and analysts? Find out by watching this video of the lecture he gave at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey on October 16, 2012

        Mr. Byrne spoke before an audience of Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences and Business School students at the Scholarly Communication Center, Alexander Library, College Avenue Campus, Rutgers-New Brunswick, at the invitation of Ernie Lepore, Professor of Philosophy.

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWg_b59Cktk

  61. Look at all these idiots embarrassing themselves. Patrick is a whiny CEO who is mad his company is barely worth 300 million. People keep shorting his stock and hurting his personal wealth and he cries about it. He claims to be an “SEC expert” when his head is stuck up his ass.

    Oh, and hey Patrick, a monkey can run this company better than you. And great job claiming Allied Capital is a “victim.” By your definition, apparently people running pyramid schemes are victims. Did Bernie Madoff pay you off?

  62. No one cares about you.. Patrick won’t dignify your stupidity with and answer but I will. I know that Patrick and Deepcapture have cost you and your ilk a crapload of money and some serious anticipated jailtime but fear not, there are unpleasant suprises coming your way. Just be patient, Karma (sp) is a bi-ch and so are you and your just deserts are being served.. if you don’t believe me just ask Stevie Cohen and other..many more to come.Really is this the best you can come at Patrick with, name calling. LOL!! Too funny.

  63. When cornered and about to be killed RATS can be dangerous.
    I think the desperation level is at a all time high amongst the rats.
    Please be careful all you rat hunters.
    We may be coming to the end of the Hunt.
    Do NOT waver in our efforts, as if even a single RAT escapes we will have to hunt RATS again sooner than we would like to think about.
    Continue to be strong, smart and wary.
    Remember as well all those who have fallen to the RATS and the systemic diseases they spread.
    It is not so much how much the RATS take from us in our hard earned resources, but the diseases they spread doing so.
    IE: Plague and corruption.
    We cannot survive with RATS among us.

  64. Ha ha ha NoOneCares — your paymasters must care, otherwise you would not come to DeepCapture to mouth off party lines written on their cocks.

  65. Bethany McLean leaves Goldman Sachs and starts immediately shilling for criminal Manuel Asensio (John Paulson’s roommate). Then onto shilling for Chanos, Rocker, Einhorn, SAC, Ackman, Goldman Sachs.

    How is a hedge fund planting journalists in the media “capture”?

  66. Silver Manipulation Update: Lost in the weekly observations of COT changes is the enormity of the size of JPMorgan’s COMEX silver short position. It would be impossible for any one entity to hold a short position equaling 23.4% of the world annual production of most food or industrial commodities (like corn or crude oil) because such a position would require a size well in excess of current total open interest levels in most markets. For instance, someone holding 23.4% of world annual oil production would have to hold 7 million NYMEX contracts; a neat trick for a market that has a total open interest of 1.5 million contracts. The record still indicates that JPMorgan added more than 100 million oz of COMEX short positions since the summer, making the bank the only real silver short seller during that time. When there is only one buyer or seller in any market, that market is manipulated. –
    by Silver analyst Ted Butler…15 December 2012
    (http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/noting-markets-have-been-destroyed-chris-martenson-earns-his-tinfoil-hat)

  67. My Worst Fear – Theodore Butler | December 17, 2012 –
    Recently, I have received a good number of emails containing conversations between readers and CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton about the allegations of a silver price manipulation because of the large concentrated COMEX short position held by JPMorgan. Chilton had previously led the move to begin the current silver investigation in September 2008 and has always been quick to respond to those writing to him, a rarity for high officials. I couldn’t help but notice that Commissioner Chilton had recently begun to say things that seemed to try to explain away the allegations of a silver manipulation, much different from his former stance of promising to look into it. I found this change disturbing and it has influenced my thinking that the CFTC would never do anything about the silver manipulation… CONTINUED AT LINK…
    (http://www.silverseek.com/commentary/my-worst-fear-8306)

  68. Now we’re cooking with grease right NBCAU???? LOL!!

    Cramer’s TheStreet.com Charged With Accounting Fraud
    Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/18/2012 – 13:03 Counterparties Mad Money Securities and Exchange Commission
    Over two years ago, while scouring through TheStreet.com’s filing we stumbled upon something interesting: “As a result of the need for the Company and its independent registered public accounting firm to focus attention on matters related to the Company’s previously-announced review of the accounting in its former Promotions.com subsidiary, which subsidiary the Company sold in December 2009 — including matters related to the preparation and filing by the Company in February 2010 of a Form 10-K/A for the year ended December 31, 2008, a Form 10-Q/A for the quarter ended March 31, 2009 and Forms 10-Q for the quarters ended June 30, 2009 and September 30, 2009, respectively, and matters related to an investigation commenced by Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2010 — the Company requires additional time to prepare its financial statements, assess its internal controls and file its Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009 (“2009 Form 10-K”).” Oops. We can’t wait to see how Mr. Cramer will explain to the Mad Money faithful this particular twist on the hangover of the show’s five year birthday bash. Also, we wonder if CNBC will finally cancel the ludicrous Jim “truth” Cramer campaign once this news breaks. We doubt it- in the quest for evaporating eyeballs, all is fair.” This was in April 2010. Today, we got resolution on the matter, as the SEC finally has put the matter to close.

    .
    .

    Comments: 125Reads: 12,528

    1. The New York Post!

      Proud alumni include shill, hack and criminal lapdog:

      “Roddy Boyd. @BoydRoddy. Financial muckraking for the public interest”

  69. No worst CEO of the year from CNBC for Patrick?

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/100331461
    Secret Santa for Stock Pickers
    Dana Blankenhorn

    My third present is Overstock.com. This has long been a laggard in the e-commerce space, but founder Patrick Byrne, who is most-often blamed for its problems, is slowly stepping away. He’s no longer OSTK’s biggest shareholder.

    More important, the company has figured out how to get value from “big data,” using an open source program called Apache Mahout to deliver customized gift recommendations that actually make sense.

    Since April, when a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of the company’s operations ended with no action, the stock is up about 170 percent. The company is now a prime takeover candidate for any brick-and-mortar operator, and its shareholders are in a receptive mood to hear the pitch.
    -End-

    That’s it? What happened to the Worst CEO of the Year awards? Dana’s writing is triple bogey. Bring back Herb Greenberg’s ghost writer.

    WORST CEO OF THE YEAR GOES TO PATRICK BYRNE.
    Even Trading Algorithms Think Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne Is A Failure.
    “Share price sunk early 2012 after trading algorithms adjusted to 2011 year end LOSSES. 2012 also witnessed Byrne’s gross incompetence. His legal team LOST racketeering and price fixing lawsuits against Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on location technicalities despite evidence so obvious that even Rolling Stone readers understand the crime. We see this LOSER as the best short of 2013.”

    More about the lawsuit on Daily Caller:
    http://dailycaller.com/2012/05/18/goldmans-blunder-exposes-shorts/

  70. Hello Anon and NC(AU) It would seem that SAC can’t afford the press anymore.. remains me of the soon to be fate of the NRA.

    Comments: 512
    Reads: 19,811
    Tyler Durden’s picture
    SAC Loses Anchor Investor As Noose Tightens Some More
    Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/22/2012 – 13:44

    First it was Citi, then SocGen, now a third key investor has decided to pull their money from SAC – the once vaunted hedge fund which now everyone is now avoiding like the plague, and for which the only question now is “when” – when will Stevie close down shop, and will this happen before or after the paddywagons finally arrive at 72 Cummings Point road. The WSJ reports: “Titan Advisors LLC recently told clients that it had decided to withdraw its entire investment from SAC, said clients who received phone calls from Titan. “They’ve told us they still think SAC is a good firm but Titan doesn’t need the headline risk, and we sure don’t,” said Tom Taneyhill, executive director of the Fire & Police Employees’ Retirement System of the City of Baltimore, on Friday. Société Générale SA, which has client money in SAC through its Lyxor asset-management arm, also decided to pull its money from SAC, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month. At the time, an SAC spokesman declined to comment. Titan’s departure is significant given SAC’s long-standing relationship with one of Titan’s founders. Titan co-founder George Fox began investing in SAC in the mid-90s, several years after Mr. Cohen started what became the firm in 1992.”

  71. Man its going to be a rough couple of months for ole Stevie boy. Patrick told him this would happen 4 years ago!!!

    First it was Citi, then SocGen, now a third key investor has decided to pull their money from SAC – the once vaunted hedge fund which now everyone is now avoiding like the plague, and for which the only question now is “when” – when will Stevie close down shop, and will this happen before or after the paddywagons finally arrive at 72 Cummings Point road.

  72. Go to 5:11.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixurN0e5oo4

    The idea of avoiding the counterfeiters that run this country and letting the government and companies control the value of money and shares by limiting the real amount they issue.

    The current situation is that a criminal cartel controls the DTCC, but they also control the media, the police and the politicians and that’s why nothing is ever done, other than bailing them out and sticking the taxpayers with the bill in 2008.

  73. Linked to Herbalife:
    Barry Minkow
    Jim Chanos
    David Einhorn
    William Ackman
    Whitney Tilson

    “Herbalife Hires Moelis as Adviser”
    “Herbalife is working with law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP”

    Moelis is a New Yorker and CNBC regular.
    Boies defended Rocker

    Looks like the criminals have moles inside Herbalife.

  74. Silver Manipulation Update: “The danger of a further sharp silver sell-off still exists because JPMorgan’s concentrated short position still exists. Based upon physical market considerations, there is also a danger that JPMorgan could lose control and silver could explode. That’s what’s wrong with a concentrated position and manipulated market in the first place. Through the cut-off date, JPMorgan was still short 34,000 contracts, down 1500 for the reporting week. Remarkably, this is still a third of the entire net short side of COMEX silver (minus spreads) and represents more than 22% of annual world mine production. Here’s another tidbit – the 170 million oz of equivalent silver that JPMorgan is short on the COMEX is more than 20% of the all the visible silver bullion in the world (817 million oz – source http://www.sharelynx.com).

    To give you a sense of the dimensions of holding a paper short position of this magnitude in gold, silver’s precious metal sister, please consider that if one entity held 20% of the two billion oz (minimum) of all visible gold bullion in the world short on the COMEX, it would require a short position of 4 million COMEX contracts, nearly ten times the current total open interest. (2 billion oz gold oz X 20% and then converted into 100 oz COMEX contracts). My point here is that the more you compare JPMorgan’s concentrated silver short position to other markets, the more you are amazed at the audacity of their silver manipulation.”
    by Ted Butler

    (http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/blog/4401/very-early-monday)

  75. All evil requires to succeed it for fear to cause good to do nothing.
    In the big picture if cheaters are allowed to win then SOMETHING OR SOMEONE WILL end the whole game. There is more to heaven and earth than can be seen by our physical perceptions, and I am sure the reason we exist does not have anything to do with letting the cheaters intimidate us and ‘win’.
    Have faith and fight for what you know to be right.
    We do no favors to those we ‘save’ from harm if all we save them for is to be future slaves.
    Unless we all live by the same laws then there is no law.
    Unless we all have the same rights then there are no rights.

  76. The SAC fall-back strategy is working as planned. By the time law enforcement actually knocks on SAC’s door, the investors who made illicit returns from its trading tactics will be gone with their money. As with Rocker/Copper River. The insider trading profits are such a minute portion of the total loot taken by naked short selling, the designed-to-blow MBS, the credit default swaps, and on and on.

    It’s been too long since a Deep Capture, but thanks for the continuing comments to keep us somewhat up to date, at least about what shows up in the news.

  77. Former SAC Analyst Cooperates in Insider Trading Case

    By PETER LATTMAN
    January 8, 2013, 7:42 pm
    http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/former-sac-analyst-cooperates-in-insider-trading-case/?ref=business

    A former analyst at SAC Capital Advisors, the hedge fund owned by the billionaire investor Steven A. Cohen, has given federal agents the names of about 20 people he said had engaged in insider trading, according to a court filing.

    The disclosure of the extraordinary cooperation by the former SAC analyst, Wesley Wang, emerged in a pleading filed by federal prosecutors. In a letter to a judge, the government credited Mr. Wang with substantial assistance in its broad insider trading crackdown.

    In addition to the 20 names, the government said information provided by Mr. Wang had contributed to the criminal convictions of more than 10 people.

    The letter, which was filed in connection with Mr. Wang’s sentencing, named 12 individuals who have already been charged or identified in public as part of the investigation. But the section that gave specifics about Mr. Wang’s help – and named other people, according to a person with knowledge of the letter – was heavily redacted.

    Prosecutors emphasized that Mr. Wang’s help was still yielding fruit.

    “The full extent of Wang’s information and cooperation remains to be fully realized,” the government said in the filing. “Even taking into account what has been developed to date, it is exceptional.”

    Prosecutors praised Mr. Wang’s assistance in advance of the sentencing, which is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in Federal District Court in Manhattan. They urged Judge Jed. S. Rakoff to hand down a lenient sentence. Government cooperators have been vital to prosecutors in the insider trading investigation, which has resulted in the guilty pleas or convictions of more than 70 individuals since mid-2009.

    A lawyer for Mr. Wang, Michael Celio, declined to comment.

    Mr. Wang is one of a number of former traders and analysts previously associated with SAC Capital, which manages $14 billion and has one of the best investment track records on Wall Street. At least six former SAC employees have been tied to insider trading while at the fund, which is based in Stamford, Conn. The most recent case – an indictment of a former SAC portfolio manager, Mathew Martoma – connects Mr. Cohen to questionable trades.

    Mr. Cohen and SAC have not been charged with any wrongdoing, and Mr. Cohen has told his employees and clients that he believes he and the firm acted appropriately at all times. The Securities and Exchange Commission has warned SAC that it may file a civil action against the firm in connection with the Martoma case.

    The case against Mr. Wang, a journeyman hedge fund analyst who spent just a couple of years at SAC nearly a decade ago, has largely gone unnoticed.

    A native of Taiwan, Mr. Wang, 39, of Berkeley, Calif., worked as a technology stock analyst at the SAC unit Sigma Capital from 2002 to 2005. The F.B.I. first learned about Mr. Wang’s insider trading in 2008 from another cooperator. Agents approached him in early 2009 and he almost immediately began cooperating, agreeing to wear a wire in meetings and also recording telephone conversations with his Wall Street and corporate contacts.

    “While these meetings caused Mr. Wang considerable stress, he nonetheless maintained his composure throughout them,” the prosecutors wrote in the sentencing letter.

    Last summer, Mr. Wang appeared in a federal court and entered a guilty plea, admitting to leaking confidential information about technology stocks to a former Sigma portfolio manager, Dipak Patel, and to the former head of Whitman Capital, Douglas F. Whitman.

    A jury convicted Mr. Whitman in August. He has yet to be sentenced. The government has not charged Mr. Patel.

    Mr. Wang testified at Mr. Whitman’s trial. He said that he obtained inside information about Cisco Systems and passed it on to Mr. Whitman, who in turn shared secret data about other companies.

    In the sentencing letter, prosecutors said the information provided by Mr. Wang led to their being able to approach certain other people who then also agreed to cooperate. They included Karl Motey, a crucial figure in the government’s extensive investigation into expert network firms – middlemen connecting traders to public company employees – that led to dozens of convictions.

    Prosecutors emphasized that they still had plenty of work to do with all of the information supplied to them by Mr. Wang, and requested that his continued cooperation be made a condition of his sentencing.

    “Wang has also identified a number of individuals involved in insider trading whom the F.B.I. has not yet approached and/or whom the government has not yet charged,” the letter said.

    http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/former-sac-analyst-cooperates-in-insider-trading-case/?ref=business

  78. “weirdest question I’ve ever been asked:

    “If the Kool Aid character were to fall down, causing his juice to completely spill out, would he die?”

    the employer? The Securities and Exchange Commission.

    speaks volumes about that agency”

    SEC DRINKS THE KOOL AID

    1. Keep articles coming Sean!

      Kinnucan “shadow of himself”, loses 35 pounds, and becomes depressed: Regret after squandering chance to probe other males.

  79. Whole Foods’ Mackey Says Employees Should Come Before Investors

    By Brooke Sutherland – Jan 18, 2013 12:01 AM ET Facebook Share

    Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM) Co-Chief Executive Officer John Mackey said employees, not shareholders, need to be the first priority for businesses.

    “I really don’t think shareholders should come first, I think it’s fundamentally a bad strategy,” Mackey said yesterday at a Captains of Industry series interview with Norman Pearlstine, chief content officer of Bloomberg News. “Happy team members result in happy customers, happy customers result in happy investors. If you put shareholders first, you won’t get there.”

    The event at the 92nd Street Y in New York was sponsored by Bloomberg Businessweek.

    Mackey, 59, a self-styled “conscious” capitalist and longtime nonconformist, has written a new book in which he criticizes companies that focus solely on maximizing profit. The book, “Conscious Capitalism,” was released this week.

    In the book, Mackey and his co-author, Raj Sisodia, a Bentley University marketing professor, discuss ways to create value and lift people from poverty. Mackey’s bottom line: making money need not be a zero-sum game.

    “Business has got to rediscover its higher purpose,” Mackey said in the interview.

    The college dropout co-founded a natural-foods store in Austin, Texas, in 1978 with his then-girlfriend, Renee Lawson Hardy. The store was called Safer Way, a spoof on the Safeway Inc. (SWY) chain, which operated supermarkets nearby. Two years later, Mackey and Hardy merged their company with two other grocers to form the original Whole Foods.

    Sales Growth
    The company began expanding beyond Austin in 1984 and acquired regional grocery stores and chains in the 1990s. Sales rose 16 percent to $11.7 billion in the fiscal year ended in September, the third straight year with revenue growth of at least 12 percent. Since the grocer went public in 1992, the shares have soared more than fivefold.

    Mackey says he practices what he preaches at Whole Foods by capping executive pay at 19 times the company’s average hourly wage. For the four years through 2011, he earned $1 in salary and received no bonus. Whole Foods has no corporate jet.

    In the book, Mackey and Sisodia write that Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST), Google Inc. (GOOG) and Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) also practice conscious capitalism.

    To contact the reporter on this story: Brooke Sutherland in New York at [email protected]

    To contact the editor responsible for this story: Robin Ajello at [email protected]

    1. “Without daily feed coming from SAC, Blowjob Becky looks like ass in newscast.”

      I WILL EXPLAIN BECKY… DEEPCAPTURE IS PATRICK’S WEBSITE, HE IS BEHIND IT!

  80. believing in the honesty and reliability of others.

    The Apartment (1960)
    Jack Lemmon/Shirley MacLaine.
    Good movie.

    betting on truth.

  81. Silver Manipulation Update: “It’s just a fact of life that we can’t usually see the full picture on any significant silver development at the time. That’s because all the details aren’t available or visible when we first learn of something new. The best example I can give you was of JPMorgan’s takeover of Bear Stearns in 2008. I even wrote an article about it back then titled “Life After Bear Stearns” [http://www.investmentrarities.com/ted_butler_comentary/03-18-08.html] in which I talked about many of my usual themes, COMEX, COT, SLV and the first sell-out of Silver Eagles by the US Mint. I stand by everything I wrote in that article, but I admit that I had no clue at the time that Bear was the big COMEX silver short. Nor did I know that Bear Stearns most likely failed because of its giant silver short position and its inability to meet a $1 billion margin call on silver. It was only when the August 2008 Bank Participation Report was released and subsequent correspondence from the CFTC that the full facts became known.”

    “I feel similarly about the big SLV deposit [Jan. 16, 2013 – SLV Adds Record 572 Tons Of Silver In One Day, More Than In All Of 2012 – http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-17/slv-etf-adds-record-572-tons-silver-one-day-more-all-2012%5D in that we know it is significant, but all the details are missing. At this stage of the game, I feel confident that if and when the full story is known it will parallel and confirm the silver manipulation story to date, just as the real story on Bear Stearns did. The central conclusion of just about everything that comes out in silver is that this has been a manipulated market that is destined to end at some very high final price, no matter what is thrown at it in the interim.”
    (— by Ted Butler —-)

    Ted mentioned the August 2008 Bank Participation Report in silver in the above commentary. Here’s Nick Laird’s chart of that monthly report in silver going back twelve years. A cursory glance at the red bars on charts #4 and #5 for August 2008 shows the sudden appearance of Bear Stearns’ mega-short position…now on the books of JPMorgan Chase. Bear Stearns didn’t have to report this position to the CFTC on a monthly basis, because it wasn’t classified as a bank. It was, in fact, an investment house. But that certainly wasn’t the case for JPMorgan. They are a bank…and they had to report. And they did.

    Chart Image Link: (http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/sites/default/files/Bank%20Participation%20Report_2.png)

    (The above is From:
    http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/forget-germany-its-turkeys-central-bank-we-should-be-watching)

    1. Title for sean’s link:
      “Obama nominates participating member of organized crime Mary Jo White to head the SEC.”

      Mary Jo White

      Mary Jo White, employee of Debevoise & Plimpton, instrumental in helping bankers buy off SEC regulator Paul Berger

      Mary Jo White instrumental in protecting the criminal activities of Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack and Pequot Capital(trading on inside information).

      Mary Jo White connected to corrupt SEC leaders fired American hero Gary Aguirre for investigating the suspected criminal activity of Stanley CEO John Mack and Pequot Capital.

      Mary Jo White connected to corrupt SEC leaders who turned a blind eye to Bernie Madoff.

      Mary Jo White was President Bill Clinton’s U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

      Mary Jo White reviewed Clinton’s pardons of (Marc Rich, et al.) for President Bush and she found no problems.

      Apparently Mary Jo White finds nothing wrong with Marc Rich making his fortune illegaly trading with Iran and Libya while they were taking Americans hostage and killing GI’s in Berlin nightclubs.

      Apparently Mary Jo White finds nothing wrong with Marc Rich fleeing America to become a fugitive and hiding out in Zug, Switzerland rather than face legal consequences for his actions.

      Apparently Mary Jo White finds nothing concerning about Marc Rich being ineligible for a pardon as he never took responsibility for his actions or served any sentence for his crimes.

      Apparently Mary Jo White finds nothing wrong with March Rich being a traitor to the United States of America

      And apparently President Obama finds nothing troubling about this either.

      http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,99302,00.html
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_J._Aguirre

    1. Icahn usually stays in the shadows to buy whats left of companies after bear raids from Einhorn, Ackman, et al. Setting himself up this time as an antagonist to Ackman to win over Herbalife to manipulate the company later on.

      Who is parking stock for Michael Milken this time around?

      Reference article: Notes on David Einhorn the predator in a cute t shirt.

  82. Anon. I notice u post anything negative that u can find about this Websites’ owner Patrick Byrne but u neglected to put out and links or mention the stellar earnings report this quarter.. any reason for that? (Let’s pretend we don’t already know) LOL!!!
    Also congratulations to Patrick, and Overstocks staff!! U guys just cost some shorts a lot of money!!

    1. I think there are two or three regulars that post as Anon, there was one posting Overstock news regularly before the comment section got axed. Are you buying more Sean?

  83. Anon.. read this article carefully and see if this opinion of Stevie baby sounds familiar like we have heard here at D.C.

    http://mafiatoday.com/tag/hedge-fund/

    At the center was a photograph of Steven A. Cohen, the billionaire owner of SAC, according to two lawyers briefed on the meeting who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. The agents compared Mr. Cohen to a Mafia boss who sat atop a criminal enterprise, the lawyers said.

  84. Silver Manipulation Update: With this extremely concentrated silver short position, we still must remain vigilant for further engineered price drops…but the short position is also so extreme as to represent a real danger to JPMorgan and other big shorts. I think it instructive to recall that JPMorgan got into big trouble on the London Whale derivatives position because they kept adding to a bloated position going the wrong way. Added to the growing pressures from the physical market and the attention that the silver short position has garnered (is there any commentator not talking about the silver short position?), I get the feeling something will break soon. More than ever, I am mindful of Izzy Friedman’s “full pants down” circumstance.

    I think we are at the point where nothing should surprise us, except perhaps that calm price patterns will break out. It looks like it could get very interesting, especially considering the recent changes in the COT market structure. Regardless of short term price changes, the big move in silver must inevitably be to the upside. I still think that may come sooner than most expect.
    — Silver analyst Ted Butler…02 February 2013 —–
    http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/no-one-selling-european-central-banks-seen-letting-gold-sales-limits-expire

  85. Silver Manipulation Update: A Manipulation Timeline
    by Theodore Butler | November 26, 2012 – 10:28am

    “…
    While the commercials learned to behave collusively when dealing with the technical funds, there was an additional requirement that there would be one large commercial standing ready to be the short seller of last resort to backstop the combined commercial effort. Without a “Mr. Big” standing behind and guaranteeing that the combined commercial effort to trick the technical funds would never get overpowered, the long term silver manipulation would not have been possible. Over the past 30 years, there have been a series of Mr. Big’s that have been the paper silver short sellers of last resort. Therefore, the history of the silver manipulation can be recorded along the lines of who was the big short seller at any particular time.

    In 1983, the big COMEX silver short seller was Drexel Burnham Lambert, although the origination of Drexel’s short position began earlier at J. Aaron and A.C. Leon Israel (ACLI). After Drexel went bankrupt in the late 1980’s, the Drexel Trading operation was taken over by AIG Trading. Around 2004, the big silver short position was transferred to Bear Stearns. I believe AIG was forced to dispose and transfer their big short silver position on the COMEX due to pressure from then-NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer who in turn was pressured by public petitions to crack down on the concentrated short position. Nine years ago, I wrote a number of articles (available in the archives) which focused on AIG as the big COMEX silver short. I couldn’t know it at the time, but it appears most likely that the transfer from AIG to Bear Stearns was due to Spitzer….”
    … CONTINUED AT LINK…

    http://www.silverseek.com/commentary/manipulation-timeline-7831

  86. Silver Manipulation Update: JPMorgan held 96% of the total commercial short position of 24,000 contracts in the latest COT report…..
    by Silver analyst Ted Butler…30 March 2013

    I would now calculate JPMorgan’s net short position to be 23,000 contracts as of the cut-off. While down 12,000 contracts from their large short of 35,000 contracts on Feb 5, simple math shows that JPMorgan held 96% of the total commercial short position of 24,000 contracts in the latest COT report. I doubt such an extreme measure of concentration has ever occurred in any other regulated futures market. On this measure alone, it is safe to conclude that JPMorgan has manipulated the silver price, as there would be virtually no commercial short position in COMEX silver without this crooked bank.

    That the CFTC and the CME Group can sit by and allow such an unnatural concentration to exist shows how inept and corrupt the regulators have become.

    http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/fed-shorting-gold-to-support-the-dollar-former-assistant-treasury-secretary/

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