Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Microcap & Penny Stocks : Naked Shorting-Hedge Fund & Market Maker manipulation? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sixty2nds who wrote (784)	3/1/2006 3:46:33 PM
From: rrufff	Respond to of 5034

Haven't seen the court ruling. If you find it, please post it. This one is funny - gotta hand it to Byrne. He knows how to rile up the hedge fund defenders. Reuters Overstock not behind SEC probe of journalists: CEO Wednesday March 1, 9:50 am ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - The chief executive of Overstock.com (NasdaqNM:OSTK - News) on Wednesday said federal regulators, not the online retailer, were behind the investigation into business journalists as part of a probe into alleged manipulation of the company's stock. Patrick Byrne told business news network CNBC that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent subpoenas of journalists who had criticized Overstock came at the agency's own initiative. The San Francisco office of the SEC took the unusual step of issuing subpoenas to two Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE:DJ - News) columnists, Carol Remond and Herb Greenberg, to demand telephone records, e-mails and other documents related to Overstock.com. "It's my sense that the SEC was onto Herb's scent long before we came along," Byrne said. "I have not orchestrated the SEC investigation." Byrne acknowledged speaking to SEC officials about the probe, but dismissed the notion that the subpoenas were related to a lawsuit Overstock filed in August against hedge fund Rocker Partners and research firm Gradient Analytics. The lawsuit claimed Rocker and Gradient conspired to drive down Overstock's share price. Halfway through the CNBC interview, Byrne held up a placard with two Web site addresses -- www.sanitycheck.com/ and www.locatestock.com/ -- and encouraged viewers to visit them. Greenberg was among the CNBC hosts on Wednesday morning. "This guy is an emotional nut case," Greenberg said on air. "Who would want to invest in a company run by a person who comes out with claims, who can't stick to his own message. I mean, basically it's ludicrous." In Overstock's August conference call, Byrne said a group of hedge-fund investors, financial journalists and regulatory agencies were acting together, under the direction of an unidentified "Sith Lord" -- a reference to the villains in the "Star Wars" movies. "I was actually planning on leaving this January for a much more interesting job," Byrne said in a written statement released a few months later. "That is one of the reasons I began responding to the miscreants when I did. I wanted to flush the bowl as I left." Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC's "Mad Money w/Jim Cramer," on Monday said he, too, received an SEC subpoena in connection with an investigation into alleged stock manipulation of Overstock.com.