UPDATE: Read the entire 89 page FFH complaint here. Take the time. It is completely worth it.
If it sounds suspiciously like a certain conference call from a year and a half ago, we can just attribute that to dumb luck on my part, right? I mean, how plausible is it that I saw exactly how this was being played out, and the rest of the regulatory and media machine was oblivious to it? That's just crazy talk, right? Anyone curious should go back and carefully read the transcript of the January 2005 OSTK conference call for the blow by blow.
It's interesting that the miscreants in this, also some of the miscreants in the OSTK suit, embark on a "destroy the company's prospects and reputation using any means at our disposal" approach, which includes all the usual, as well as massive naked short selling. Where else have we seen that? It's almost so familiar to readers of this blog, that it is hard not to understand how blatant the approach is. And yet we still are greeted with this weird, breathless avoidance of the obvious by certain segments of the press and the regulatory scheme.
I can't wait to see the way that the captive NY press plays and spins this. Watch for all the familiar names to deny the charges, carefully laid out and documented, and instead attack the company. Because you can't have a network of miscreants who pay large fees to virtually everyone being exposed as a criminal network of racketeering scumbags, now can you? That would never do. Also, expect the regulators to continue their game of hear no evil, even as more highly specific, verifiable charges come to light.
If I was them, I'd try to play the old "First Amendment" card again, and paint the company as trying to stifle the voice of dissension. Anything to get folks to forget that we've seen this little vignette played out numerous times, with the exact same set of captive journalists, paid for analysts, rogue hedge funds, and co-opted regulators and prime brokers.
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Huh.
Fairfax is suing the whole gang of SAC-cartel hedge funds, including our favorite, Rocker Partners/Copper River. Alleging racketeering, stock manipulation, the whole 9 yards. Put a $5 billion price tag on it, too.
Fairfax, who has been attacked by all the usual "disinterested" journalists over the last year, filed suit in New Jersey.
How dare they.
You know, we paranoid loons see the same 10 journalists attacking all the short picks of a loosely affiliated group of hedge funds, and see them languish on the SHO list for many months (if not years), and see their boards overrun with bashers, and see class actions and regulatory probes brought by the usual helpful suspects, and we tend to say, "Wow, what are the odds of that happening exactly that way, AGAIN?"
Fortunately, the SEC and the SROs seem incapable of recognizing the same pattern that is evident to us, and thus allow these hugely influential and wealthy entities to pursue their dreams undisturbed by regulatory obstruction.
How nice that the same folks who, with a straight face, claim that grandfathering is good and wholesome, and can't even bring themselves to use the words naked short selling, are on deck, to ensure that these persecuted billionaire hedge fund managers are not interrupted in their pursuit of Gates-level fortunes, created solely by stock trading.
I have never been prouder. How many more suits must the markets see against these brave freedom fighters before they say, "Enough! Can't we all just get along?"
Perhaps another dozen articles on how helpful these victimized short sellers are in protecting God and Country from the perfidious corporations that would sully their good names are in order.
My hope is that we can have a gala event, where Herb, and Jesse, and Alpert, and Nocera, and Carol, and Bethany, and Roddy and Chris, as well as a few Motley Fools and quisling bloggers, can all get together and sing the familiar refrain in perfect harmony: "Hedge funds are good, short sellers are good, market manipulation is a thing of the past, billions are innocently made by a lucky few when others can barely beat the indexes..." Perhaps Cramer can come bouncing out and give us 10 stock picks, 6 of which will be wrong, all the while proclaiming himself to be a Wall Street wizard?
There wouldn't be a dry eye in the place.
Patrick was right. This has gone from tragedy to farce.