NAKED TRUTH By RODDY BOYD A self-employed West Coast businessman operating under the Web pseudonym "Bob O'Brien" in investing chat rooms is aligned with Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne in his campaign against short-sellers targeting his embattled company.
Choosing to mask his real identity out of concerns for his personal safety, "O'Brien" has been an aggressive supporter of Byrne's crusade.
In return, Byrne has donated generously to O'Brien's National Coalition Against Naked Shorting, a group that has taken out two large ads in the Washington Post and acts as the Internet clearinghouse for the fight against naked short sales. In naked shorting, the seller has not borrowed the stock, a violation of Securities and Exchange Commission rules.
Byrne singled out "O'Brien" for praise in his now-famous conference call in which he discussed his theory about a large, complex conspiracy allegedly plaguing his company.
Last Thursday, short-selling hedge fund Rocker Partners named "O'Brien" as a likely defendant in a soon-to-be filed lawsuit, according to a press release sent out by the fund's law firm.
The Post believes that "O'Brien" is a man named Phillip Ross Saunders, with investments and property in Nevada — in both Carson City and Las Vegas — as well as Southern California.
In conversations with a Post reporter last week, Saunders acknowledged living and working in Nevada and Southern California.
Saunders refused to confirm or deny his identity or connection to the "O'Brien" moniker and said that he will not entertain speculation about his identity for safety purposes.
The Post's research also indicated that Saunders' background includes several ventures selling medical equipment; several of "O'Brien's" e-mails obtained by The Post contained discussions of his background with medical equipment.
Initially, he did this in a corporation chartered in California called MCP Equipment, a subsidiary of MCP International, which he appears to have sold in 2002.
He since opened a medical equipment company chartered in Nevada called Therapy Remarketing Group, based in Carson City. TRG, which sells CAT-Scan, X-Ray and MRI equipment, shares the same address with several other existing or dormant corporations listing Phillip R. Saunders as an officer.
A call to MCP's former Irvine, Calif., number automatically connected to TRG's answering machine. A message left for "Phil" on TRG's system was not returned.
Asked for comment, Saunders dismissed this information as "anecdotal" and "six degrees of separation."
Where "Bob O'Brien" has really made his mark, however, is on the Internet. He is an aggressive and occasionally controversial presence on several Yahoo! boards, where he routinely savages short-sellers and the financial press.
Saunders is linked to the NCANS site via the Lycaon Group, which, according to Saunders, is a group advising companies under attack from naked short-sellers.
Though the link was taken down late last week, The Post learned that as of June, the Lycaon Group's Web site owner was a "Brett Kelts" of MCP International.
A call to the Lycaon site's contact number connected directly to Saunders' TRG in Carson City, although no one by the name of "Brett" is listed on the system.
Another apparent slip-up occurred in an April 13 posting on the NFI Yahoo! message board when a file edited in a Windows account licensed to "Psaunders" was able to be accessed. The file was posted to the NCANS Web site that night.
The poster announcing that he had uploaded the file, "dirtydirtydeeds," was the acknowledged screen name of "Bob O'Brien."
Asked for comment, Saunders said "about four different" NCANS members had the first initial "P" and the last name of "Saunders." He declined to provide contact information for them.
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that overstock is going after blood. 1 of the real companies getting hurt by naked shorting. at some point this problem is going to cause serious damage to the market as a whole if not fixed soon.
-------------------- "keep your stick on the ice & your cup firmly in place"
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No kidding bill. These shorters form a formidable organization. They have already seriously affected the market by acting like a leak in the fuel line. The leak is getting worsened by the day. Soon there won't be sufficient fuel and the market will collapse. Laws were given to shorters for that reason, but those laws were ignored. Now the shorters act with absolute power... and we all know what absolute power does. This criminal organization has tremendous power, with the ability to influence the public and destroy entities that oppose it. I just hope a stop is put to it before it is too late.
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