Two more companies, Titan General Holdings (OTCBB: TTGH) and 5G Wireless (OTCBB: FGWC), have requested delisting from the Berlin Stock Exchange, fearing that their unauthorized inclusion is providing manipulative traders with an “arbitrage” loop-hole in the NASD’s recent edict that U.S. brokerages can not take orders for short sales without proof that shares exist to cover. Several hundred companies were listed in a space of a few days, but after exclusive articles in FinancialWire, most of the companies were moved to an “N.A.” status. FinancialWire and its parent, Investrend Communications, Inc., has also received calls and emails from upwards of a half-dozen public company executives asking for information on how to be delisted. Because those companies have not publicly revealed their concerns or officially requested delisting, FinancialWire has not made the names of the additional companies public. StockGate has taken enumerable twists and turns, including the recent suit by Nanopierce (OTCBB: NCPT) against the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp., accusing it of “counterfeiting” shares through its “Stock Borrow Program.” The Depository Trust and Clearing Corp.’s two preferred shareholders are the New York Stock Exchange and the NASD, a regulatory agency that also owns the NASDAQ (OTCBB: NDAQ) and the embattled American Stock Exchange! Regulators, regulate thyself? In an era when corporate governance is the primary interest for the SEC and state regulators, the DTCC is hardly a role model. Its 21 directors represent a virtual litany of conflict: They include Bradley Abelow, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS); Jonathan E. Beyman, Chief Information Officer, Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH); Frank J. Bisignano, Chief Administrative Officer and Senior Executive Vice President, Citigroup / Solomon Smith Barney's Corporate Investment Bank (NYSE: C); Michael C. Bodson, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MWD); Gary Bullock, Global Head of Logistics, Infrastructure, UBS Investment Bank (NYSE: UBS); Stephen P. Casper, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, Inc.; Jill M. Considine,Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC); Also, Paul F. Costello, President, Business Services Group, Wachovia Securities (NYSE: WB); John W. Cummings, Senior Vice President & Head of Global Technology & Services, Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER); Donald F. Donahue, Chief Operating Officer, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC); Norman Eaker, General Partner, Edward Jones; George Hrabovsky, President, Alliance Global Investors Service; Catherine R. Kinney, President and Co-Chief Operating Officer, New York Stock Exchange; Thomas J. McCrossan, Executive Vice President, State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT); Eileen K. Murray, Managing Director, Credit Suisse First Boston (NYSE: CSR); James P. Palermo, Vice Chairman, Mellon Financial Corporation (NYSE: MEL); Thomas J. Perna, Senior Executive Vice President, Financial Companies Services Sector of The Bank of New York (NYSE: BNY); Ronald Purpora, Chief Executive Officer, Garban LLC; Douglas Shulman, President, Regulatory Services and Operations, NASD; and Thompson M. Swayne, Executive Vice President, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM). In their comments to the SEC regarding Regulation SHO in January, the 50 state regulators, through their association, the North American Association of Securities Administrators (NASAA) issued what many consider to be a strong warning that if the DTC is not dealt with in the final regulations, state regulators such as New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer may step to the plate. In what many considered to have been explosive comments, Ralph Lambiase, NASAA president and Director of the Connecticut Division of Securities, warned "NASAA urges the Commission to reconsider its stance regarding the role of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (the DTC). As a threshold matter, NASAA believes that the Commission should explicitly prohibit the DTC from lending more shares of a security than it actually holds. The ability of the overall proposed rule would be severely impared unless the Commission undertakes to implement such a prohibition.” As the Nanopierce lawsuit reveals, those were indeed strong words, meddling as it did, in a substantial revenues base for the DTCC. 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 forced 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. “The new rules 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 new rule is on the web at http://www.nasdr.com/2610_2004.asp#04-03 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. 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 acctions 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.
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