Mark Valentine in the news
(excerpt) March 15, 2004. (FinancialWire) StockGate: Short Days Numbered, 13 and Counting? Forensic Auditor Studies Shorting
The longtime national scandal known as “StockGate” has come full circle as Mark Valentine, the infamous and notorious Canadian trader pleaded guilty yesterday in a Florida court to securities fraud as part of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. Unlike Martha Stewart, former CEO of Martha Stewart Living OmniLiving (NYSE: MSO), who was accused of misleading prosecutors, Valentine, whose actions caused thousands of little investors in dozens of developing companies to lose hundreds of millions and perhaps more than a billion dollars, is likely to receive “probation.”
Observers were aghast at the disparity.
The Globe and Mail reports that a source close to the former brokerage executive said Mr. Valentine pleaded guilty to one of the three counts of securities fraud he was charged with in 2002 as part of a sweeping Federal Bureau of Investigation sting.
“As part of the plea agreement struck with the Department of Justice, the source said the government is expected to drop the other two counts of securities fraud after Mr. Valentine's sentencing, which is scheduled for May.”
“The FBI charged Mr. Valentine in August, 2002, with securities fraud for allegedly agreeing to pay a $7.8-million (U.S.) kickback to an undercover agent posing as a mutual-fund trader. In exchange, the undercover agent agreed to pay $29.4-million for stocks of three publicly traded companies owned by Mr. Valentine,” the newspaper noted.
Recently, renowned columnist, Jack Anderson, who writes the “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” alleged that much of the naked short selling in small cap stocks drains small U.S. companies of their market caps and their small investors of their nest-eggs specifically to funnel money into terrorist hands, a sort of double-whammy against the American capitalist system.
