Two excellent comments, both the post to which I am responding and the preceding post.
I urge all to read these two posts and Patch's response posted here.in a prior post or the original here
thesanitycheck.com
These posts, in response, are logical, clear and make sense. They are not emotional rants as was the one by the proponent of naked short selling. Emotional? Yes, basically, one that says, "I'm right, the rules should be the ones I say they should be, everyone else be damned."
I haven't wanted to comment about the, "I'll be back, I was wronged, I was punished for saying the truth," because I do feel badly for those who are imprisoned for crimes that are not mala in se and are instead malum prohibitum. Even more so, families are destroyed and bitterness is the result, and the post clearly shows this bitterness.
However, the punishment was not meted out for telling the truth about stocks. It was as a result of wrongfully obtaining FBI information and using it to trade stocks. Information was wrongfully obtained and used by conspirators, both named and perhaps others to be named in the future. Furthermore, the conviction detailed extortion, the hounding of CEO's and companies, the calling off the shorts, the attacks in consideration of free or discounted shares.
The type of stuff that used to be posted on message boards here, the type of stuff that was the subject of much braggadocio, many claims of 110% success, 110% of the time, the type of stuff that provided fodder for those who would go from board to board to attack longs, merely for posting, the type of intimidation tactics that were open and notorious, finally caught up with the most blatant abuser of others. There are others out there who follow this path, claiming to be right 110% of the time, threatening others, thinking they have "escaped," or that they are "above the law" or that they are the law or that their version of scamming is OK while other scams should be prohibited. I wonder if they will be truly happy in the event of a new trial.
Yes, there is a ton of scamming in microcaps, in big caps, in pinkies, on NYSE. Yes, the rules should be changed to require transparency from one end of the market to the other. Yes, CEO's and management should be prohibited from getting perks and parachutes that dwarf long term growth. Yes, insiders and companies should be required to publish their intent to sell shares in advance of doing so. But, providing a vigilante the right to make money by scamming others is no solution to other scamming.
It wasn't because of 9-11, it wasn't for "telling the truth," it wasn't because the "Batman defense" ain't in the Constitution. It was because wrongful use of FBI data for personal gain and extortion are just plain wrong and should be wrong, and will continue to be wrong. |
