Let me help you with the criminal record of the first one of your self admitted associates, who is now a confessed federal felon:
Now Beth Kwon who writes the column "Truth Serum" for TheStreet.com has a similar story about a controversial message board poster, also over at Silicon Investor. His name is Anthony Elgindy, a San Diego short seller. The article is very interesting and we recommend it, but keep in mind that to get there you've got to subscribe (GO www.thestreet.com).
I won't go into details as to Elgindy's current involvement in Ariel (ADSP:NSDQ) which is recent message board manipulation, but I will quote Kwon on his background just as a reminder of the kind of people one runs into on there boards.
"But more than a poor trading call surfaced after Ariel. On Saturday, an investor who goes by the alias "a_and_p_sucks" posted on Yahoo! Finance certain court filings in a criminal case brought against Elgindy. That posting provided some information on the past of someone who tries to blow the whistle on suspect equities.
"No, we're not talking about the fact that Elgindy was fined $30,000 by the NASD in 1997 for performing trades in 1993 on a system designated for retail customers. That has been public knowledge and hasn't deterred Elgindy's followers. ("I didn't know anything about trading; I didn't know how the machines worked. If you hit the wrong button, it'll be a violation," Elgindy says of the disciplinary action.)
"The posting instead contained a June 16 indictment of Elgindy by the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas on nine counts of mail fraud and aiding and abetting.
"The charges were related to compensation checks Elgindy allegedly received from Bear Stearns (BSC:NYSE) and Barron Chase Securities in 1994 and 1995 while he was simultaneously receiving $7,550 a month in disability benefits from MassMutual. (The mail-fraud charges stem from the delivery method of the disability checks.)"
Kwon describes the circumstances in detail. The case is scheduled to go to trial in March. If convicted, Elgindy could face up to $2.25 million in fines and 45 years in prison.
BOTTOM LINE: For WBN readers there are two points for consideration: (1) There are criminal elements out there on these message boards. Be alert. (2) Kwon's column is excellent and is only one of the many goodies you get for the $99 price of a TheStreet.com subscription.
More to come later on as the saga of "All roads lead to San Diego" continues.
Have a nice evening.
Crandell Addington |
