NO QUARTER FOR CORRUPTION (Focussing on The Fed./FRBS)

[rrufff]

This is one of the affidavits in the Overstock case against hedge funds and others relative to claims of manipulation of its stock. Byrne the former CEO has been active in the naked short selling movement.

This part is most interesting and clearly refutes the often heard claim that there are no paid bashers. Front running establishing their short positions before distributing the biased reports seems common in the world of manipulating hedge funds and their associates.

<<17. Frequently the customer requesting the special report would supply Camelback with information on the companies that were the subject of the request. It was nearly always the case that Vickrey and the other Camelback personnel involved in the intake of the request and the research and writing of the report would be instructed or lead by the customer to generate either a positive or negative report on the company that was the subject of the request. In fact, Camelback’s promotional materials specify that the customer has the opportunity to “influence the reports” prepared by Camelback. See Exhibit B. This promotional piece also claims the reports are “unbiased, independent and objective.” See Exhibit B.

http://www.shareholder.com/overstock/downloads/ballash.doc


18. Frequently, after conversing with the client who ordered the special report, Vickrey would downgrade the alpha score for the company from some neutral like a “B” or “C” to a more negative score like a “D” or “F” overriding the analyst grade of the analyst who prepared the original report.

19. Though Vickrey retained final editing decisions over the reports Camelback published, based on my observations, there was no doubt these reports were not the product of an unbiased, objective view of the subject companies, but rather that the customer was paying for a report that would heavily favor the customer’s negative view of the company.

20. We knew at Camelback that customers either had short position in these companies or that they intended to take short positions in the subject companies and that the negative reports from Camelback on the subject companies were a key component in their efforts to depress the trading price of these companies’ stocks.

21. Customers would regularly ask that Camelback not disseminate the report to the public for a specific period of time so the customer could “get their own” position in the stock before the public got the information. It was common knowledge that the timing of the dissemination of the reports was important to Camelback and its clients.

22. In the writing of these negative research reports, it was the common business practice of Camelback to discuss in advance of publications, drafts of these reports with the customer that had requested the reports.

23. Some customers paid more fees for additional reports and several requested many reports on companies in a particular market segment. These customers requesting more reports were known to be large hedge funds with net short positions in the companies they were requesting reports on.

24. It was very apparent to me that Rocker Partners either had a short position in the shares of Overstock or that he intended to be short prior to the Camelback reports’ publication.

25. Camelback maintained a listing of the name and date each customer requested a specials report on a particular company.

26. While I was employed at Camelback, I was assigned to use a database service called www.bigdough.com. This Internet-based service identified portfolio managers for large hedge funds. On one occasion, I saw a listing for Pinnacle Investment Advisors, which I knew to be a hedge fund run by Bettis out of Camelback’s offices, and Vickrey was also a portfolio manager as well as Jose Marques. I clicked on a link near the Marques listing and was redirected to a site that showed the portfolio of a hedge fund Pinnacle managed and the position listing it pulled up included most, if not all, of the companies about which Camelback had prepared research reports. I noticed that Vickrey and other management at Camelback were listed as portfolio managers of another hedge fund such and a mutual fund, designated as “Hallmark.”

27. I was confused because Matthew Kliber (“Kliber”), a manager at Camelback, had recently instructed all Camelback employees to tell customers Camelback did not operate a hedge fund or manage money.

28. When I confronted Kliber with this he seemed distressed. I tried to access this information through www.bigdough.com sometime later and it had been removed.

29. Within several weeks, I heard Pinnacle had been sold to a third-party.

30. In the case of Overstock, Camelback published several negative reports and Vickery discussed in telephone calls with Rocker and Cohodes the content of these publications before general distribution.

31. Vickrey instructed all Camelback employees to make the subscription available to the media at little or no cost. I saw that certain journalists would publish negative information about a company around the same time Camelback would disseminate a special report with negative information about the same company.

32. I would monitor login activity regularly at the Camelback research archive website. I noticed that Herb Greenburg (“Greenburg”), an editor at www.thestreet.com, frequently logged in to review recent research reports.

33. At one point, Brian Harris was retained by Camelback to draft research reports on particular companies. Brian Harris is an editor of www.thestreet.com and Herb Greenberg. Camelback did not disclose that Harris had prepared these reports. Harris joined TheStreet.com is listed as associate editor of Street Insight. I never saw any billing statements or invoices indicating Camelback paid Harris to draft the reports.

34. Camelback opened a special office in Seattle, Washington for Brian Harris and John Markham. Markham has a research service he markets as “Stock Tactics Advisors.”

I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct.>>