Rocketman's most excellent trip to the SEC
Note: I am tired of trying to fix the typos in this thing, so please ignore the misspellings.
First of all, remember that the SEC is on our side! Their motto is "Fair Markets for All Investors." They are located at 450 5th St.'NW Washington DC 20549, and their chairman is Artur Levitt at 202-942-0100. I spoke last week about two things being illegal: naked shorting, and fearmongering. However, as I am not a lawyer, nor am I a broker or anything else -- just an ordinary investor like you -- I wanted to ask the people at the top about these things. Especially since the SEC is supposed to protect ordinary investors, like us, against market manipulators.
Like some of you, I was a bit concerned about going to the SEC because it is normal to want to keep the government as far away as possible. That is the good American thing to do. However, folks, we all have a lot of money invested in this baby, and if we truly believe in its potential there there should be nothing to fear from the SEC or anyone else! LET THE SUN SHINE IN! (remembering the 60's) And I don't know about you, but I am not about to let MMs and fearmongers run amock. If they want to do these things, let them pay the consequences! As I have said before, I don't mind risking my own money on what I consider s great undervalued company in a hot sector, but I refuse to play games with MMs or their henchmen.
As I have also said, I understand that stock prices go up and down a whole lot. DGIV has actually been my least volatile holding recently! However, I have a right to expect that price variability is due to normal market forces, rather than the effects of shorts trying to keep from covering. I also have a right to protect myself from those who would profit from creating fear, regardless of how lame their attempts. I fought to defend these freedoms in the military, and now I have a right to use them. When I say I am going to do something, I don't bluff.
Sorry for the editorial, back to my SEC trip. I first met with an employee of the Office of Investor Education and Assistance (run by Nancy Smith, Director 942-7040), and asked in general about investor rights. They gave me several brochures, and I quote from one:
"The SEC's principal objectives are to ensure that the securities markets operate in a fair and orderly manner, that securities industry profesionals deal fairly with their customers, and that corporations make public all material information about themselves so that investors can make informed investment decisions."
Well, that sounded good to me, so I asked the individual if they could provide me all they had on Digitcom. He went into their master data base and pulled up a fairly large amount of material. I sat impatiently waiting for him to finish, wondering what would be on those sheets. He finally handed them over to me, and I began leafing through them. They were the same information that has been made available to all of us through Digitcom's news releases, beginning with a 30 Sept 1997 article entitled "Digitcom is Cleared to Trade," and ending with the current Internet Week article that we had reposted on this thread! Everythig was there! Voxware! Stock repurchase plan! JDI acquisition! Dharma funding! Louis International deal! NASDAQ Plans! 1997 Profit! Russian deal! Australia deal! Indonesian telco deal! Internet Wek!
Not only was that all there, but there was nothing negative that got pulled up! I don't know about you, but I breathed a huge sigh of relief at that point! Folks, DGIV is telling us everything, and telling the SEC the same things. Nothing is being witheld!
OK, with that out of the way, I then focused on MM distortions and fearmongering.
For this, I contacted a lawyer with the office of the Director of Enforcement. I will not name who it is, but suffice it to say that this was at the very top level.
They wanted to know if I was a lawyer (no), if I managed anyone's money (no), how I represented the "group" (I don't, I just dropped by because I'm local). The gentlemen said that was good, that he could not talk with me otherwise, that he would have to refer me to a lawyer.
I asked him about naked shorting and fearmongering, if those things were legal and if the SEC was on our side. He said the SEC is "very definitely" against market manipulation and that fearmongering is illegal (loosely recalling from memory, I certainly was not taping this). However, he acknowledged that with the internet, there is a lot going on (yeah, tell me). He told me there was a new unit set up for internet abuse, which was written up in the WSJ. I told him (I think about three times) that my concern was not about DGIV -- that I had done my own DD, accepted my own risks, etc -- but with any manipulation by MM naked shorting and by fearmongering.
He was very interested in this aspect, and wanted to know if I had anything that I could leave with him. I told him I had nothing with me, but could provide it if needed. He asked me several times if I could leave something with him on this, but I really did not have anything with me. So I left my number, and left it that I would provide him with the info as needed, depending on how things develop, and how others on this thread feel.
The bottom line is this (my impression based on my visit):
1. The SEC has all the same data on DGIV that we have
2. The SEC has nothing negative on DGIV
3. The SEC does not allow market manipulation and fearmongering
4. The SEC is watching to ensure that individual investors are not taken in by MMs
5. Anyone posting fearmongering messages on here better have a good lawyer (my personal opinion) |
