courtesy of the aiding and abetting SEC .. with their most recent slap on the wrist *effort* to aid and abet Colluding Entities .. this is how part of Non Retail illegally manipulating U.S. Equities by rote
According to the order, xxxxxxx routinely facilitated its broker-dealer customers' sales into the market by executing short sales throughout the day for its own account in the stocks being sold by these other firms on behalf of their customers. The order finds that xxxxxxx later purchased shares in those stocks at a lower price from the other firms, also in its own account, to cover xxxxxxx's short positions. For at least several thousand such short sales during the relevant period, xxxxxxx failed to locate shares of those stocks that it could borrow. The order further finds that xxxxxxx often published offers on OTC Link's electronic quotation service to sell shares it had purchased from its broker-dealer customers without first obtaining and reviewing required documents and information about the shares' issuers.