December 5th 2011: San Francisco — "The Whole World is Watching"

Big fans of Goldman Sachs & Merryll Lynch can stop reading here.

On December 5th Patrick Byrne goes head-to-head with both, in court:

Patrick M. Byrne (born 1962, Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States) is the president, CEO, and chairman of the board of directors of Internet retailer Overstock.com. In 1999, Byrne took control of the company, then called D2: Discounts Direct, and changed its name to Overstock. He had previously served shorter terms leading two smaller companies, including one owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.

In 2002, Byrne took Overstock.com public. The company has since increased its revenue to over $1 billion a year, and achieved full profitability in 2009.

In 2002, Byrne was named to BusinessWeek’s list of the 25 most influential people in e-Business and Ernst & Young awarded Byrne the "2002 Milestone Award Winner Utah Region." In 2010 Overstock.com was named the best retailer to work for in America by Forbes, noting that Byrne's 92% employee approval rating is the highest of any CEO in the nation.

Beginning in 2005, Byrne become known for his campaign against naked short selling, a practice which he says has been used in violation of securities law to hurt the price of his and other companies' stock. Under his direction, Overstock.com has filed two lawsuits alleging improper acts by Wall Street firms, a hedge fund, and an independent research firm.

Source (very interesting read)

Sounds like the man is not going to be bought off [/understatement]. One things for sure, it ain't gunna be boring...

Flag & Star the hell out of this. We need as much support as presence of mind for Mr. Byrne. He truly is fighting the good fight and this is David vs. Goliath for sure. Thanks for bringing this to ATS.

Edit to Add: (From Overstocks Site - and I used David vs. Goliath before I saw this. )

For six years Overstock.com has waged a war to expose Wall Street mischief. We did not go looking for a fight, but our company was attacked, and we learned we were not alone: the same manipulation-for-profit tools that Wall Street had deployed against us had also been deployed against many American companies, harming job creation, innovation, and economic growth. We knew that if left unchecked and unexposed, Wall Street's games could ultimately damage U.S. capital markets.

Source

reply to post by pause4thought
Hopefully this will spread far and wide and more companies will follow suite.

Originally posted by freakjive
Flag & Star the hell out of this. We need as much support as presence of mind for Mr. Byrne. He truly is fighting the good fight and this is David vs. Goliath for sure. Thanks for bringing this to ATS.

edit on 10/14/2011 by freakjive because: (no reason given)

Ditto

F&S'd this right quick.

I'll be there if I'm still on the West Coast at that time.

he´s probably gonna wind up dead real soon, they´ll report it´s a suicide where he shot himself 4 times.. in his head.

if not, i seriously wish him the best of luck.

it´s about time someone holds them responsible.

i´m glad to see this man has the funds as well.

let the games begin


/off to the supermarket for a whole lot of popcorn

There was a news report about Goldman's perfect trading quarter which seem to happen only as often as people aren't looking:


Goldman's perfect trading quarter

Call it Lloyd Blankfein's perfect game.
For the first time in its 140-year history, Blankfein's Goldman Sachs managed to close out the first quarter without suffering a single loss from its trading operations.
In addition, the gold-plated bank posted trading revenue of at least $25 million for the 63 trading days that made up the quarter, and on 35 days generated revenue of at least $100 million. The achievement represents a first for the bank since going public in 1999.
Goldman's Wall Street equivalent of a no-no comes as the bank endures repeated hits to its reputation for benefiting from the market's downswings at a time when rivals -- and some clients -- have stumbled. It also occurs against the backdrop of the Securities and Exchange Commission filing civil fraud charges last month against the bank, which is also the target of a fed criminal probe into its business practices.

There's more to this story.

Goldman Sach's has a history of revolving door relationships with government agencies and regulators. It's going to be very difficult to stick these guys with anything.

And also another (older - Feb. 2011) video for you to become familiar with the topic:

Mr. Byrne describes why he added the racketeering charges to the suit...

reply to post by freakjive


much appreciated

thanks.

We all need to keep an eye on all of the MSM and some of the not so MSM for this guys obituary. TPTB will not let this go too far. Their agenda will be affected.
DH

It’s about time someone stuck it to Goldman Sachs & Merryll Lynch. There less than ethical business practices have gone on long enough. I don’t own any stocks except the stocks of celery in my fridge, but the buck needs to stop somewhere. I wish Patrick Byrne the best of luck in this endeavor.
S+F the hell out of this!

Awesome! It's about time somebody called out those crooked thieves on their obvious market manipulation!

Naked short selling is illegal but Goldman Sucks is the king of naked short selling. This manipulates a stock price downward, so anybody long on that stock gets screwed. They like to nekkid short and then the price bounces up at a time only they know about, so they can turn around and go long when the price is in the basement, then jack it up when they cover their shorts again.

Wall Street's crimes are numerous, blatant, and so obvious you would have to be in a coma not to notice it. Goldman Sucks is the godfather of these crooks. I hope they get nailed in court.

I'll bet the first week in December will be a good time to short GS. I wouldn't be surprised if their own employees nekkid short it!

Here is a definition of Naked Shorting from Investopedia.com:

What Does Naked Shorting Mean?
The illegal practice of short selling shares that have not been affirmatively determined to exist. Ordinarily, traders must borrow a stock, or determine that it can be borrowed, before they sell it short. But due to various loopholes in the rules and discrepancies between paper and electronic trading systems, naked shorting continues to happen.

While no exact system of measurement exists, most point to the level of trades that fail to deliver from the seller to the buyer within the mandatory three-day stock settlement period as evidence of naked shorting. Naked shorts may represent a major portion of these failed trades.
Investopedia Says
Investopedia explains Naked Shorting
Naked shorting is illegal because it allows manipulators a chance to force stock prices down without regard for normal stock supply/demand patterns.

In 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) amended Regulation SHO to further limit possibilities for naked shorting by removing loopholes that existed for some broker/dealers. Regulation SHO requires lists to be published that track stocks with unusually high trends in "fail to deliver" shares. Some analysts point to the fact that naked shorting, albeit inadvertently, may help markets stay in balance by allowing the negative sentiment to be reflected in certain stocks' prices.

Read more: www.investopedia.com...

reply to post by pause4thought


Knowing that there are still good people out there is a total breath of fresh air... We need to support this man and hopefully he will be able to show the world how evil these companies are...S & F for you...

I raise my glass in a toast to Mr. Byrne:

"Here's to hoping that you, dear sir, do not run out of monies before being able to finish this astronomical fight with Goliath."



That's how these SOB's always win... they drag out the case until the little guy runs out of funds.

Everyone start shopping at Overstock.com !

Hopefully the guy is still alive to see it through.
Gonna keep an eye on this though, should be interesting

Naked short selling has never made any sense to me. Shorting a stock you don't even own in no way helps capital markets. I hope this guy wins big maybe that will get the SEC's collective heads out of there rear ends on this issue.

Forget it, Judge will be bought off and suit will be dismissed.
These high rollers are untouchable even Congress has admitted it.

Originally posted by projectvxn
There was a news report about Goldman's perfect trading quarter which seem to happen only as often as people aren't looking:


Goldman's perfect trading quarter

Call it Lloyd Blankfein's perfect game.
For the first time in its 140-year history, Blankfein's Goldman Sachs managed to close out the first quarter without suffering a single loss from its trading operations.

Nice find. You know there is only one way that any company dealing in the kind of volume trading that Goldman Sachs does could profit on every single transaction - it's called insider trading.
Blankfein shouldn't be bragging about breaking the law.
Somebody might call him on and it sounds like it's happening now.

CAN I GET A AMEN??!!!

Damn I want to post that applauding gif and just spam the front page with it

HE'S RIGHT, LETS ALL GATHER AROUND AND CHANT FOR ONE COMPANY TO TAKE BILLIONS FROM ANOTHER. ITS THE AMERICAN WAY.

nobody is watching, your lucky if anyone notices