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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mama Bear who wrote (1348)	1/27/1999 2:35:00 PM
From: Sir Auric Goldfinger	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 19428

Boy does this smell bad: "S.E.C. Official Joins Bear Stearns Unit Under Investigation Forum Join a Discussion on News from the Markets By GRETCHEN MORGENSON NEW YORK -- Richard R. Lindsey, director of market regulation for the Securities and Exchange Commission, is stepping down to join a unit of Bear Stearns Co. that is being investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney's office and federal regulators. Lindsey, 44, will become a senior managing director at the company and the No. 2 at Bear Stearns Clearing Corp., which processes and guarantees the trades of small firms, maintains their customers' accounts and lends them money. He is expected to begin work in March. Lindsey's move to a company that is under scrutiny by regulators and the authorities is sure to raise eyebrows. At issue in the investigations is Bear Stearns' role in the demise of A.R. Baron & Co., a small brokerage firm in New York City that failed in 1996. Bear Stearns was Baron's clearing firm. Customers of A.R. Baron lost $75 million in what Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau called a criminal enterprise. Morgenthau's office won convictions against 14 Baron employees in 1997. "This is an intriguing move by Bear Stearns," said Lewis D. Lowenfels, a securities lawyer in New York who represents a firm that lost money with A.R. Baron. "The larger question is what effect this will have on their pending investigations and litigation." As is its custom, the SEC would neither confirm nor deny that it is investigating Bear Stearns' role in the failure. Morgenthau had no comment on what effect Lindsey's hiring might have on his office's continuing investigation. James E. Cayne, president and chief executive of Bear Stearns, said that Lindsey's hiring was not an effort to shore up the brokerage firm's reputation or credibility. "His basic function is to come into the correspondent clearing company at Bear Stearns," Cayne said. "It is a very big part of our business. He is a visionary; he's got a terrific reputation." According to Cayne, Richard Harriton, head of Bear Stearns clearing unit, will remain in the top job. There is currently no second in command. Even though he was the commission's chief market regulator, people close to Lindsey said he has not been involved in the Bear Stearns matter. As a Bear Stearns employee, he must follow strict government guidelines in dealing with his former colleagues at the commission. He cannot appear before the commission, for example, or telephone or write to former colleagues there for one year after he leaves. And Lindsey cannot ever lobby the SEC on any matter that he may have worked on while he was a regulator. Lindsey said his decision to join Bear Stearns crystalized in the last two weeks. He declined to comment on what his pay at the firm would be. "I believe that I have a lot of things to contribute," Lindsey said. "I've had a long management history working in a lot of different types of organizations. That usually brings something to the table to see where you need to take things." As the chief regulator of the securities markets, Lindsey has been responsible for a number of SEC initiatives, including regulations developed late last year that allow for the creation of new stock exchanges through alternative trading systems. He was the first director of market regulation who was not a lawyer. But Lindsey's biggest accomplishment was carrying out the SEC's order-handling rules in 1997, which required that customers who wanted to buy or sell Nasdaq stocks at prices in between the current bid and asked prices could have their orders displayed on the national quotation system. This rule change, which came out of the enforcement action brought in 1996 by the SEC against Nasdaq for unfair trading practices, has made it easier for individual investors to meet on Nasdaq rather than having to place trades through an intermediary. "Richard Lindsey was the catalyst for dramatic changes in the way our markets operate, saving investors billions of dollars a year," said SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt. "He really was the architect of the order-handling rules, and he went around to firms and he sold it." Lindsey became director of market regulation at the SEC in November 1995 after having served as the commission's chief economist. He came to the SEC from Yale University, where he was a professor of finance. Before teaching, Lindsey was a research engineer for Owens Corning Fiberglas and later worked for the CertainTeed Corp., a privately held maker of fiberglass, first as manager of process engineering and then as plant manager for the company's manufacturing plant in Dallas. Lindsey has a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, an MBA from the University of Dallas and a doctorate in finance from the University of California at Berkeley. "

To: Mama Bear who wrote (1348)	1/27/1999 5:58:00 PM
From: xcr600	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

Barb, I believe in the past that you stated your most successful shorting has been in the 5-10 dollar range. Am I correct? I'm starting to believe that is the way to go. The heck w/high fliers and over valued stocks. x btw, could you comment on which brokers you use? I'm looking to switch Merrill Lynch. They never hasve shares to short. No IMON, no DBCC (to busy selling for the insiders), etc.. If I'm going to pay big commissions, it might as well be w/someone who can work FOR me! Thanks.