Patrick: this might brighten your day:
SEC Probes Online Stock
Picker TokyoMex
By Gregg Wirth
Staff Reporter
3/10/99 5:42 PM ET
The Securities and Exchange Commission has
issued subpoenas to some online message posters
as part of an investigation into the trading practices
of a high-profile online stock picker known as
"TokyoMex."
The stock picker, Yun Soo Oh Park, who also goes
by the names Joe Park and Tokyo Joe, confirmed
that he is at the eye of a wide-ranging inquiry by
regulators into his trading practices and disclosure
methods.
"I welcome this challenge. I have nothing to hide,"
Park says, adding that last week he received SEC
requests for letters, emails and other information
concerning stocks he has recommended over the
Internet. Park says he has hired lawyers in Chicago
(the SEC's Midwest office issued the subpoenas)
and in New York, where he lives.
An SEC spokesman would neither confirm nor deny
the existence of any investigation.
Copies of a subpoena obtained by TheStreet.com
instruct the recipient to appear before the SEC by
March 19 to testify in the "matter of Yun Soo Oh
Park, an investigation pursuant to a formal order
issued" by the SEC. The recipient also was
requested to bring "books, papers, documents and
other records" concerning Park. A descriptive
memo to the subpoena also cites Park's
involvement in his Web site, Tokyo Joe's Societe
Anonyme. The site is an online community of
message board posters and traders who pay a $100
membership fee to gain access to Park's stock
picks.
Park, a Korean native, former lawyer and New York
City restaurateur, quickly made a name for himself
on Internet message boards and Web sites as a
successful stock picker. On Tokyo Joe's Societe
Anonyme, he cites several media outlets that
profiled him, including TheStreet.com and The Wall
Street Journal.
Park attributes the SEC investigation in part to his
high profile. "I could have kept my mouth shut," he
says. Park also blames his enemies, including
some who have been subpoenaed, for complaining
to the SEC and sparking the investigation.
TokyoMex, who frequents a popular message
thread called "Tokyo Joe's Cafe" on Silicon
Investor, in 1995 began to amass a loyal following
on message board sites. The three threads
attached to Park's name on Silicon Investor total
more than 100,000 posts.
From a look at the discussions on the threads and
his Web site, TokyoMex and his followers seem to
favor the penny-stock world, but Park also has
played in big names like Iomega (IOM:NYSE),
Polo Ralph Lauren (RL:NYSE) and CMGI
(CMGI:Nasdaq), according to published reports and
his own Web site.
He has received acclaim from fellow investors who
were able to make money alongside him by
following his stock picks. He also has received
disdain from online opponents who claimed he was
selling into the run-ups in stock prices that his
recommendations would often cause, leaving his
followers with the stock after he moved on.
"They say I'm a pump-and-dump!" Park says. "Who
isn't a pump-and-dump?"
Word of the subpoenas was leaking into the online
community this week and was quickly
disseminated by Park's detractors. "I've been
reading some buzz that ... 'TokyoMex' is now being
investigated by the SEC," wrote an SI poster called
Bill Wexler on Monday. "Can anyone confirm this
and significantly brighten my day?"
Park says he is waiting to hear back from the SEC,
but has told his 920 members of the Societe
Anonyme group, urging them to cooperate truthfully
if they are questioned by regulators. |
