I knew he'd do something special in celebration. The SEC is captured, corrupt, and needs to be shut down. But not before they arrest the commissioners and the upper echelon. Let the enforcement attorneys run it. They are trying for their meager salaries to do the job. I hate these bastards. http://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-19-07/s71907-130.pdf
From "Naked Short Selling" blog. Maybe this is why stock exploded. Don't know for sure. discovery begins.... http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?...id=a3UFOQ9qzeJs Gradient, Rocker Lose Bid to End Overstock.com Suit (Update1) By Karen Gullo Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Gradient Analytics Inc., a research firm, and Rocker Partners LLC, a hedge fund, will face a trial over whether they drove down Overstock.com Inc.'s shares, after losing a second bid to dismiss Overstock.com's lawsuit. The California Supreme Court in San Francisco denied petitions today to review a lower court's decision allowing the lawsuit to proceed to trial, according to the court's Web site. Overstock.com, an Internet seller of discounted brand-name goods, claims Gradient issued false and misleading reports about the company using information from Rocker to help the fund profit on trades. Gradient and Rocker deny the claims and say the research reports critical of Overstock are protected free speech. ``The issue of free speech is central to our work,'' Gradient Chief Executive Officer Brad Forst said in a statement. ``As we proceed to the trial stage, we are amply prepared to address the facts of the case.'' A state appeals court in San Francisco in May said whether Gradient's reports contain provably false statements made with malice should be decided at a trial. That ruling allows the case to proceed with evidence-gathering in Marin County Superior Court in San Rafael, California. Fred Norton, an attorney for Rocker Partners, now Red Bank, New Jersey-based Copper River Management LLC, didn't reply to a message. Overstock in the suit accused Gradient of issuing false stock reports and letting Rocker, a Gradient client, influence the contents of the reports to help the hedge fund benefit from short-selling trades that were a bet Salt Lake City-based Overstock's shares would fall in price. Gradient and Rocker say the lawsuit is an attempt by Overstock to silence its critics. The case is Overstock.com v. Gradient Analytics, S154213, California Supreme Court (San Francisco). To contact the reporter on this story: Karen Gullo at kgullo@bloomberg.net . Last Updated: September 19, 2007 18:37 EDT
Remember Herb and Crames, I call him "Crames" throwing subpoenas away???? They were served for cause from the SF SEC office. The question is, in light of Aguirre/GAO, who at the SEC authorized the rather sudden and certainly ill timed suspension of the Gradiant investigation. "In particular, it appeared to me that Rocker, Vickrey, and Greenberg were coordinating their attacks on Overstock, and Vickrey and Greenberg were coordinating the content and timing of their various reports on Overstock to please Rocker." You are about to witness Wall St. History. Press Release Overstock Celebrates California Supreme Court's Denial of Petitions for Review; Rocker/Gradient Litigation Now on Track for Trial Overstock.com Eager to Begin Discovery and Move to Trial on the Merits SALT LAKE CITY, UT, Sep 20, 2007 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX News Network) -- Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK) today announced that the California Supreme Court rejected Petitions for Review of Gradient Analytics and Rocker Partners in Overstock.com et al. v. Gradient Analytics et al. Overstock is suing the defendants for libel, unfair business practices and tortuous interference. The California Supreme Court decision clears the way for Overstock to proceed in all of its causes of action against Gradient Analytics, Rocker Partners and their principals. Overstock alleged in its complaint that the Rocker Defendants paid Gradient Analytics to publish negative reports about Overstock, and that Gradient supplied pre-publication copies of these reports to Rocker for him to edit and front-run. Whistleblowers within Gradient provided affidavits attesting to these claims, with statements such as: "I heard many hedge funds request that [Gradient executive] Vickrey delay the public release of reports from 3 to 7 days to allow them to take a position in the stock." One suggests that financial journalist Herb Greenberg was also involved: "In particular, it appeared to me that Rocker, Vickrey, and Greenberg were coordinating their attacks on Overstock, and Vickrey and Greenberg were coordinating the content and timing of their various reports on Overstock to please Rocker." The defendants have been arguing that their behavior is protected under the First Amendment. Today's decision by the California Supreme Court, handed down in the late afternoon, refused even a review of the California Court of Appeals ruling which upheld the trial court's rejection of defendants' arguments that Overstock's claims be thrown out on, among other grounds, that the case improperly curbed the Defendants' free speech rights. Overstock Chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne said, "Wall Street will do anything to avoid having to stand in front of a jury of 12 Americans. For over two years these defendants have been hiding behind legal technicalities, delaying procedures, and the risible assertion that their patently illegal behavior was 'free speech.' Though almost all of the New York financial media has blindly and obediently parroted this assertion with a fervor that borders on a cover-up, their argument has now been rejected out-of-hand by the Marin County trial judge, the California Appellate Court in a 3-0 decision, the California Attorney General in an amicus brief filed with the California Appellate Court, and as of today, by the California Supreme Court as well. This case is about hedge funds illegally enriching themselves at the expense of others. I applaud today's decision, and confess I am immensely interested in discovery." Jonathan Johnson, Overstock Senior Vice President of Legal said, "We're more than pleased with this decision. The gate is up on discovery. We now have rulings from all three levels of the California judiciary supporting Overstock's claims that its complaint has serious merit. The two lower courts found that Overstock had a 'reasonable probability' of prevailing on every claim, and the Supreme Court's final rejection of Defendants' Petition for Review is the ultimate capstone. Now that we're on the other side of Defendant's legal smoke and mirrors, we are eager for the day we can expose in great detail the defendants' serious misconduct." About Overstock.com Overstock.com, Inc. is an online "closeout" retailer offering discount, brand-name merchandise for sale over the Internet. The company offers its customers an opportunity to shop for bargains conveniently, while offering its suppliers an alternative inventory liquidation distribution channel. Overstock.com, headquartered in Salt Lake City, is a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ Global Market System and can be found online at http://www.overstock.com. Overstock.com is a registered trademark of Overstock.com, Inc. The Gradient affidavits are available here: http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?page=staticpopupfull&sta_id=11151 This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding moving to trial, the results of any trial or portion thereof, the strength of evidence of either side related to the litigation, as well as all such other risks as identified in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006, and all our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which contain and identify important factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements. Media Contact: Judd Bagley Overstock.com, Inc. +1 (801) 618-8455 jbagley@overstock.com Investor Contact: Kevin Moon Overstock.com, Inc. +1 (801) 947-3282 kmoon@overstock.com SOURCE: Overstock.com mailto:jbagley@overstock.com mailto:kmoon@overstock.com
Milberg partner pleads guilty to racketeering Tue Oct 9, 2007 2:16pm EDT By Gina Keating LOS ANGELES, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Attorney Steven Schulman on Tuesday become the second former Milberg Weiss LLP partner to plead guilty in a long-running federal probe of illegal kickbacks paid to plaintiffs in shareholder class-action suits by one of the top U.S. law firms. Schulman, flanked by his attorneys in federal court in Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge and agreed to forfeit $1.85 million in ill-gotten gains and pay a fine of up to $250,000. Schulman told U.S. District Judge John Walter that the charge against him was "true and correct" HE'LL BE GIVIN' UP SOME VERY BIG NAMES. MAYBE SYKES WILL MAKE IT AS A HEDGIE AFTER ALL. HE MAY BE THE ONLY ONE LEFT.
At the PIPES conference in NYC today, Byrne played a tape representing a conversation with Dan colarusso NYPOST, Herb Greenberg, and Dave Kansas, teh Wall St. Journal. Colarusso is heard saying he " could crush Byrne and use the paper to do it."
That tape may have been taken from the SABEW conference in May 2006. Colarusso was on the panel and made some comments about having "barrels of ink" and that they could "crush" Patrick Byrne. In case you didn't know ~ prior to joining the NY Post, Colarusso was a columnist and associate editor for "The Street.com". All making sense know ? <IV
http://deepcapturethemovie.com/ Watch it. It's why Wall St. is now spiinning out of control with greed and stupidity.
flytiger Registered: May 2005 Posts: 2335 01-26-08 06:32 PM I'm going to post this link and post in several forums, but the smart guys will get this. A few others are going to go "oh, wacky Patty." But two years ago plus, I asked the man how he got involved in this mess. I believe I asked, "why you ?" I was fucked over in two or three stocks, and I'm a junkyard dog, but you. " Here's the answer, much more detailed than the version I got. Whether you want to bash the man or not, I don't think anybody that 's been in this business, one way or another, for more than a week would say, "couldn't happen." http://community.overstock.com/deep...g/slow-learner/ Edit/Delete ⢠Quote ⢠Complain