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Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued

Location: Blogs Bob O'Brien's Sanity Check Blog    
Posted by:   bobo 6/26/2006 2:18 PM

At 9:30 EST, the Senate Judiciary Hearing on Hedge Funds and Research Analysts will take place in Washington, DC.

You can listen here for the live audio.

Scroll to the 9:30 slot for Wed, and you will see a link that should enable you to hear it once it is the day and time of the hearing..

The list of folks that will be testifying has been released. It includes former SEC staffer Gary Aguirre, and ex-Gradient employee Demetrios. Also present will be several attorneys, a few AGs, a pro-hedge and short selling professor, and a host of other notables. Should be an interesting session, especially the Aguirre testimony. Actually, they could have just had an Aguirre hearing, IMO, and then discussed when and how to shut down the SEC, and who to get as the special prosecutor to go after the individuals at the various agencies that have been facilitating wholesale larceny in the markets. Then again, I am a softly-spoken moderate, so my opinion is probably not of interest. But you never know.

I do hope that someone takes out 5 minutes to bring everyone up to speed about Wall Street's history, specifically the manner in which unregulated private pools of money basically destroyed the US economy back in 1929, profiting prodigiously as the markets melted down - and further highlights how the media of the time breathlessly trumpeted every new pool, sucking in the rubes to create the ever-important liquidity. And then contrasts that to the present day, where unregulated private pools of money are basically destroying companies for profit, and a breathless media assists them by parroting negative information for the credulous rubes who provide the ever-important liquidity. You know, suckers to sell shares to them in a panic, and to buy shares from them during the pump phase.

The only novel twist here is that a quasi-media animal has evolved to assist in the negative information dissemination, namely "independent research" firms.

But the basic scam hasn't changed in a hundred years. Powerful special interests control vast sums of money for the .01% of the most wealthy and powerful investors, and move the markets - trading on tips gratefully given to them by banks desirous of their trading flow - tips that can and probably are inside information; exactly like Boesky and Milken and Levine were doing twenty years earlier. Again, no new ideas. Trade ahead of the rubes, on info your position of prominence gets you well before anyone else knows. It's a good gig. Illegal, but if Aguirre is correct, as long as you are connected, it's look the other way days. Maybe you might have to pay a .00001% fine every now and then, while admitting no guilt. That isn't even an annoyance.

Wednesday will be a neat day.

I have a feeling that there are a lot of folks on the Beltway and in Wall Street who are dreading Aguirre's testimony, and wish that Demetrios would slide under a gas truck, or be hit by a bus.

I do hope the questions are on point, and not carefully crafted to avoid ruffling feathers.

Here's the list of witnesses:

PANEL I

The Honorable Matt Friedrich
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General
Crime Division
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, DC

The Honorable Richard Blumenthal
Attorney General
State of Connecticut
Hartford, CT

PANEL II

Gary Aguirre
Former Investigator
Securities Exchange Commission
Washington, DC

Marc Kasowitz
Senior Partner
Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP
Alliance for Investment Transparency
New York, NY

Joseph McLaughlin
Partner
Sidley & Austin LLP
Managed Fund Association
New York, NY

Kim Blickenstaff
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Biosite, Inc.
San Diego, CA

Owen Lamont
Professor of Finance
Yale School of Management
New Haven, CT

Demetrios Anifantis
Former Employee
Camelback Research Alliance, Inc.
Scottsdale, AZ

Howard Schillit
Chief Executive Officer and Founder
Center for Financial Research and Analysis [CFRA, LLC]
Rockville, MD

Jonathan Boersma
Director
Standards of Practice
CFA Centre for Financial Market Integrity
Charlottesville, VA
Copyright ©2006 Bob O'Brien
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Comments (28)
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By gregcable2002 on 6/26/2006 2:58 PM
Anyone wanna bet they close the hearing at the last minute.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By test on 6/26/2006 3:06 PM
I'm sure this has been answered, but who's asking the questions?
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By Little Bo peep on 6/28/2006 6:24 AM
Once upon a time there were three little pigs that went to market to seek their fortunes.
Mack, Shelby, Cramer......?
The wolf can huff and puff......but he WILL not blow this house down.
Looks like these little piggies will not be saying wee,wee, wee all the way home.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By mhatmccane on 6/28/2006 8:25 AM
Good session and somehow the question of naked shorting did get introduced as well as grandfathering. Now, let's hope the momentum continues and the DOJ can get involved.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By rtway1 on 6/26/2006 3:21 PM
I,ll bet Shelby will be the band leader and Schumer will be his backup. I,m hoping Durbin has the balls to put the screws into Shelby, this could be a campaign issue.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By Catfish on 6/26/2006 3:42 PM
This is a Judiciary hearing, not Banking, so wouldn't this be Arlen Specter's court?
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By hemingway811 on 6/26/2006 3:51 PM
Here are two post I made earlier at the NFI board:

"Kim Blickenstaff
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Biosite, Inc.
San Diego, CA

I did a bit of research on Biosite (BSTE). They were on the SHO list at its inception, Jan. 7, 2005, but came off March 3, 2005 and have been off since. Still, the fact they were on it for almost two months tells me Blickenstaff's testimony will likely be favorable to our cause.

The Honorable Richard Blumenthal
Attorney General
State of Connecticut
Hartford, CT

Ct. is one of the states (mentioned in Liz Moyers recent Forbes article) considering Legislation similar to that passed by Utah. Blumenthal's testimony should bode well for us also.

It goes without saying, the testimony of Gary Aguirre and Demetrios Anifantis will be very damning for the miscreants.

As Tommytoyz said, this should be fun. "

Pay special attention to questions and comments from Specter:

"<>

I can't imagine why not.

ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA)
Top Contributors
1 Blank Rome LLP $257,050
2 Comcast Corp $102,750
3 UPMC Health System $98,200
4 Kline & Specter $96,750
5 Goldman Sachs $82,000
6 Cassidy & Assoc/Interpublic Group $49,924
7 Amgen Inc $47,799
8 Merrill Lynch $42,300
9 Universal Health Services $41,700
10 Wolf, Block et al $41,140
11 Morgan Stanley $38,000
12 Baron & Budd $34,000
12 Federated Investors Inc $34,000
14 Thomas Jefferson University $33,500
15 Morgan, Lewis & Bockius $32,500
16 Children's Hospital of Philadelphia $32,250
16 General Electric $32,250
18 Wyeth $32,100
19 Monster Worldwide $31,750
20 University of Pennsylvania $31,300



Posted as a reply to: Msg 441387 by rsb_44"


Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By happyswede on 6/26/2006 3:57 PM
In understanding the reason for having two panels, it seems that the program would be for Panel I (the Attorneys general) to lead off the discussion by laying out the background of naked short selling by hedge funds that are privy to front-running analysis. This would be followed by Panel II (witnesses with life experience
of the issues) sharing and discussion .

Anyone see a different scenerio for the two panels?

Tom
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By bobo on 6/26/2006 4:30 PM
I'm not sure that the panel will even allow any discussion of naked short selling. Note that the language about short selling was removed from the event description. I think that the hearing will focus on collusive manipulation between hedge funds and research firms. I firmly believe that the Wall Street powers that be are lobbying like mad to keep the prime brokers and short selling OFF the agenda to the extent it can be divorced from the proceedings.

Their problem is that naked short selling appears all through the Aguirre document as a preferred manipulation tool of hedge funds, which he alleges the prime brokers assist with. Just as the NFI suit alleges that same set of facts.

A few of the witnesses are preferred sources for hedge fund friendly, "shorts are good for your bones and teeth" rhetoric, so expect a whole slew of "they aren't NECESSARILY doing anything wrong" discussion, along with a lot of confabulation about how valuable shorts are for spotting scams - none of which will matter once Aguirre, the only one appearing that has any germane experience actually investigating this sort of criminal activity, starts talking.

That, and all of the pro-hedge rhetoric is likely to get an ugly blow when Dimitrios tells them exactly how the research game REALLY works.

All the egg-headed academia, and lawyerly denial is likely to get slammed with a solid hammer of actual experience on Wed. That's my hope.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By mhelburn on 6/26/2006 4:18 PM
The Biovail lawyers are responsible for a lot of research. Kasowitz will be able to describe a lot of stuff as will Anifantis and Aguirre.

Time for the Ashtray-thowing hedgefund guy to change his drawers.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By browntrout on 6/26/2006 4:37 PM
Bobo- I agree that the hearing has been shifted away from naked short selling(co-opted) . Our only hope is the Aguirre documents. Hopefully Orin Hatch has the common sense to start asking hard questions about Aguirre's references to naked shorting. I am pretty sure Schumer won't be.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By oldfeller on 6/26/2006 4:40 PM
Since the U.S. markets have been demonstrably riddled with fraud for at least 90 years where do we go from here? Is there another capitalist oriented country that has a better track record? I know Canada did away with market makers but are their markets less fraudulent than ours overall? Where do we look to find a working system with the standards we want? By nature this game attracts greedy, egotistical people. Is a fair market an attainable goal?
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By Wonder Boy on 6/26/2006 4:44 PM
I sincerely hope that for just once I do not hear a lot of jabber from the Senators and do hear a thorough examination of the evidence presented.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By harryofanguslane on 6/26/2006 4:47 PM
Assuming the hearings aren't postponed because Washington is flooded, my guess is that the Senators will spend most of the time giving speeches. Right or left, good or bad, they're all egomaniacs. Then, one or two witnesses will "hijack" what little time remains. Better hope the "hijackers" are our folks.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By teacheric on 6/26/2006 4:55 PM
Here's a thought oldfeller:

Let's just buy and sell our stock on EBAY. No more shorting. All shares accounted for. They'll just have to find a way to transfer ownership. Definitely takes out the middleman.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By piddly_sum on 6/26/2006 5:02 PM
According to the staff, Shelby will not attend, however, he is quite interested in this hearing (duh!)
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By ginger on 6/26/2006 5:20 PM
I don't think so teacheric ... I'm still having trouble getting delivery of a DVD I bought on eBay on May 23. They've got my money and my DVD.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By teacheric on 6/26/2006 5:27 PM
hehe, happend to me once too, but i got my money back from paypal. I would like a more simplistic model in the market though instead of what we have now. EBAY, for example, is just one buyer and one seller. I just like the idea of no one going in and bidding "down" the price.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By stryker-ny on 6/26/2006 6:11 PM
Im taking bets the hearing never takes place....the fckn bastards own the hen house.....I SAY....TO THE STREETS......TO THE FCKN STREETS.....OFF WITH THEIR FCKN HEADS......MOTHA FCKRS................
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By daven on 6/26/2006 6:30 PM
Why would Sidley Austin be a witness? We can't expect much from the hearing with the DTC lap dog law firm in attendance.

This is the scumbag lawfirm that established the legal precedent that a clearing house is responsible only to their customer, the brokerage and not the investor that actually owns the shares.

They established the precedent that a clearing house can knowingly facilitate fraud as they aren't responsible for their brokerage customer.

***

Henry is a big part of establishing new case law that says the clearing houses are not responsible for massive fraud committed by brokerages they clear from, even if they make money hand over fist from it.

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

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

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

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

"These firms are paid to clear trades, not to watch customers. Clearing firms will charge more or consider leaving the business if they are asked to police sales practices and that will end up hurting the average customer," says Sidley Austin Brown & Wood lawyer Henry Minnerop, who has represented most of Wall Street's clearing firms over the years.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By daven on 6/26/2006 6:32 PM
Sidley Austin partner:

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

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

Mr. Minnerop is a frequent speaker at securities industry conferences and has written extensively on the duties and liabilities of clearing brokers and prime brokers, including: "The Role and Regulation of Clearing Brokers," 48 Bus. Law. 841 (May 1993) and "Clearing Arrangements," 58 Bus. Law 917 (May 2003).
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By daven on 6/26/2006 6:40 PM
Most brokerages are "introducing brokerages" that keep their assets at the clearing brokerages.

Our buddy at Sidley Austin wrote a magazine article that started:

"The security exchange regulations and case law that apply to clearing firms are clear and consistent. The SEC has approved the rules of principal of the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers, the self-regulating bodies in charge of clearing agreements. The body of cases involving clearing arrangements constitutes a mature set of precedents. Most decisions recognize that clearing brokers are not accountable for the actions of their introducing firms."

IE. they can knowingly facilitate massive share counterfeiting without any fear of liability or prosecution.

It is ridiculous that they get to be a witness and Patrick doesn't. This whole hearing is going to have a huge PRO WALLSTREET bias.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By Patchie on 6/26/2006 7:21 PM
Stellar story for tomorrow;

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Business/062706_hedgefund.html


Congress homes in on hedge funds
By Elana Schor

With two Senate committees investigating explosive allegations from a government whistle-blower and a third panel kick-starting its own oversight effort, one thing is certain: hedge funds are no longer falling outside lawmakers’ radar.

But Friday’s decision by a federal appeals court to overturn the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hedge-fund registration rule, combined with the whistle-blower’s charges of politicization at the regulatory agency, could mean that the SEC — not the hedge-fund industry — bears the brunt of congressional concern.

In a May 30 letter to Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), senior members of the Banking Committee’s securities panel, former SEC enforcement lawyer Gary Aguirre said he was blocked from issuing subpoenas in his investigation of possible insider trading by Pequot Capital Management, one of the nation’s most lucrative hedge funds.

Such funds have become the hottest investment vehicle on Wall Street, using creative and sometimes risky trading techniques to turn large pools of investor cash into stunning profits. Yet the lack of clear boundaries to the hedging universe has made it difficult for the SEC and Congress to track its growth, despite a general consensus that the $1-trillion-plus industry is an asset to the market.

Before sending his letter, first reported Friday by The New York Times, Aguirre approached aides to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Finance Committee, who brought the charges to the attention of Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). Aguirre said the SEC fired him in September after he complained that senior officials were preventing him from questioning a high-ranking investment-bank official, identified by the Times as Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack.

After both chairmen requested a confidential SEC briefing in April on Aguirre’s charges, Grassley followed up in a May 12 letter to the SEC’s inspector general that stated that enforcement officials told his office they had completed a review of the matter. Aguirre’s 18-page missive to Hagel and Dodd, however, looks to have energized the Senate investigation as well as a twin probe by the Office of Special Counsel.

Hagel, through a spokesman, said his staff has contacted Aguirre about the letter and the circumstances surrounding his termination from the SEC. Hagel added that he would hold future oversight hearings on hedge funds alongside Shelby and that the Judiciary Committee is also looking into Aguirre’s allegations.

Dodd, in a statement from spokesman Marvin Fast, called for the SEC to get to work on answering Aguirre’s “serious allegations.”

“It is critically important that investors have full and complete confidence that the SEC is fully investigating and policing alleged abuses,” Fast added.

The Banking Committee plans to work with the Finance Committee as the investigation progresses, said Shelby spokesman Andrew Gray, who noted that “we don’t have a conclusion yet” on the Aguirre letter.


Read the rest by following the link.
letter to "theHill" reporter By mhelburn on 6/27/2006 6:51 AM
One of the points that seems to be missing is the power and volume of trades coming from hedge funds. The Judiciary is looking into a consortium of entities, including unethical hedge funds and unethical analysts who use their size to manipulate stock prices.

A small cap company and their shareholders have no defense to a bear raid because the enforcement of the Securities Act is nil. Regulation SHO, now 18 months old, has made it possible for investors to see the amount of criminal activity in their stock, although the manipulators have continued violations. The losses to the honest investor continue and the gains to the criminals go unabated.

The claim that hedge fund investors don't need protection because they are wealthy and savvy is perhaps valid, but the rest of the market is in jeopardy because these massive funds can manipulate the entire market with their trading. The rest of us need protection from them.

An investor who holds 5% of a company has to register. This gives some transparency to the market. But an investor who holds or sells a position short does not and they can control the volatility and price of a stock.

Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Shelby demonstrated on CNBC yesterday that he is either out of touch, tainted or a liar. Here is a link to a discussion of Shelby's complicity by Mark Faulk who has been intimately involved in this issue. http://thesanitycheck.com/Blogs/MarkFaulksBlog/tabid/86/EntryID/356/Default.aspx

We now know that when Regulation SHO was written, enforcement people in the SRO's wanted the wording to include "borrow", which follows the intent of the Securities Act of the last century. Instead, the law was circumvented with the word "locate" which allows stocks to be sold without a person owning or borrowing and allows stocks to be manipulated downward in massive trades.

The following is a synopsis of how stock is manipulated using the various tools that are/have been available to the criminals.

Keep in mind that volatility is essential for manipulators to make money in the market and they have to know which way the market is going. If they control the direction of the price, they can make tremendous profits.

1. Ramp up. This is done by people trading between linked accounts and puts no money at risk. Higher and higher bids and asks are systematically offered on off exchanges with no beneficial change in ownership. This is illegal.
2. Knowing that the price is going to drop because of their own impending sell-off, manipulators sell options (calls) that will expire worthless over a period of time or can be covered at a profit when the price drops.
3. Using shorting and naked shorting, manipulators drop the price of stock with a massive sell-off. This is quite easy for large funds to do in small, thinly traded stock.
4. Negative news (often created by complicit analysts and dispersed by dishonest financial journalists) is used to cover the drop in price that was created by the short-selling. This is essential because when shareholders ask for the SEC to look into the sell-off, the regulators can point to a negative article as the reason.
5. A class action lawsuit further hammers the stock. I'm sure you are familiar with the investigation into Milberg Weiss and their hiring of plaintiffs for this.
6. Continued negative, perhaps bogus articles about the target company are released in the media allowing the short sales to be covered at a profit.
7. When the manipulator has determined a bottom to the volatility, he sells options (puts) that again will expire worthless as the price recovers. He can control the price by simply covering or buying. This can be done with a relatively small number of shares as described in the "ramp up".
8. Other traders recognize the pattern of trading and join the fray. The pattern resembles a "dampened oscillation" (picture the path of a dropped basketball). As the volatility (energy) is depleted, the stock price finds a bottom. The traders pick lower highs to sell/short and higher lows to buy/cover. The volatility is depleted and requires more energy to be put into the system via bogus articles or more massive shorting.

The ability to control the price of a stock and profit from options trading is key to this. The actual trading in the stock may or may not be where the trading profits lie. By using illegal trading tactics the manipulators have little risk. There is little chance that they will be caught and if they are caught, the fines are minimal compared to their profits.

The Judiciary Hearing tomorrow is imperative if we are to save the retirements of our people and the integrity of the market.
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By opcowboy03 on 6/27/2006 8:49 AM
To: Wonderboy

Only in jest . . . . but I see why your screen nme is Wonderboy

op
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By piddly_sum on 6/27/2006 12:26 PM
It is amazing how they are all rushing to pile on this one at the moment. There is nothing going on that they could not have started sooner. Just old fasioned CYA.


CAPUANO, KANJORSKI, FRANK REQUEST GAO REPORT ON HEDGE FUNDS

Washington, DC– Representatives Michael Capuano, Paul Kanjorski and Barney Frank today requested that the GAO initiate a review into a variety of questions involving hedge funds and the new regulatory oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).


http://www.house.gov/banking_democrats/GAORequestHedgeFunds.pdf
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By piddly_sum on 6/27/2006 12:33 PM
This one smells of MW (Baker is to be the next Rep head of this committee):

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Contacts:
Peggy Peterson
(202) 226-0471

Marisol Garibay
(202) 226-0471


Baker Announces Witnesses for Securities Litigation Hearing

Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee Chairman Richard H. Baker (LA) has announced witnesses for the hearing entitled Investor Protection: A Review of Plaintiffs’ Attorney Abuses in Securities Litigation and Legislative Remedies on Wednesday, June 28, at 10 a.m. in room 2128 of the Rayburn Building.

Scheduled to testify:


The Honorable Vaughn R. Walker, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California


The Honorable William F. Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Commonwealth of Massachusetts


Theodore H. Frank, Resident Fellow and Director, AEI Liability Project, American Enterprise Institute


James D. Cox, School of Law, Duke University
Re: Senate Hearing Live Audio - Wed., 9:30 EST - Tentative Witness List Issued By Millerd1 on 6/27/2006 7:42 PM
Pick an Alabama Newspaper and tell them what you think of Shelby's work.

http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/usstate/usalabam.htm

My nearly copied words (thanks kalalau73):
Senator Shelby should Resign Now!
by: kalalau73 (57/M/CA) 06/27/06 07:42 pm
Msg: 441597 of 441626

Yesterday, Senator Shelby went on CNBC and made an enormous fool of himself. When asked a question about naked short selling, he replied " Nobody told me that naked shorting was fraud".

Questions for Shelby:

1. Obviously, Senator, as chairman of a critical committee of the US Senate, we would hope that you had a brain that functioned well enough to be aware of the rudiments of critical issues facing the securities markets, without anyone having to tell you about it.

2. Actually, your own committee scheduled a hearing to address naked short selling last year. It was rescheduled several times, then cancelled without an explanation. Here is the account of one of the witnesses who had been scheduled to appear in the hearing:

http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/Investing101/1038.html

(thanks to hemingway811 for link)

No one told you about the agenda for your hearing, nor the controversy that erupted when it was cancelled?

3. There were uncountable complaints regarding this issue flooding his office for the last two years. Ever read any of your mail, Senator?

4. Private citizens took out a full page ad in the Washington Post 2/8/05, addressed to your sub-committee chairman Hagle, paid for with their own money because the SEC and the Banking Committee were not doing anything about this problem. Ever read the Post, Senator?

Shelby disgraces the Senate, the state of Alabama and our entire country. He should immediately resign or be removed. This is the head of the Senate Banking Committee, important for regulating our nation's financial markets and institutions. With incompetent fools like this in charge of the country, it's no wonder that crooks are running rampant across Wall Street, and crooks and/or fools are leading important institutions like the SEC and the financial media.

Thank goodness, the Senate Judiciary committee is reacting to this vacuum of competency. They have scheduled a hearing tomorrow with a good array of witnesses. Shelby, incredibly, has claimed jurisdiction over this issue, although his only action other than his lie/mistake on CNBC yesterday, has been to schedule a hearing last year, then cancel it with no explanation. The most likely explanation is that he is co-opted by Wall Street power, with the crooks protecting their license to steal.

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