Well, that’s one way to stop a whistleblower from showing Congress that you were basically aiding and abetting stock manipulators (if Aguirre’s allegations are correct).
You tell him that you will sue the bejezus out of him, and prosecute, and whatever else you can think of, if he doesn’t return any and all data that could incriminate you.
Ha!
That didn’t take long. First we had the article in a hedge fund magazine casting dispersions on his character, and now we have the SEC threatening him. And the only paper reporting it is a foreign publication. Nice.
Thank goodness we aren’t living in a country where the regulators are self-serving bureaucrats who will spring into action to defend their turf, but will allow hedge funds to abuse the markets for a good decade, robbing investors of untold billions…
I mean, first we have the SEC going after Patrick, rather than the bad guys he’s got sworn depositions alleging were up to all sorts of no good, then we have them chilling subpoenas that could have yielded profound answers WRT Wall Street and the media, and now we have them playing iron fisted bureaucracy with a whistleblower accusing the Commission of being rotten to the core.
Nice move, folks. I mean, that’s how I’d react if I had nothing to hide – I’d immediately start threatening everyone with dire consequences unless they gave back the evidence, rather than showing it to my bosses.
Well thought out. Very sympathetic. Graceful.
Here’s a different idea. Just a thought, mind you.
How about you do your frigging job, and get the trades settled promptly, as Congress ordered you to do in 17A? How about you start NOT allowing super rich gangsters in suits to rip off everyone else in the market, rather than fining them a penny on the dollar while they admit no guilt?
Or how about this: Congress names a special prosecutor, as they did back in 1933, with Ferdinand Percora, and we get to the bottom of why Wall Street gets the hall passes, and investors get the shaft?
Maybe put Gary Aguirre in charge of it, see what turns up? I mean, it kind of seems like he has a pretty good grasp of the issues.
1920s, anonymous pools of huge money belonging to powerful, wealthy, connected Wall Street royalty were moving the markets to suit their fancy, screwing investors and companies in the process.
2006, anonymous pools of money belonging to powerful, wealthy, connected Wall Street royalty are moving the markets to suit their fancy, screwing investors and companies in the process.
1920s, allegations of insider trading, frontrunning, naked short selling, manipulation abounded.
2006, allegations of insider trading, frontrunning, naked short selling, manipulation abound.
1920s, biggest houses on Wall Street were up to no good, almost without break.
2006, biggest houses on Wall Street are up to no good, almost without break.
1920s, Citigroup (then National City Bank) hiding bogus loans, defrauding shareholders with bogus debt, engaging in stock manipulation and naked short selling.
2006, Refco hiding bogus loans, defrauding shareholders with bogus debt, engaging in stock manipulation and naked short selling.
I mean, how frigging hard is this to figure out? The whole thing is running out of control, it appears that you’ve abdicated your responsibility to regulate anything, and the markets are in about the same shape as they were before the 1929 crash. There was no SEC then. So who needs you in your present form?
What exactly have you done for me lately?
Hey, give ME a billion a year and the ability to point some smart, ethical attorneys at bad guys, and I can guaran-f-ing tee you I’ll have some asses sitting in the slammer by year end. And I’ll get the trades settled.
How’s this for some proposed rules? You have to have a borrow – fail to deliver, pay a penalty of 25% of the trade amount, and if it turns out you were doing so with no borrow, it goes to 50%, and there’s a mandatory buy-in on day T+5. No locate garbage. Borrow, or hemorrhage cash. Simple.
Prior fails? Buy them in. Don’t like that? Start buying now, get ahead of it. Not delivering is fraud. Going to cost your clients an arm and a leg? Too frigging bad – they shouldn’t have taken billions without delivering. Crime doesn’t pay. End of lesson.
Want to trade on inside info? Super. Go to jail. Ditto for stock manipulation. Ditto for being a crooked CEO. And any fines get paid back to the agency, with 10% used as a bonus pool. That gets us the best guys on the block.
Are you a market maker? Great. No borrow, no selling stock. Your job is not to manipulate the price of a stock. If you can’t deliver it in T+3, you get bought in. Bona-fide market making doesn’t involve selling shares and then not delivering for weeks or months, so don’t get huffy, and don’t try to BS me.
Want to be an options market maker? Great. Same rules. Don’t like it? Quit.
See? Not hard. Simple. Only ones that lose are the crooks.
Again. Repeat after me. Crime shouldn’t pay. Don’t be a criminal, and you won’t have to worry.
I’m sick of a system that pays criminals handsomely, and jeopardizes the country’s wellbeing. Don’t like it? Move to Afghanistan, or Venezuela, or China, and try that sh$t over there, see how it works for you.
Any questions?
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Don't miss the Intro chapter to Symphony of Greed - Financial Terrorism and Super-Crime on Wall Street.
And if you didn't see the article in the Columbia Journalism Review on the press coverage of the Aguirre matter, check it out.