StockGate: Naked ShortSelling 'Officially' Ends But Not Without 'Offshore Fund' Mocking SEC?
Apr 2, 2004 (financialwire.net via COMTEX) -- (FinancialWire) Today may be the deadline for brokers and marketmakers such as Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCH) to implement the new NASD short-selling regulations that reportedly are cutetomg the lifelines of naked short-sellers, but not without a purported offshore fund in the British Virgin Islands mocking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and NASD, and another bold challenge from Universal Express (OTCBB: USXP).
Interestingly, the offshore fund that invited investors to "circumvent" the "new restrictions on naked shorting by utilizing banking and brokerage agreements in former Soviet republics such as Estonia and Lithuania, and by using trades between US and Canadian brokers who are not NASD members, cited "2000% a year returns" gained by shorting Universal Express, along with Pinnacle Management (OTC: PCBM) and Jag Media (OTCBB: JGMHA) Certain flaws in the "press release" raises questions as to whether the solicitation by ONS Financial, which described itself as "an offshore financial services company located in the British Virgin Islands" that "makes naked shorting of OTC-BB and Pink Sheet Stocks available to average investors through a new hedge fund," may be a hoax.
First the press release made an error in the ticker symbol for Jag Media, inaccurately stating it as "JAGMA," and secondly, the "website" listed for where investors may "open accounts," is http://onsfinancial.bravehost.com/ons_index.html, which seems perpectually offline because the website, whose host boats "professional website hosting from only $4.95 per month," has "exceeded" its daily allocated bandwidth.
When asked if the activity ONS was proposing was legal, "ONS Financial spokesman and general counsel Andrew Kramer" responded:"Everything we do is legal within the countries in which we operate. The United States is trying to deny individual investors the fantastic annual returns they can expect from naked shorting. We fill that gap. Our private funds shorting companies such as PCBM, USXP, and JAGMA have averaged 2000% a year returns."
"Kramer" went on to say that "Recent NASD and proposed SEC regulations are intended to drastically curtail the ability of investors to take naked short positions in OTC-BB and Pink Sheet stocks. We think this is unfair, as it blocks people from the fabulous profit opportunities available from this investment strategy. To combat this we have formed the Offshore Naked Short Fund, a hedge fund that ordinary, middle class guys and gals can participate in for a nominal initial investment. In addition," Kramer continued,"the NASD left a huge loophole open because of its inability to regulate trades between non-NASD members. We expect the Chicago Exchange to become a major naked short Mecca."
The release mentioning "USXP" as one of the companies that had been involved in naked short selling, would "seem" to conveniently and coincidentally validate the claim that Universal Express has made in defending against charges by the SEC that its executives and insiders had manipulated their own stock, that instead Universal Express has been the subject of both naked short selling as well as "harassment" by the SEC.
Universal Express CEO Richard A. Altomare described his company's battle with the SEC as "a classic David vs. Goliath case. We have respectfully waited without response from the SEC to the lawsuit we first filed against it for unconstitutional abuse of the powers given to it by Congress. In the meantime, the SEC resorts to negative publicity by attacking us in the press, rather than using the federal court system to determine the merits of our complaints. It also resorts to the highly unusual, if not improper, action of filing its own lawsuit against us in New York, rather than in the same federal court where we filed our lawsuit first.
"The SEC's accusations against our Company, its Chairman, its General Counsel, and numerous outside consultants that courageously helped to build this fine Company during naked short selling attacks, are unfounded. The SEC seems intent on maligning the messengers and assisting the naked short sellers by creating negative press on our Company more than defending against our accusations filed in the Miami federal court."
"This case will be heard in a courtroom, not in the media. Unlike the SEC, Universal Express has not inappropriately resorted to news releases detailing our complaints of rogue agent interference, collusion, SEC improper behavior and unconstitutional conduct, nor will we. We will keep faith with our judicial system and prove the misconduct in our lawsuit, rather than pontificate to the press," the company "pontificated" in its "news release."
"When we filed the initial lawsuit, USXP had presented over 50 formal quarterly and annual reports, and hundreds of press releases without review, question or comment by the SEC. We went without even a letter of reprimand or phone call for 14 years. We ask the public and our supporters: don't you think it untoward that, only days after our lawsuit against the SEC is filed and made public, USXP was accused retroactively for press releases, fundings and quarterly contents, and whatever else the SEC hopes will deter others from questioning its unregulated authority and joining in on our fight to outlaw and ban the naked short selling of publicly traded stocks?
"We stand behind our lawsuit. Despite the SEC's inappropriate accusations, improper behavior and inappropriate and unfounded response against one of the smaller developing public companies, we will wait until the case is heard," Mr. Altomare added. "According to the SEC, billions of shares of this company's stock have traded. If that trading happened because of one or more press releases or funding, as the SEC alleges, where are the certificates, we rhetorically ask," posed Altomare. "When all is said and done and all of the SEC documents to be produced are disclosed, the truth, not character attacks, will be told.
"Seemingly undefeatable adversaries are often defeated by their own actions. Our trading system relies on the professionalism and consistent objectivity of its regulators. When did our regulators become participants in the scandalous process of naked short selling by endeavoring to intimidate its critics by resorting to verbal hostility, unfair utilization of the press and invoking fear?
"Universal Express is a popular and innovative developing company that would have benefited from the on-going regulatory guidance of the Security and Exchange Commission during our growth. Whenever we called the SEC for assistance against naked short sellers, we were ignored. After our two consecutive successes in court against naked short selling schemes tied to other fraudulent conduct -- totaling over $526,000,000 -- we became an SEC target. All the SEC power and legal strength will not drown out the overdue voices of American shareholders and developing companies, trying to create American jobs, while being hurt by a regulatory trading system that is not protecting its developing companies. This time, a court of law will hear words of those victimized by the scandalous schemes and the even more scandalous ignoring of those schemes by the SEC. That's the case. Plain and simple," concluded Altomare.
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.
According to the Wall Street Journal, J.P. Morgan Chase, which declined to comment on any possible rule violations, said it has been working with regulators to tighten its standards. "We agree with regulators that financial institutions should continually raise standards on know-your-customer policies, and have worked with them to ensure that we tighten ours and strive to exceed the law," WSJ quoted a bank spokeswoman.
"The USA Patriot Act, adopted in October 2001, expanded the scope of U.S. money-laundering rules in order to make it harder for terrorists to move money without attracting attention. It includes beefed-up know-your-customer requirements for some financial institutions, according to some legal experts" said the U.S. financial newspaper.
Recently, leading market makers and brokers named in various lawsuits and other actions, including FleetBoston (NYSE: FBF), Goldman, Sachs & Co. (NYSE: GS), H. Myerson & Co., Inc. (NASDAQ: MHMY), Olde / H&R Block (NYSE: HRB), Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCH), Toronto-Dominion's (NYSE: TD), TD Waterhouse Group and vFinance, Inc. (OTCBB: VFIN). A.G. Edwards, Inc. (NYSE: AGE), Ameritrade Holding Corp (NASDAQ: AMTD), Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB), and ETrade Group, Inc (NYSE: ET), were given a "reprieve" until April 2 to comply with new short-selling market regulations imposed by the NASD after the SEC had "sat on" the NASD request to plug material loopholes for almost 2-1/2 years.
For some in the industry, the fact that the new date coincides with "April Fool" was not lost.
The NASD noticed its members that it is "delaying the effective date of amendments to Rule 3370 (Prompt
Receipt and Delivery of Securities-the "Affirmative Determination" Rule) approved by the SEC in November 2003, until
"The amendments expand the scope of the affirmative determination requirements to include orders received from broker/dealers that are not members of NASD ("non-member broker/dealers").
The rule itself, while welcomed by small companies and their shareholders in the U.S., nevertheless raised an outcry because the NASD's request to put it into effect had set on a shelf at the SEC since 2001.
Meanwhile, CBS Marketwatch, a venture between Marketwatch (NASDAQ: MKTW) and Viacom's (NYSE: V) CBS unit, has suggested that victims of securities fraud may be able to file for theft claims on tax returns instead of capital losses.
The scandal has embroiled hundreds of companies and dozens of brokers and marketmakers, in a web of internaitional intrigue, manipulative short-selling and cross-border accusations and denials.
Comments on Regulation SHO ended January 5, and may be viewed at http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s72303.shtml Some 122 companies, including 13 brokers, such as FleetBoston (NYSE: FBF), Goldman, Sachs & Co. (NYSE: GS), H. Myerson & Co., Inc. (NASDAQ: MHMY), Olde / H&R Block (NYSE: HRB), Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCH), Toronto-Dominion's (NYSE: TD), TD Waterhouse Group and vFinance, Inc. (OTCBB: VFIN). A.G. Edwards, Inc (NYSE: AGE), Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: AMTD), Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB), and ETrade Group, Inc. (NYSE: ET), have been embroiled for over a year in a raging controversy
The remaining 109 companies among the 122 named to date have issued press releases or been named in the media as having been victimized, or as taking various actions, either alone or in concert with other companies, to oppose manipulative trading in the form of illegal naked short selling. The actions have ranged from lawsuits to withdrawals and threatened withdrawals from the electronic trading system managed by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., to withdrawals from toxic financings, to the issuance of dividends or name changes designed to squeeze manipulators, to joining associations or networks or to contacting regulatory authorities to provide documentation of abuses or otherwise complain.
The complete list of those 108 companies include Advanced Viral Research Corp. (OTCBB: ADVR), AdZone Research, Inc (OTCBB: ADZR), Amazon Natural Treasures (OTC: ANTD), America's Senior Financial Services (OTCBB: AMSE), American Ammunition, Inc. (OTCBB: AAMI), AngelCiti Entertainment (OTCBB: AGLC), ATSI Communications, Inc. (OTC: ATSC), Federal Agricultural Mortgage / Farmer Mac (NYSE: AGM) Allied Capital (NYSE: ALD), American Motorcycle (OTC: AMCYV), American International Industries (OTCBB: AMIN), Ameri-Dream (OTC: AMDR), Adirondack Pure Springs Mt. Water Co. (OTCBB: APSW), ATSI Communications, Inc (OTC: ATSC) Bluebook International (OTCBB: BBIC), Blue Industries (OTCBB: BLIIV), Bentley Communications (OTCBB: BTLY), BIFS Technologies Corporation (OTCBB: BIFT), Biocurex (OTCBB: BOCX). Broadleaf Capital Partners, Inc (OTCBB: BDLF), Chattem, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTT), Critical Home Care (OTCBB: CCLH), Composite Holdings (OTC: COHIA), CyberDigital, Inc. (OTCBB: CYBD) Diamond International Group (OTCBB: DMND), Dobson Communications Corp (NASDAQ: DCEL), Eagle Tech Communications (OTC: EATC), Edgetech Services (OTCBB: EDGH);
Inc. (OTCBB: FPDI), Geotec Thermal Generators, Inc (OTCBB: GETC), Genesis Intermedia (OTC: GENI), GeneMax Corp. (OTCBB: GMXX), Global Explorations Inc (OTC: GXXL), Global Path (OTCBB: GBPI), GloTech Industries, Inc (OTCBB: GTHI), Green Dolphin Systems (OTCBB: GLDS), Group Management (OTCBB: GPMT), Hop-On (OTC: HPON), H-Quotient, Inc., (OTCBB: HQNT), Hyperdynamics Corp (OTCBB: HYPD), International Biochem (OTCBB: IBCL), Intergold Corp (OTCBB: IGCO), International Broadcasting Corporation (OTCBB: IBCS), InternetStudios, Inc (OTCBB: ISTO), ITIS Holdings (OTCBB: ITHH), Investco Corp (OTCBB: IVCO), Lair Holdings (OTC: LAIR), Lifeline BioTechnologies Inc. (OTC: LBTT), Life Energy & Technology (OTCBB: LETH), MBIA (NYSE: MBI);
Also, MegaMania Interactive (OTC: MNIA), MetaSource Group, Inc. (OTCBB: MTSR), Midastrade.com (OTC: MIDS), Make Your Move (OTCBB: MKMV), Medinah Minerals (OTC: MDMN), MSM Jewelry Corp. (OTC: MSMC), Nanopierce Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: NPCT), Nutra Pharmaceutical (OTCBB: NPHC), Nutek (OTCBB: NUTK), Navigator Ventures (OTC: NVGV), Orbit E-Commerce, Inc. (OTCBB: OECI), Pitts & Spitts (OTC: PSPP), Sales OnLine Direct (OTCBB: PAID), Pacel Corp (OTCBB: PACC), PayStar Corporation (OTC: PYST), Petrogen Corp. (OTCBB: PTGC), Pinnacle Business Management (OTC: PCBM), Premier Development & Investment, Inc. (OTCBB: PDVN), PrimeHoldings.com, Inc. (OTC: PRIM), Phlo Corporation (OTCBB: PHLC), Resourcing Solutions (OTC: RESG), Reed Holdings (OTC: RDHC), Rocky Mountain Energy Corp. (OTCBB: RMECE), RTIN Holdings (OTCBB: RTNHE), Saflink Corp (NASDAQ: SFLK), Safe Travel Care (OTCBB: SFTVV), Sedona Corp (OTCBB: SDNA);
Also, Sionix Corp. (OTCBB: SINX), Sonoran Energy (OTCBB: SNRN), Starmax Technologies (OTC: SMXIF), Storage Suites America (OTC: SSUA), Suncomm Technologies (OTC: STEH), Sports Resorts International (NASDAQ: SPRI), Technology Logistics (OTC: TLOS), Swiss Medica, Inc. (OTCBB: SWME), Ten Stix, Inc (OTCBB: TNTI), Tidelands Oil (OTCBB: TIDE), Titan Construction (OTC: TTCS), Trezac Corp (OTCBB: TRZAV), Universal Express, Inc. (OTCBB: USXP), Valesc Holdings, Inc (OTCBB: VLSHV), Vega Atlantic (OTCBB: VGAC), Viragen (AMEX: VRA), Viragen International (OTCBB: VGNI), Vista Continental Corporation, (OTCBB: VICC), Viva International (OTCBB: VIVI), Vtex Energy (OTCBB: VXENE) and Wizzard Software (OTCBB: WIZD), WorldTradeShow.com (OTC: WTSW) and Y3K Secure Enterprise Software, Inc. (OTCBB: YTHK) Earlier in 2003, the SEC fined Rhino Advisors, Inc., $1 million for its representation of Amro International in the financing and manipulation of Sedona Corp. Amro, also known as AMRO, was registered in Panama, a secretive offshore haven, but was not named in the SEC settlement. Another 60 public companies may have been manipulated by the fined Rhino Advisors and its indicted principals, or its funding apparatus, Amro.
These include:
All American Food Group Inc (OTC: AAFGQ), Amanda Co Inc (OTC: AMNA), Antra Holdings (OTC: RECD), Aquis Communications Group Inc (OTCBB: AQUIS), Avanir Pharmaceuticals (AMEX: AVN), Bionutrics Inc (OTC: BNRX), Brilliant Digital Entertainment Inc (AMEX: BDE), Bravo! Foods International Corp (OTCBB: BRVOE), Butler National Corp (NASDAQ: BUTL), Calypte Biomedical Corp (OTCBB: CYPT), Chemtrak Inc/DE (OTC: CMTR), Clicknsettle Com Inc (OTCBB: CLIK), Corporate Vision Inc (OTC: CVIA), Crown Laboratories Inc/DE (OTC: CLWB), Dental Medical Diagnostic Systems Inc (OTC: DMDS), Detour Media Group Inc (OTC: DTRM),
Also, Digital Privacy Inc/DE (OTC: DGPV), Senior Services Inc (OTC: DISS), International Inc (OTC: DYNX), Endovasc Ltd Inc (OTCBB: EVSC), Esynch Corp/CA (OTCBB: ESYN), Focus Enhancements Inc (NASDAQ: FSCE), Frederick Brewing Co (OTC: FRBW), Greystone Digital Technology Inc (OTC: GSTN), Havana Republic Inc/FL (OTCBB: HVNR), Henley Healthcare Inc (OTC: HENL), Hollywood Media Corp (NASDAQ: HOLL), Ibiz Technology Corp (OTCBB: IBZT), Diagnostic Systems Inc/FL (OTCBB: IMDS), Imaging Technologies (OTCBB: IMTO), Integrated Surgical Systems Inc (OTCBB: RDOC),
Also, Interferon Sciences Inc (OTC: IFSC), Interiors Inc (OTC: ITRNA), Laminaire Corp (OTC: THMZ), Medisys Technologies Inc (OTC: SCEP), Milestone Scientific Inc/NJ (AMEX: MS), Nevada Manhattan Group Inc (OTC: NVMH), Innovations Inc (OTCBB: NTGE), Systems Group (OTC: OSYM), Pacific Systems Control Technology Inc (OTCBB: PFSY), Professional Transportation Group Ltd Inc (OTC: TRUC), Rnethealth Inc (OTC: RNTT),
Also, Sand Technology Inc (NASDAQ: SNDT), Sedona Corp (OTCBB: SDNA), Silverado Foods Inc (OTC: SVFO), Stockgroup Information Systems (OTCBB: SWEB) Surgilight Inc (OTC: SRGL), Tasty Fries Inc (OTCBB: TFRY), Tech Laboratories Inc (OTCBB: TCHL), Teltran International Group Ltd (OTC: TLTG), Titan Motorcycle Co of America Inc (OTC: TMOTQ), Trans Energy Inc (OTCBB: TSRG), Motorcycle Co (OTC: UMCC), Universal Communication Systems Inc (OTCBB: UCSY), Medical Systems Inc (OTC: UMSI), Vianet Technologies Inc (OTC: VNTK),Viragen Inc (AMEX: VRA), Webcatalyst Inc (OTC: WBCL), Worldwide Wireless Networks Inc (OTCBB: WWWNQ), and ZAP (OTCBB: ZAPZ) For up-to-the-minute news, features and links click on http://www.financialwire.net
FinancialWire is an independent, proprietary news service of Investrend Information, a division of Investrend Communications, Inc. It is not a press release service and receives no compensation for its news or opinions. Other divisions of Investrend, however, provide shareholder empowerment platforms such as forums, independent research and webcasting. For more information or to receive the FirstAlert daily summary of news, commentary, research reports, webcasts, events and conference calls, click on http://www.investrend.com/contact.asp
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
