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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Amazon Natural (AZNT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: antibash who wrote (22511)	4/17/1999 11:43:00 PM
From: BORIS BADENUFF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 26163

******OFF TOPIC**** Here's another wake up call for da bad boyz! U.S. lawmaker wants to crack down on microcap fraud WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) - Michigan Rep. John Dingell said Wednesday he wants to make it easier for regulators to crack down on microcap stock fraudsters that escape liability by hopping from state to state or industry to industry. The top Democrat on the House Commerce Committee announced plans to seek amendments to financial services or other pending U.S. bills in a three-page letter to the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). GAO reported last September that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has failed to meet four of its recommendations for cleaning up microcaps -- low priced, thinly traded securities that are prime targets of scam artists. Such dealers artificially pump up share prices with false statements and then sell them at hefty profits to unsuspecting buyers. GAO recommended, for instance, that regulators beef up surveillance of brokers that dodge legal action by migrating to other states.** But Dingell said Wednesday that the SEC's hands are tied on the matter by outdated securities laws. Current law, for instance, makes clear that the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) is protected from lawsuits if it discloses brokers' disciplinary histories over the telephone, but not necessarily over the Web, Dingell said. He said he will search for Internet related bills that might host an amendment tackling the problem. One candidate is legislation being eyed by Texas Republican Phil Gramm, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, to repeal outdated laws that hamper Internet trading, Dingell said. Dingell also said U.S. securities laws do not bar people from entering the securities industry if previously disciplined by state securities, banking or insurance commissions or by federal banking agencies. He said he will try to address the problem with an amendment to pending financial services reform legislation. ''On the migration problem, there has been scant progress and more needs to be done,'' Dingell said