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MP3..FG/Syria/BAE/Laundering/Liston...no sting here folks,,,,,,move along
http://www.zshare.net/audio/50033637b9a82d7f/
24 mins
Chris
By: my69z
13 Oct 2008, 09:48 PM EDT
Msg. 772246 of 773112
(This msg. is a reply to 771890 by my69z.)
Jump to msg. #
MP3: Glenn/Liston/Maheu/SEC....
http://www.zshare.net/audio/20505160e0cfc17d/
11 mins
Dodd made Cox look like an IDIOT!!.....he told him they didn't get his testimony until 20 mins before this hearing and had everyone elses the night before......i agree,,,,,,WTF!?!?!
" we need to have this before 20 mins before this hearing"....and then looked past Cox,,,,,,body language beat down!!
Cox just sat there and didn't even make a peep.....just looked stupid
Is the SEC on shaky ground now ??
This is one long azzd article and probbaly the longest i've seen all weekend outta Bloomberg.....ruh row for Cox??
Cox `Asleep at Switch' as Paulson, Bernanke Encroach
By Jesse Westbrook and Robert Schmidt
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- On Aug. 19, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox summoned the press to a conference room at the SEC's Washington headquarters for an important announcement. The agency's new computer technology to make corporate filings more useful to investors was almost ready, and Cox wanted to give reporters a preview.
In a flourish uncharacteristic of the normally buttoned- down ex-congressman, Cox, 55, strutted across the stage, took off his suit jacket and sat down at a computer to demonstrate the new Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL. Investors were given a chance to ask questions about the technology online as an aide wrote a live blog.
When it came time for reporters to pose questions, however, it didn't take long for the queries to turn to the news of the day: the roiling controversy over the sale of billions of dollars of so-called auction-rate securities to investors who found they couldn't get their money back. Cox urged reporters to stick to the topic of technology and then gave a brief answer.
``Nobody is getting a pass,'' he said of the banks and brokers being probed for misleading buyers of the auction-rate bonds. The SEC, he added, had more than a dozen investigations under way.
U.S. financial markets had been swooning for a year as Cox gave his computer lesson. Commercial and investment banks had suffered more than $500 billion in losses and writedowns related to the sale of mortgage-backed securities. Financial stocks were reeling, with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. at risk of following Bear Stearns Cos. into extinction.
Missing in Action
Yet former SEC officials and members of Congress say throughout the tumult in the banks and markets, Cox, a Harvard University-trained lawyer, has often been missing in action.
``Cox just hasn't done anything except for XBRL,'' says Peter Wallison, who supervised the SEC chairman when he worked in the White House counsel's office under President Ronald Reagan. ``It perfectly encapsulates what Chris Cox's chairmanship has been: exceedingly cautious, a chairmanship which seemed to take as many steps as possible to avoid controversy that would result in pushback by anyone.''
Wallison is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, which advocates for limited regulation of financial markets.
Cox was hardly part of the conversation when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson stepped in last March and arranged for JPMorgan Chase & Co. to rescue Bear Stearns from collapse, according to people familiar with the matter at the Treasury, Fed and SEC.
The Birthday Party
On the night of March 15, when Fed and Treasury officials were hammering out the terms of JPMorgan's takeover of Bear Stearns, an SEC official looking for Cox found him at a birthday party for Mark Olson, head of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
When Paulson, two weeks after the Bear Stearns crisis, proposed a reorganization of Washington regulators that would abolish the SEC, Cox didn't strongly defend his agency. He now says that was because he didn't think Congress would take such a proposal seriously.
Some of Cox's own enforcement attorneys say the chairman has undermined them by delaying votes on settlements they've reached with accused corporate miscreants and by publicly rebuking them in a case where they subpoenaed journalists.
``A lot of investors are looking at the SEC and saying, 'Where were you with respect to auction-rate securities? And where were you with the securitization process of home mortgages?''' says Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island and a member of the Senate Banking Committee.
GAO Probe
Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, and Reed ordered a probe by the Government Accountability Office this year after the SEC disclosed that sanctions against companies and individuals accused of violating its rules fell 51 percent, to $1.6 billion, for the fiscal year ended in September 2007.
It's not just Democrats who are dismayed at Cox's approach. On Sept. 18, Republican presidential candidate John McCain called for Cox's resignation. ``The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the president and, in my view, has betrayed the public's trust,'' McCain said at an Iowa campaign rally. ``If I were president today, I would fire him.''
On Sept. 15 Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard and a McCain economic adviser, said, "We have had a regulator in the SEC that in many ways has been asleep at the switch." Dana Perino, President George W. Bush's spokeswoman, said Cox has Bush's confidence.
Obama Statement
Democratic candidate Barack Obama, campaigning in New Mexico, responded to McCain's statement by saying, ``Don't get rid of one guy. Get rid of this administration.''
Ralph Ferrara, a Republican and former SEC general counsel, says Cox has been too nonchalant. ``Paulson and Bernanke have stepped up to the plate and taken the lead in responding to the current economic crisis,'' he says. ``There is a risk that the SEC will be marginalized unless the chairman insists on a seat at the table.''
As the financial crisis escalated in mid-September, Cox made sure he had a seat. He was there for the marathon weekend talks in New York that ended with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and an agreement for Bank of America Corp. to take over Merrill Lynch & Co. Cox took a private jet to New York with Paulson and stayed through the weekend, announcing his participation with a press release. When the talks failed to save Lehman, the SEC issued a statement saying it would enforce SEC rules that protect Lehman brokerage accounts.
Cox's Response
Cox declined to be interviewed for this story. On the day McCain called for his ouster, he issued a written response to McCain's broadside and another to a series of questions posed to him by Bloomberg News.
He writes that he has been tough on enforcement and more independent than his predecessors. ``Because regulators so often come straight out of the industries they regulate, it's often hard to find both knowledge of finance and markets and independence in the same person,'' Cox writes.
The chairman takes issue with critics who say he played little role in attempting to rescue Bear Stearns. Cox says he worked over 100 hours during the week beginning on March 10 and, in one instance, was in the office for a 7 a.m. call with Paulson. The Treasury secretary told him he was still in his pajamas, Cox says. The SEC chose not to be a main participant in the talks, Cox says, because it had responsibility for policing the transaction in case of fraud and for acting as an arm's- length regulator.
Rumors, Rumors
Cox wrote in his answer to McCain that he had launched investigations of the trading practices of hedge funds and probed unsubstantiated rumors about the health of investment banks. He wrote that the agency had stiffened rules governing rating companies, which regulators blame for giving high ratings to subprime-tainted mortgage securities that didn't deserve them.
Cox says he will leave office at the end of the Bush administration. His term officially ends in June 2009.
In other forums, Cox has pointed to the SEC's crackdown on stock option abuses and abusive short selling. In Cox's three years in office, the SEC has filed cases against 23 companies or their executives for improperly backdating stock options -- by changing the date of issuance to a day when a company's shares had hit a low. The total the SEC has collected from companies and individuals since Cox took office is almost $100 million.
Short Sales Banned
As world stock markets unraveled from Sept. 15 to 17, Cox led what ended up being a two-continent assault on the short selling of financial shares. On Sept. 19, the SEC banned short selling of U.S. banks, insurance companies and securities firms through Oct. 2, while the Financial Services Authority in the U.K. banned short sales of financial shares for the rest of the year.
The SEC action affected 799 financial and insurance companies. In an earlier action, the SEC took action against ``naked'' short selling of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and 17 other financial stocks in an order that extended from July 21 to Aug. 12.
A short sale takes place when an investor borrows stock and sells it, hoping to replace it later with new shares at a lower price. Naked short selling, which can violate SEC rules, happens when the investor fails to borrow the shares before selling them. A flood of sell orders by naked short sellers can artificially drive down a stock's price.
On Sept. 17, as shares of investment bank Morgan Stanley tumbled more than 40 percent and those of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. fell more than 20 percent, Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack declared, ``Short sellers are driving our stock down.''
Fraud
On that same day, the SEC passed new rules declaring it a fraud if investors deceive their brokers about their intention to deliver borrowed shares.
The broader ban on short selling came after senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer of New York pressured the SEC to impose a moratorium on short selling of bank stocks to restore stability. James Angel, a finance professor at Georgetown University in Washington, doubts that the SEC move will have much impact.
``Cox is trying to show that he's doing something about the situation, but he is fundamentally a politician and not a market guy,'' Angel says. ``If he understood how the market worked, the SEC wouldn't be pushing proposals like this.''
Cox's original short-selling order raised a storm of opposition in the hedge fund community. The Managed Funds Association, the top U.S. hedge fund group, said in a letter to the SEC that there was no reason to believe in a ``mysterious conspiracy'' to artificially drive down stock prices.
`Too Little, Too Late'
Harvey Goldschmid, a Democratic SEC commissioner from 2002 to '05, says Cox's sudden burst of activity in defense of the financial system is too little, too late.``I have respect for Chris Cox, but the SEC has been too passive in a period where rigor and leadership were essential,'' he says.
Lynn Turner, who was the SEC's chief accountant from 1998 to 2001, says he's not surprised at Cox's diminished role in ad- dressing the country's financial crisis. ``When you do nothing, you make yourself no longer relevant,'' he says. ``When things do blow up, people don't look to you.''
Cox has his champions. ``In my view, Chairman Cox has done a very effective job,'' says Harvey Pitt, a Republican who was SEC chairman from 2001 to '03. ``He's looked at a number of issues and modernized the agency's approach to disclosure and the use of technology.''
Pitt, Ruder Defense
Both Pitt, 63, and David Ruder, a Republican SEC chairman under Ronald Reagan, defend Cox's role in the takeover of Bear Stearns. Ruder says the chairman was available to the extent that Fed and Treasury officials needed him. ``Cox and his staff followed developments very closely, but they believed -- and I think correctly -- that it was the Fed that should be the leader,'' Ruder, 79, says.
Yet the Bear takeover and its aftermath have resulted in a profound change in the SEC's role, with Cox ceding power to the Federal Reserve. In March, the Fed began extending credit to nonbank securities firms for the first time since the 1930s.
The Fed also put its own examiners inside Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley -- institutions supervised by the SEC. Cox and Bernanke signed an agreement on July 7 that will give the central bank a permanent role in determining how much capital and liquid assets securities firms must hold to stave off financial trouble.
Paulson, Deregulator
As for Paulson, he took office determined to relieve the financial services industry of some of the burden of the new regulations imposed by Cox's predecessors, as he made clear in his first speech as Treasury secretary in August 2006.
The next month, he issued a statement backing the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, a group that sought to amend the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which imposed new strictures on corporate boards and managers.
In 2007, Paulson set up a panel to examine the pressures on the auditing industry, another area under the SEC's jurisdiction. The group is co-chaired by ex-SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt and Donald Nicolaisen, who headed the agency's accounting office from 2003 to '05. ``It seems clear the Treasury Department is intruding,'' says former SEC chief accountant Turner.
Levitt sits on the board of Bloomberg Inc., the general partner of Bloomberg LP, parent of Bloomberg News.
Abolishing the SEC
Then, in March of this year, came the Treasury Department's ``blueprint'' for restructuring federal regulation of the financial industry, which called for the merger of the SEC with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Since then, Paulson the deregulator has evolved into Paulson the interventionist, with his shepherding of the Bear Stearns takeover by JPMorgan and the government's appropriation of American International Group Inc. and federally backed mortgage packagers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Cox says he wasn't consulted about Treasury's plan for merging the SEC with the CFTC and doesn't think Congress will enact it. ``As I told Congress earlier this year and have stated publicly at every opportunity, if this agency chartered to protect investors, maintain orderly markets and facilitate capital formation did not exist, we would have to invent it,'' Cox writes.
State officials have also stepped on the SEC's toes in their rush to respond to the brouhaha over the $330 billion auction-rate-securities market. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin says the SEC has been playing catch-up with state enforcement officials like himself and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
Auction Rate Debate
Auction-rate securities are long-term bonds whose interest rates were reset weekly or monthly at auctions sponsored by the investment banks.
The market for the bonds froze in February when banks were no longer willing to bid on the securities themselves to make sure the auctions didn't fail. On June 26, Galvin sued Zurich- based UBS AG, charging the bank had defrauded the charities, individuals and small investors to which it sold the securities by touting them as safe and liquid when they knew that wasn't the case. On July 31, Galvin sued Merrill Lynch on the same basis.
Galvin chides the SEC for not doing enough to protect investors. ``Once again, the states are leading the way,'' Galvin says in an interview. ``It argues strongly for a much more aggressive regulatory effort at the national level. You need the national regulator to be fully engaged.''
Helping the States
In the auction-rate cases, Cox declines to specifically address Galvin's comments, though he says the agency's settlements will be among the largest in its history.
``The SEC investigated these abuses and took these actions in record time,'' Cox says. ``The SEC helped the states to structure their own settlements with the firms.''
On Aug. 7, Cuomo held a press conference to announce that Citigroup Inc. would buy back $7.5 billion in auction-rate securities as part of a settlement that included the SEC and other states. Cuomo thanked Cox for being ``very helpful in resolving the matter.''
As of mid-September, 15 banks and brokerages, including Merrill and UBS, had agreed with the states and the SEC to buy back $50 billion of auction-rate bonds.
Meanwhile, the states also jumped on the anti-short-selling bandwagon. Cuomo started an investigation into whether investors illegally drove down stock prices of financial firms. And the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the California State Teachers' Retirement System and the New York State Common Retirement Fund decided to stop lending shares for short sales.
SEC Is Born
Congress created the SEC in 1934 to stem abuses by Wall Street, including rampant insider trading, in a time of even greater financial upheaval, the Great Depression. ``Unscrupulous money managers stand indicted in the court of public opinion,'' President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared in his 1933 inaugural address.
The SEC's job is to regulate stock markets, police securities sales and make sure public companies of all kinds make adequate disclosures to investors. The commission has five members appointed to five-year terms, with the chairman and two commissioners typically from the president's political party and the other two from the party not in the White House.
The SEC employs about 3,400 full-time staff, including 1,000 in the enforcement division, who investigate alleged corporate malfeasance and refer cases to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. The SEC commissioners vote on whether to impose civil sanctions on companies and individuals accused of violating securities laws.
Third Bush Appointee
Cox is the third SEC chief appointed by Bush. Unlike his two predecessors -- Pitt, a prominent securities lawyer, and William Donaldson, former CEO of the New York Stock Exchange -- Cox had little background in the securities industry when he took office in August 2005.
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Cox graduated from the University of Southern California and then simultaneously earned a law degree and a Master of Business Administration at Harvard. After working in the White House counsel's office under Reagan, Cox served 17 years as a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Orange County, California, home to Disneyland and the John Wayne International Airport.
He sat on the House panel overseeing the banking industry and sponsored legislation designed to curtail class-action lawsuits against companies by raising the bar for what plaintiffs have to show for such suits to proceed. The measure passed in 1995 over then President Bill Clinton's veto.
Cheney's Invitation
Cox was named head of the SEC -- Vice President Dick Cheney offered him the job -- in the wake of years of scandal that led to the Sarbanes-Oxley law and a raft of new regulations.
In 2001, Enron Corp., a company with close ties to the Bush administration that reported $111 billion in 2000 revenues, collapsed because it had masked declining earnings through manipulation of a group of special-purpose entities it controlled.
Enron's accounting firm, Arthur Andersen LLP, fell apart in 2002 after it was found guilty of obstruction of justice for destroying Enron-related records. (The conviction was later overturned.) Arthur Andersen was also the auditor for WorldCom Inc., the giant telecommunications firm run by Bernard Ebbers that declared bankruptcy in 2002 after it too was found to have manipulated its books to conceal declining earnings.
Skilling, Ebbers Jailed
Ebbers and Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were all convicted of fraud. Ebbers and Skilling are in prison; Lay died shortly after his conviction.
In light of these events, Cox's nomination to head the SEC drew widespread opposition from investor groups that asserted he would roll back rule changes instituted under Pitt and Donaldson.
``We were extremely concerned,'' says Damon Silvers, associate general counsel at the AFL-CIO labor federation. ``He had every indication of being a deregulator, someone who would bring us back to the set of problems that brought us Enron.''
To Silvers's relief, one of Cox's first declarations after his confirmation was that he would make no effort to overturn the initiatives adopted during the tenures of Pitt and Donaldson.
Donaldson, a Republican who co-founded brokerage Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc., spearheaded rules overhauling securities trading, revising mutual fund governance and creating new controls on hedge funds. Donaldson, now 77, then voted with the two SEC Democrats, Goldschmid, 68, and Roel Campos, 59, to get them passed -- much to the consternation of Republicans in Congress and the White House.
Donaldson Battles
Donaldson, who served from 2003 to '05, also battled with Republican commissioners Paul Atkins and Cynthia Glassman over their opposition to imposing multimillion-dollar fines on public companies for fraud, misrepresentation and accounting violations.
Under Donaldson, total penalties increased 10-fold to $3.1 billion in fiscal 2005 from two years earlier. Atkins and Glassman publicly complained that the fines against companies were ultimately paid by shareholders who already may have been victimized by dishonest management.
According to a person who worked with him, Donaldson was pressured by aides to Cheney to jettison a proposal to make it easier for shareholders to pick corporate board members.
The message, one former top Donaldson staff member says, was that this was not the policy of the Republican Party.
Nonpartisan
The admonition still rankles the ex-chairman, who thought his handling of the wave of corporate misbehavior took the issue off the table for the 2004 presidential election, the former aide says.
Donaldson says he saw the job of SEC chairman as nonpartisan.
``I did what I did without concern for the politics of it, and I think that is the role of an independent agency,'' he says. ``It should not be tainted by politics.''
Donaldson, who declined to comment about Cheney's complaints or Cox's tenure, also downplays the significance of his battles with other commissioners.
``If there is a disagreement one way or the other, that is not bad,'' he says. ``People say that if the SEC doesn't act with unanimity that it somehow undercuts the message the agency is sending. I don't think that is true.''
No More Fighting
The public fights among Democratic and Republican commissioners stopped after Cox took office. ``It's pretty evident that Chris Cox had, as one of his high priorities, finding a way to stop public disagreements among the commissioners,'' says Campos, an SEC commissioner from 2002 to '07 who now practices law at Cooley Godward Kronish LLP in Washington.
During Cox's first 22 months on the job, the SEC commissioners approved every new rule that came before them unanimously. Cox supporters say the strategy was necessary--that it was important to make peace after the quarrelsome Donaldson administration.
``He took on non-controversial things, things everybody could agree on,'' says Stanley Sporkin, SEC enforcement director from 1974 to '81, who later became a federal judge. ``He built a consensus. And now he's able to take on the controversial stuff.''
Defining Leadership
Former SEC general counsel Ferrara disagrees. ``The most important character trait of a great SEC chairman is the ability to lead,'' he says. ``Sometimes leadership means reaching consensus. More frequently, it means driving to a result without it.''
Under Cox, most issues that triggered disagreement have either been delayed or shelved. When two controversial Donaldson-era rules on hedge and mutual funds were overturned by the federal appellate court in Washington, Cox declined to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The first court ruling, in April 2006, held that the SEC didn't follow proper procedures when it tried to force mutual funds to appoint independent chairmen. Two months later, the court struck down a rule that boosted SEC oversight of hedge funds, saying that the SEC acted outside the law when it required the private investment pools to register with the agency and submit to routine inspections of their books.
Proxy Fight
One charged issue that followed Cox into office was Donaldson's 2003 initiative to make it easier for shareholders to get their candidates elected to corporate boards. Donaldson's plan died in the face of opposition from business groups and the White House.
In September 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York forced Cox to revisit the issue by striking down a long-standing SEC staff ruling that let companies keep the names of shareholder director nominees off company proxy statements. The court decision pushed the full SEC commission to establish a formal rule on the question.
As Cox prepared to present the issue to the commissioners, he was inundated with pleas from business executives to leave their prerogatives intact and from investors who, up until that time, had been allowed to nominate directors only by offering a separate proxy and sending the ballots out at their own expense.
Cox responded in July 2007 by putting two conflicting solutions up for a preliminary vote -- and then voting for both of them. One, favored by the agency's Democratic commissioners, allowed shareholders to change a company's bylaws, potentially giving them the right to nominate directors on proxy statements. The other, backed by Cox's Republican colleagues, made it a formal rule that companies could keep shareholder nominees off their proxies.
Head Scratching
``Chris used a strategy that is common in Congress -- putting out two completely different proposals to receive feedback,'' Campos says. ``This approach was unfamiliar to many of the SEC's constituents and left them scratching their heads.''
SEC rule making is a two-step process. The agency's staff proposes a new regulation, and commissioners vote to solicit public feedback for either 30, 60 or 90 days. Once the comment period ends, commissioners then decide whether to hold a second vote to make the rule binding.
In the proxy debate, Cox never held a second vote on the rule change supported by Democrats. Two months after Campos left the agency in September 2007, the commissioners approved the measure backed by Republicans in a 3-1 vote.
Reaction was heated. ``It will be viewed as an anti- investor action and a commission that has failed investors,'' former SEC Chairman Levitt said in a Bloomberg Radio interview on Nov. 28.
Cox, Levitt Exchange
Cox took Levitt to task later that same day in a private e- mail exchange obtained by Bloomberg News. He complained, ``You're the only former chairman whose criticisms are made publicly.'' He also remarked that several people had warned him, ``Arthur Levitt is not your friend.''
Cox added that in the weeks leading up to the SEC vote, he had been ``threatened with ample bluster'' by lobbyists. ``One meeting was devoted to explaining how the attendees would work to destroy my reputation so that I would never work again,'' Cox wrote.
``It all comes with the territory, and truly it's not as if proxy access is the Gulf War or the nation's tax system or nuclear disarmament or any of the other far more weighty issues that I dealt with for two decades in Congress and the White House.''
No Friendship Involved
Levitt responded that he felt so strongly that shareholders should have the right to nominate corporate directors that he was compelled to speak out. ``This is not a matter of friendship,'' Levitt wrote.
Levitt declined to comment on the e-mails.
Though Cox says his most important tasks are rooting out corporate fraud and protecting investors, behind-the-scenes his relations with his own enforcement division have been strained, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former SEC staffers.
The lawyers say that Cox has slowed cases and instituted policies that take decision-making away from line-level attorneys.
Cox angered some rank-and-file enforcement attorneys when, in February 2006, he publicly rebuked the division for issuing subpoenas to several journalists. The SEC had requested e-mails and other correspondence as part of an investigation into whether Gradient Analytics Inc., a stock research firm, had colluded with short sellers to spread misinformation about public companies.
Cox Not Consulted
Cox issued a public statement saying that he hadn't been consulted before the subpoenas were issued. ``Issuing subpoenas to journalists can pose a genuine risk of chilling the kind of reporting that investors depend upon,'' Cox writes. The SEC withdrew them.
``To have the chairman publicly slap us in the face for doing our jobs -- that really crushed the spirit of a lot of people for a long time,'' says Kathleen Bisaccia, the SEC attorney who supervised the investigation. Bisaccia quit the SEC in April 2006 after 17 years and is now a managing director at FTI Consulting Inc. in San Francisco.
In February 2007, the SEC dropped its probe of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Gradient.
Alienating Staff
Cox has also alienated staff in his effort to resolve the continuing struggle over how and when to fine companies. In January 2006, Cox issued internal guidelines saying the decision to impose a financial penalty would be based on whether a corporation benefited from the alleged infraction and the degree to which a fine would harm shareholders already victimized by dishonest management.
Cox went further in a 2007 edict, leaked to the press by enforcement staff, declaring that the division's lawyers must seek approval from the commissioners before negotiating agreements on corporate fines with investigation targets.
The changes have caused long delays in bringing cases and stalled the agency's crackdown on stock option backdating and other corporate fraud cases, current and former SEC attorneys say.
A $7 million options-backdating settlement with Brocade Communications Systems Inc. was delayed for almost a year as Cox held off putting the case up for a vote. The company said in July 2006 it had reached a preliminary agreement with the agency; the final settlement was announced on May 31, 2007. A $75 million agreement with bond insurer MBIA Inc. and a $30 million accord with Symantec Corp.'s Veritas Software unit also languished for more than a year.
Promoting XBRL
If Cox's SEC has been slow to reach settlements with the targets of its investigations, it's been quick to advertise its new XBRL technology. During Cox's time in office, the SEC has issued more than 20 press releases about the XBRL software program and held at least four ``roundtables'' to discuss it. When, three months after he took office, Cox made a speech at the annual Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association conference, XBRL was the only new policy initiative he brought up.
Meanwhile, Henry Paulson is moving ahead with his plan for a regulatory overhaul that would abolish the SEC. Though Cox has assured his staff that the agency will not be reorganized out of existence, current and former SEC employees are not reassured, a dozen of them said in interviews.
``Pulling the plug on the SEC would be a monumental thing,'' says Stephen Crimmins, a former trial lawyer at the commission who's now a partner at law firm Mayer Brown LLP in Washington. ``It would send a tradition of effective financial regulation down the chute.''
The SEC will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2009. Cox, notwithstanding the Paulson proposal, has assured his 3,400 employees that it won't be its last.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jesse Westbrook in Washington at jwestbrook1@bloomberg.net. Robert Schmidt in Washington at +1-
rschmidt5@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: September 22, 2008 01:09 EDT
Thanks for throwin out the Clinton/Greenspan stuff....that's what actually made me cross refrence it
Thanks
New mesg from Faulk on website....
Chris Cox: The Old Uptick Rule Isn't Coming Back But A New One Might Be Put In Place
Jul 16, 2008
Securities and Exchange Commissioner Chris Cox says the old uptick rule isn't coming back. But he added that a new "price rule" with "teeth in it" is being considered by the securities regulator.
The uptick rule, which required a stock to move upward before a short-seller could short a stock, was abolished after decades of operation. Cox emphasized that the uptick rule was closely studied by the SEC before it was repealed. Speaking to CNBC's Erin Burnett on "Street Signs," Cox stated plainly that the SEC was not considering restoring the rule. Advocates of the rule have said that bringing it back might lower market volatility. Cox dismissed that possibility.
"We've had so much of economic study of the uptick rule, I dare that never has an SEC action been taken with more economic analysis," Cox said. "I don't think that the old rule was worth anything."
He added, however, that SEC was considering an unspecified new price rule. "On the other hand, whether a price test with teeth in it might be worth something is, I think, a subject properly for study by the SEC in real time and we've undertaken already to do that."
"Uptick"'ll be back in some form......wayyyy to much pressure now
Chris
Yep,,,Clinton/Greenspan...1st was Glass-Steagall Act
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/03/071603.asp
http://www.icba.org/publications/index.cfm?ItemNumber=1575&sn.ItemNumber=13783
Then replaced with Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Nov 12th '99...
http://www.bankersonline.com/vendor_guru/bindview/bindview_glb.html
Chris
Look how far back "Uptick",,,,goes back and compare the comments in this timeline to what's been done and tossed around today......even with cox saying maybe a different approach is neccessary,,,like uptick price and depending on a sector...etc,,,,,wellll....that dosen't even look like a new idea outta the SEC
goood lord
Chris
---------------------------------------------
Page 4 from this Washington Legal Foundation statement...
http://financialservices.house.gov/media/pdf/052203pk.pdf
" We recognize that short selling is not inherently antithetical to the interests of investors and the securities markets. Indeed, short selling plays a positive role in the securities market by providing market liquidity and pricing efficiency. But precisely because short selling has an impact on the market, there is also potential for abuse.
For example, a "bear raid" occurs when short selling is designed to drive down the price of the stock by creating an imbalance on the sell-side interest. Congress was concerned about so-called "bear raids" following the 1929 stock market crash, and in enacting the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, Congress gave the SEC the authority to stop short selling abuses.
In response, the SEC has enacted several rules, such as Rule 10a-1 that includes the so-called "uptick" rule which essentially requires that a security may be sold short at a price above the price which the immediately preceding sale was effected. In 1963, the SEC studied short selling in response to a request by Congress, and recommended improvements in short sale data collection, but apparently no action was taken.
In 1976, the SEC ordered a general investigation in short selling and considered suspending the uptick rule, but withdrew its proposals due to public opposition. In 1991, the House Committee on Government Operations issued a report on short selling, agreed that the SEC's uptick rule was valuable as a price stabilizing force, and encouraged Nasdaq to adopt similar restrictions. Moreover, and most relevant for the hearing today, the House Report also concluded that there appeared to be "a pattern of abusive and destructive rumor mongering, targeted specifically at companies in the equity securities of which some short-selling investors have established major short positions.
"1The House Report also recommended that daily and weekly short-selling data activity and interest be obtained from broker-dealers, and be made available electronically. Id. On October 20, 1999, the SEC issued a "concept release" on short selling proposing to eliminate the uptick rule in certain circumstances and to make other changes in regulating short selling.
However, no further action has been taken on the subject since then, and it is unclear what the Commission may do in this area in light of the recent Hedge Fund hearings and related ongoing fact-finding by the SEC "
A Reconstruction Finance Corp Vs. a Resolution Trust Corp
I prefer an RFC over the RTC being talked about.....
" Schumer advocated a Great Depression-era Reconstruction Finance Corp. model, different from the Resolution Trust Corp.- type plan others have floated. Another RTC, which was a 1990s agency that sold devalued assets in the Savings and Loan Crisis, would ``simply transfer excessive risk to the U.S. government without addressing the plight of homeowners,'' he said. "
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afIu492CyWMw&refer=home
Chris
Bammmmm,,,,and of course alot of people will downplay it,,,,,lol
all i'll say is....go ahead and be the 1st to get get caught with this environment of today.....go ahead,,,,,come on LOL
SEC Expands Sweeping Investigation of Market Manipulation
Author: nopullnoshow send pm · add member to favs · ignore
Measure Will Require Statements Under Oath by Market Participants
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2008-214
Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2008 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced a sweeping expansion of its ongoing investigation into possible market manipulation in the securities of certain financial institutions. The expanded investigation will include obtaining statements under oath from market participants.
Hedge fund managers, broker-dealers, and institutional investors with significant trading activity in financial issuers or positions in credit default swaps will be required, under oath, to disclose those positions to the Commission and provide certain other information.
The Commission also approved a formal order of investigation that will allow SEC enforcement staff to obtain additional documents and testimony by subpoena. Investigators from NYSE Regulation and FINRA will be conducting a separate, parallel inquiry in coordination with the SEC by making on-site visits to various broker-dealers to address concerns about recent short selling activity.
"Investors have a right to know that the rule of law is being enforced and that our capital markets are not being manipulated," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. "We are working together with our regulatory partners at NYSE Regulation and FINRA in order to quickly identify, isolate and aggressively prosecute any violations of the federal securities laws during this period of market turmoil."
Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, added, "Abusive short selling, market manipulation and false rumor mongering for profit by any entity cuts to the heart of investor confidence in our markets. Such behavior will not be tolerated. We will root it out, expose it, and subject the guilty parties to the full force of the law."
The Commission's actions follow recent reports of trading irregularities and allegations of false rumor mongering, abusive short selling and possible manipulation of financial stocks.
# # #
For more information, contact:
Scott Friestad
Deputy Director, SEC's Division of Enforcement
202-551-4962
John Polise
Assistant Director, SEC's Division of Enforcement
202-551-4981
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2008/2008-214.htm
Author: mhelburn send pm · add member to favs · ignore · recommend
view thread, thread start In response to msg 24548 by my69z
Recs: 0 Re: Uptick Rule Bill........ sent to my rep..
Chris Cox is not up to the job. He could have stopped this mayhem had he enforced the existing laws. He appears to be against investor protection with the delays in removing the options market maker exemption, requiring delivery and the borrowing of shares for short selling. His unannouced banning of all short sales on 800 financial stocks was unfair to shorts and discriminatory to the rest of the market depriving those stocks of the same protection.
Cox's concensus building style is not appropriate for this position. He has fiddled while the market burned. People consider Cox a loose canon and incapable of making intelligent decisions as proven the last several weeks.
Gary Ackerman of NY is sending up a bill to reinstate the uptick rule so that bear raids can't take stocks down 40 and 50% in a day. The relentless selling overwhelms the bid and the increased volatility is harmful to the markets.
Please contact Ackerman and support his bill.
Uptick Rule Bill........
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-6517
Sponsor: Rep. Gary Ackerman [D-NY]show cosponsors (3)
Cosponsors [as of 2008-08-31]
Rep. Michael Capuano [D-MA]
Rep. Carolyn Maloney [D-NY]
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy [D-NY]
Status: Introduced Jul 16, 2008
Scheduled for Debate -
Voted on in House -
Voted on in Senate -
Signed by President -
This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced bills go first to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills never make it out of committee. Keep in mind that sometimes the text of one bill is incorporated into another bill, and in those cases the original bill, as it would appear here, would seem to be abandoned.
[Last Updated: Aug 30, 2008]
Last Action: Jul 16, 2008: Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
**** with all the talk of Uptick now,,,gotta give credit where credit is due to these 4 people and why not write/email to support their bill??
Gltua,
Chris
So CMKX just said 5 days ago...on 9-11 " While we intend to keep the door open for those who wish to negotiate settlements to atone for their actions against the Company, we will move forward aggressively in our legal efforts.” "
And now today the SEC clsoes all those loopholes.
I've been postin/sayin since '05....look at Frizzs' comments in the SEC trial about what happens when brokers get caught with open orders on their books.....he said they are forced to buy-in.
Bascially CMKX is now a....if your short,,,settle behind closed doors cause if we trade,,,all your loopholes are now closed.
L..........M.........A.........O!!!!
Chris
And can't forget the anti-"Glenn" stuff from Faulk....so lets have at it,,,,,,,,sue him
So Mark Faulk absolutely hated the SEC and now works for a company that has been working WITH.....the SEC
LMAO....that pretty much completes the circle now,,,Kevin/Frizz and now Faulk....
i've always said....when Kevin took over and it was clear we wouldn't fight with the SEC,,,,,why wasn't Faulk commenting on that since he was so anti-SEC ??
L....M.....A.....O
March 20th 2006 :
The Task Force continues to receive notice of significant rumors pertaining to the receipt of funds and erroneous agreements reached with brokerage firms short in CMKM's stock. Other than the funds received from Casavant to pay for certain of the costs associated with the Task Force's operations, there have been no funds received from brokers/dealers or any other sources. However, Frizzell has been in communication with firms as to issues pertaining to the inability to produce CMKM stock.
September 11, 2008 :
While we intend to keep the door open for those who wish to negotiate settlements to atone for their actions against the Company, we will move forward aggressively in our legal efforts.”
And who started the Texas lawsuit...Frizzell
And who does this "CEO" pr seem to evolve around??...Frizzell
And oh yea,,,if we see some interesting stuff occur now.....what better day to associate it with than 9/11 with all the market/integrity/shorts comments CMKX made in the past??
Any better pro-American day than 9/11??.....nope
But then again,,,,i imnagine Kevin could've also just forgot 9/11 was today....but remembered to addr "fathers day",,,etc...
Hmmmm,,,,could everything we are about to see already have been worked out??,,,,naaaahhh
And Seatech,,,,someone sent me your post/questions from Conglom....but I can't get into my RB acct,,,,,i'll answer when I can
Chris
07/24/2008 ORDER ADMITTING PRACTICE 07/24/2008
For All Parties
Filed By CMKM Diamonds Inc 2 pages
From the Edwards/Desemor suit
Entg trial set for Feb. '09 and amendment filed includes wanting $250K for various things...was filed 1 month ago.
6 - Notice of Trial
Date Filed: 15May2008
Filing Parties
Plaintiff: ENTOURAGE MINING LTD.
Hearings For Document
Hearing Date: 23Feb2009
Hearing Time: 10:00 AM
Hearing Location: Vancouver Law Courts
Hearing Reason: For Trial (Judge alone)
Hearing Result:
ummmm,,try reading the website.
CMKX counterclaim to counterclaim. EOM
...My $2B Dollar Question....
Being Frizz said this in his Derivative Letter,,,,
"Recently it was learned that Mr. Edwards had amassed $2-billion worth of Crown Financial stock,"
"Crown Financial was one of the most active market makers of CMKX stock when hundreds of billions of shares of stock were suddenly dumped on the market."
Why isn't Crown named by either side?????.....CMKX OR the SEC???
Even with "$2B" aside,,,,,,they may be BK'd but so is Nevwest......they were named
And one mo again....neither is UAJC Irrevocable Trust ( ??????? )
Chris
Mark Faulk,,,Re: your comments on R. Glenn....
I think that was Eureka recently who u said to...Glenn may have not been named because of his past SEC connections and it wouldn't look good.
Well dosen't it look worse to have an even bigger x-SEC hot shot than Glenn defending Edwards??
lol
Important Address Change Request Information
All shareholders that need to make an address change on their holdings will need to personally contact the transfer agent at (702) 656-4919 to request the necessary changes.
Faxes, calls, emails or letters sent to the Company for address changes will NOT update the official records.
Sooo,,,tha "TA" was absolutely beat down in the SEC complaint,,,,,,but we're now trusting them to record this info,,,and NOT sabotage any of it if just even outta spite??? LOL
yeeaaaa
Wonder if there's someone sittin there starin at ol Bagley while these calls come in?? L....M...A...O !
Chris
Nevtah Acquires Electrocondor S.A.C. and
Nevtah Acquires Electrocondor S.A.C. and a 17 Megawatt 'Run-of-River' Hydroelectric Project in Peru
Market Wire - April 09, 2008 10:17 AM ET
Related Quotes
Symbol Last Chg
NTAH Trade 0.85 -0.07
Quotes delayed at least 15 minutes
Nevtah Capital Management (PINKSHEETS: NTAH) today announced that as part of the Company's long-term goal of becoming a multi-faceted, low-cost energy provider, it has successfully negotiated the acquisition of Electrocondor S.A.C., a private Peruvian power company.
Recently, Electrocondor negotiated a series of long-term power supply contracts to provide power to several mineral exploration companies operating in Peru. These companies require stable supplies of power as they ramp up their mineral activities. Mining-friendly Peru has become one of the major centers of increased mining exploration and production in the world during the current surge in commodity demand and prices. It is now the world's largest producer of silver and the world's third largest producer of copper.
In order to meet the demand of its supply contracts, Electrocondor S.A.C. has an agreement in place to construct a $36,000,000 USD, 17 megawatt 'run-of-river' hydroelectric facility in Peru, while finalizing several other power proposals ranging from 10 megawatts to over 100 megawatts. The final terms of these contracts will be announced on their completion.
Nevtah's acquisition of Electrocondor S.A.C. includes the retention of all personnel, as well as Senor Jorge Lau, the Managing Director of the Company. To complete the acquisition costs of $22,500,000 USD, Nevtah will issue 25,000,000 treasury shares. Working capital will be provided to initiate environmental baseline studies. Nevtah's varied energy portfolio now includes Electrocondor S.A.C. and its several proposed 'run-of-river' hydroelectric projects in Peru, and an ongoing joint venture with Black Sands Energy and its environmentally friendly, closed-loop oil sands extraction technology. Nevtah and Black Sands are ready to tap the U.S. oil sands as they become Utah's first commercial oil sands producers.
For more information, please contact Paul Davey, Investor Relations: (778) 389-0915, Email: paul@nevtahoilsands.com , or Daniel P. Kesonen, Chairman & CEO of Nevtah Capital Management Corp. at (561) 626-9901. Visit the Company's website at: www.nevtahoilsands.com.
We adhere to the statutes and provisions of the Safe Harbor Act.
For more information, please contact:
Paul Davey
Investor Relations
(778) 389-0915
paul@nevtahoilsands.com
Daniel P. Kesonen
Chairman & CEO
Nevtah Capital Management Corp.
(561) 626-9901
www.nevtahoilsands.com
SOURCE: Nevtah Capital Management Inc.
mailto:paul@nevtahoilsands.com
http://www.nevtahoilsands.com
------------------------------------
Notice no contact info on this new company??
???????????
Chris
MP3: Kevin Vs. Fair Funds....
http://www.zshare.net/audio/1049893930af4a2b/
Chris
Enercor mentioned in this '83 study.....and the founder of Enercor was John McChrystal Wallace
Scroll down to page 23 on the doc and it's number 46 on the computer page counter...: ASSESSMENT OF RESEARCH NEEDS FOR OIL RECOVERY FROM HEAVY-OIL
http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/766253-XV8RlZ/webviewable/766253.PDF
Scroll to yr 1978...Founded and became President of Enercor Corporation
http://www.lib.utah.edu/spc/photo/reg/p354.prg
Glta,
Chris
Original Advice Letter.....
http://www.sce.com/NR/sc3/tm2/pdf/2089-E.pdf
Read this and notice under Discussion "Enercor"....is this maybe why there's no Enercor contact info in the Nevtah press release about the Enercor deal??
In 1981, the Combined Hydrocarbon Leasing Act prompted the Government to designate "certain areas" subject to oil and gas leases in Utah as Special Tar Sands Areas. AL 2089-E states "In the early 1980s, the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) designated certain areas in Utah as Special Tar Sands Areas (STSAs) in response to the Combined Hydrocarbon Leasing Act of 1981. The BLM determined that if holders of active oil and gas leases in these STSAs chose, they could apply for a combined hydrocarbon lease status for their leases, thereby retaining rights to the tar sands. In order to do that, each leaseholder had to file or participate in a plan of operations regarding mining the tar sands on their STSA leases."14
A Utah Corporation, Enercor, was designated as Manager for Mono and other participating lease holders regarding tar sand development. Enercor filed a plan
of operation on behalf of Mono and a number of other participating leaseholders in the STSAs. UOS recently purchased all of Enercor's assets, which include "Enercor's leases and contractual rights and relationships as manager under agreement that Enercor had with other leaseholders."15
AL 2089-E states "The BLM indicates that Mono is the holder of all or partial interest in closed leases in three STSAs. Although the BLM has labeled many of these leases as closed, the status of such leases could still be pending. UOS is attempting, at its own expense, to resurrect the combined hydrocarbon lease conversions, to make them active again for tar sands development. UOS wishes to include Mono's closed leases in the three STSAs in its efforts. UOS contacted Mono and proposed an arrangement that would assign Mono's closed leases to UOS in exchange for a future royalty interest in the three STSAs." 16
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/published/Final_resolution/68474.htm
Glta,
Chris
I agree with what the guy from the DOE interview said.....how far NTAH goes could depend on them.
Chris
History of Synthetcis....tied to Rendall Process,,,tied to Enercor.....which then obvioulsy ends today with NTAH,,,,,but...go back to NTAH's older pr and it mentioned Enrcor worked on their leases in the mid 80's.
Synthetics...:
http://www.heritage.org/press/dailybriefing/policyweblog.cfm?blogid=05E49511-A0C9-D18A-0F7298B25EB50C89
The Rendall Process...:
http://www.blueensigntech.com.au/prospectus/7.4_development.pdf
Go down to Mark F. Lindsey bio:
http://www.greenriverresources.net/docs/GreenRiverBrochure.pdf.
NTAH pr from Sept 2006 mentions Enercor...:
http://www.sism.com/NTAH%2009072006.htm
Gltua,
Chris
Synthetic Fuels Corporation sound familiar to anyone??
Enercor has been around for a looong time.
Melvin,,,next time you talk to "Urban",,,ask him to explain the '05,,,'06 and '07 transmission dates on "urbans checks" that are on the website.
And in case your full of schit azz can't even find the site.....
www.cmkmdiamondsinc.com
And anyone,,,,,YOU,,,,,who gloats about talkin to someone who took part in a $200M P/D is just as sick and no different than the perps.
Merry X-mas Melvin,,,,,,,wonder if that money "Urban" gave you for your wife was from the sell of CMKX stock too???
Happpy Holidays!
Fed Call,,Grand Jury,,Website,,Etc..
20 mins long
Gltua!
Chris
http://www.zshare.net/audio/5816782c4e551a/
12/19/2007 ORDER GRANTING APPLICATION FOR ORDER FORPUBLICATION OF SUMMONS 12/19/2007
For All Parties
Filed By CMKM Diamonds Inc 2 pages
12/19/2007 ORDER GRANTING PLTFS SECOND APPLICATION FOR RETURN OF FUNDS 12/19/2007
For CMKM Diamonds Inc
Filed By CMKM Diamonds Inc
Re: Thinking out Loud-Common Sense
my69z
Ace of Diamonds
Status: Online
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,868
Re: Thinking out Loud-Common Sense
« Reply #4 on Today at 5:51am »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sept '04,,,,Urban said he couldn't complete the Carrano deal cause the SEC was watching his accts,,,,,,also in that one....wayyy back then....him and Donahue asked for those Carrano shares to go to 18 different accts.
" Urban is not perfect and probably made mistakes along the way.... "
I used to say that,,,,,stayed on the fence,,,,,,,but whith whats out just even so far,,,,,,,,,he robbed us.....not just a small treating himself a little early.
And what people seem to always forget,,,,,,,,it's not just "urban" who aint replyin.
But there's something on those docs that for me,,,,proves there's some agency,,,,not Kev/Frizz......who gathered about 90% of what's out so far.
But,,,,,,on the urbans not smart enough to hide all this........CMKX didn't say it was a one man show.....and that damn Decosta,,,,she was a big help at good ol Silver State........in her litigation....she even said that Mgt at that bank also owned "some of the stock in question"......hmmm
Why won't Urban come out and protest all these docs comin out??
It's either,,,,,1. their true,,,,,so he won't......2. if they are lies,,,,,so much for his "love" for the shareholders if he won't speak up.
Can't continue to make excuses for a grown man who aint even offerin any in his own defence.
So i guess i'am also rushin to judgement on Edwards/Desemouru too..
Kinney,,,,Devorak,,,,,Guiterezzz,,,Silver State,,,,,Sunwest,,,,Nevwest,,,,etc,,,etc,,,
Cause i bet none of them reply either
My bet,,,,,"Urban" had no choice yrs ago about where we're at now.....always thought that,,,,,,and really more so now
There's a person in the CMKX Show Me room in paltalk who talked about an offer he was givin yrrsss ago......low and behold,,,,,,it turned out to be IDENTICAL to whatz goin on......and it took the "Govt" like 7/8 yrs to shut that down.
So for whats been called,,,,the biggest P/D in history......I think this is movin pretty good.....and from a fidicuary,,,,,,,Kevin/Frizz is obligated to push for criminal,,,,,,,,,,,,,or I gurantee he'll be lookin at another Derivative Lawsuit.
Chris
« Last Edit: Today at 5:57am by my69z » Link to Post - Back to Top Logged
my69z
Ace of Diamonds
Status: Online
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,868
Re: Thinking out Loud-Common Sense
« Reply #5 on Today at 6:12am »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One other thought,,,,,,,,lets say these CMKX suits fail against "Urban",,,,,,with Kevin having put out docs,,,and i'd guess more to come,,,,,,he'd be accused of having gave away to much info and therefore causing CMKX to fail,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,recovering nothing.
Just think about that,,,,,,,from a personal and a business angle
Gltua,
Chris
Link to Post - Back to Top Logged
my69z
Ace of Diamonds
Status: Online
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,868
Re: Thinking out Loud-Common Sense
« Reply #6 on Today at 6:16am »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Would those who still support Urban then want to file something legal against Kevin??
If so,,,then dosent that say what Kevin was doing was actually legit,,,,,,just wrong tactics??
Gltua,
Chris
Thinking out Loud-Common Sense
MoMike
King of Diamonds
Status: Offline
Joined: Sept 2007
Posts: 516
Thinking out Loud-Common Sense
« Thread Started on Yesterday at 10:49pm »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Common sense is a beautiful thing. Without it the brilliant look ordinary, and the ordinary look helpless. It would seem to be such a simple concept to apply common sense to the progression of one's thoughts but alas we find it alarmingly absent from so many.
Take for example the occupation of a Master Crook. Now I do not believe that I would make a very good crook. I have a tendency to apply too much common sense to the things I do so I am afraid that I would not succeed. I would want to make My heist and then go somewhere far away, and safe, to enjoy my bounty.
Now how would one steal 70 to 200 million dollars and live to enjoy it? Well common sense says that you would do that as quietly and discreetly as possible, so that no suspicions would be aroused. Have I mentioned that common sense is a beautiful thing?
So Urban,who is described by Tyler and others as a crook,is said to have stolen millions of dollars from the shareholders and taken it for his own use. We are told that among other things he wrote millions of dollars worth of checks by making them out to cash.
Can you imagine walking into a bank and saying I'd like to cash this check made out to cash for 155,000? Now If I was a crook I just don't think I would do it that way but then I never was too good at the art of thievery. Is it me, or does that stuff seem a bit obvious to my untrained eye?
And another thing; To steal millions, by having checks made out for thousands of dollars per check in your own name ,seems a bit on the simple side to me.Would there not be a smarter way to siphon off millions into a secret account so as not to get caught down the road by some overly aggressive CPA, or even running the risk of an IRS audit because of all of those checks?(By the way where has the IRS been in all of this?) Well I guess crooks are not concerned with common sense at all but then what do I know about being a Master Crook?
Now after you had gathered millions of dollars in an account all tucked away for you and yours, wouldn't a long vacation in South America or somewhere where the dollar was strong and the extradition treaties were weak be on your agenda?
Now some of you Master Crooks out there must have your internal wheels humming about now. I can hear it now from the Master Crook Gallery." Now the first thing that I would do after collecting my millions is order a cert pull from all of the innocent shareholders from which I had stolen money, and not only that, but I would foot the bill for it."And while I am at it, I am going to give away 7 boxes of highly incriminating evidence and cause myself to be sued in a court of law." Beats a Yacht off South America to pieces.
I guess maybe I just don't get it because it would seem to me that a Master Crook would never do these things. It almost seems that a person who did these things was a person who wanted to, for all intents and purposes, make it appear to the whole world that he was indeed a Master Crook.
One would certainly think that If a small organization in Texas knew these things about Urban then all of those fraternities involved with CMKM would be able to find them out also. You know the ones I mean, FBI,IRS,DOJ,SEC. Yes those Fraternities. You know the ones who seem to be rushing to judgment waving furiously their indictments which were spun from the plethora of the evidence so openly displayed? Yes those Fraternities.
I don't know.I just think If I were a Master Crook I would have done it differently than Urban did. Urban is not perfect and probably made mistakes along the way but I think it is safe to say that the legend of Jesse James is safe in Master Crook folklore.
I always thought it interesting how so many made Jesse James out to be a hero when he was really a crook. Come to think of it,equally interesting, is the fact that so many try to make Urban Casavant out to be a crook, when in my book(mistakes and all) he is a true hero. By the way, have I mentioned that common sense is a beautiful thing?
Blessings to you,
MoMike