Thank-you all for the many private messages. As I assured you earlier if you write me privately your privacy will be respected.
"Jenna" established and controlled "Market Gems," as many of you I am sure remember. Pristine.com later "acquired" BG and "Jenna" worked for them.
As we discussed here some time ago, the Executioner, now defunct and renamed "MasterTrader," was a subsidiary of Terra Nova Trading, a defendant in my case - as is their other subsidiary MB Trading.
Executioner essentially controlled Pristine - same board, same owners, quite a scheme. because I was only a member of Pristine for a month a long time ago, I didn't name them. They didn't cause me damages - but I do know they caused many of you damages. And how.
There is a chance right now that a class action will be filed, and that will include the Ex, Pristine - and many more sites/investment advisors. If that happens, of course I'll let everyone here know about that when it happens.
If you've got stories to tell, either here in public or privately, I'd love to hear them.
I know there are many lurkers out there who perhaps wisely stayed out of the fray that took place here starting 2 years ago, but for those of you who did express support privately, well I guess those here who claimed there was nothing to these claims and/or disputed that I was actually taking any formal action about them might have to reconsider that opinion.
Though I can't talk too much about everything in the case, I can say this: to date, every last defendant has employed their lawyers - as is of course certainly their legal right - in a desperate attempt to avoid a trial by jury in California at all costs. Why? Well, they know that when this case reaches a jury their risk skyrockets. Deservedly so.
If you looked at the Court of Appeal's site you'll see two writs are pending. A decision on those can come any day. They have to do with the brokerage defendants attempting to force my claims into arbitration. Now why would they want to do that? Here are some answers about NASD Arbitration:
- discovery, i.e. getting at the evidence, financial records, contracts, etc. is extremely limited
- generally only 1 or 2 witnesses may be called
- "all factual or legal reasoning" may be ignored by the arb panel (I am not making this up)
- one of generally three arbitrators is a stockbroker
- often the arbitrators' fees are paid by brokers (no conflict there!)
In fact, if anyone still thinks NASD arbitration is not completely rigged, then you might be interested to know that a great many of the so-called "neutral" arbitrators happen to be lawyers on retainer to brokerage firms. In fact, in my case, Counsel to Schwab is in fact also an NASD arbitrator...
So you see. If you want to hear something really funny, then I'll tell you this detail: CyberTrader/Schwab tried to force me into arbitration. Obviously you can only be forced if you agreed to arbitrate, meaning you signed a contract agreeing to arbitrate. Well, they filed "evidence" claiming I agreed to arbitrate, two completely blank contracts requiring by their own text 9 times signatures. LOL. You have to hand it to them, they are not shy... |
