Here's another great Read that someone posted over there. I hope that Dateline runs this piece
Dateline Could Blow Lid Off ‘Stockgate,’ Says Website
June 14, 2004. (FinancialWire) FinancialWire learned several months ago that “Dateline,” the investigatory TV program aired by General Electric’s (NYSE: GE) NBC unit, has been preparing a blockbuster expose of “Stockgate,” the term coined by FinancialWire to encompass the massive naked shorting scandal, that could cause the entire financial community to implode, but FinancialWire had honored requests from participants to keep the plans for the program confidential.
That has changed now following a story by The Faulking Truth website. “It's been called the biggest financial scandal in the history of the world, with incurred losses estimated by some experts at well over $1 trillion dollars. It's a scandal that involves over 1,200 offshore hedge funds, over 150 US brokers, [including Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCH), A.G. Edwards, Inc. (NYSE: AGE), and ETrade Group, Inc. (NYSE: ET)], and has already bankrupted over 7,000 US companies in the past six years,” said Mark Faulk, entitled “Is Dateline Losing Credibility Over StockGate Story Delays?”
“According to many of the lawsuits filed to date, the crooks include terrorist groups and organized crime syndicates. Sources say that this scandal, which involves an intricate system of selling electronic counterfeit shares of stock in an effort to destroy the market value of small publically traded companies by utilizing a method known as ‘naked short selling’, will eventually implicate almost every major broker in America, all of the governing bodies that oversee trading, and will extend into Canada and Europe,” stated the article.
“Amazingly, the SEC has admitted it had been ‘observing’ naked short selling for six years, but up to now has done absolutely nothing to put a halt to it.
“As The Faulking Truth has written about and followed this story over the past few months, one nagging question has remained: where is the national press coverage on this issue? Aside from a few recent articles in national newspapers, which have barely scratched the surface of this worldwide scandal, why has this been largely ignored by the mainstream media? Why hasn't one of the major network investigative shows put together an in depth expose' to blow this scandal wide open?
“Incredibly, we have confirmed that Dateline has done that very thing. According to sources involved with the story, NBC's flagship news program has filmed over 100 hours of explosive footage on the ‘StockGate’ scandal, which includes evidence that will ‘blow the roof off this scandal’, stated Faulk.
“There is only one problem. Originally scheduled to air in January or early February, they have postponed the show repeatedly, and now plan to air it ‘sometime in August.’ Even more incredibly, we have learned that they have signed an exclusivity contract with the two law firms that have filed the class action lawsuits that deal with the naked shorting scandal, in effect suppressing the public release of even more information about the scandal.
“After publicly speaking out about the scandal early on, attorneys John O'Quinn (of the Houston law firm of O’Quinn, Laminack and Pirtle), and Wes Christian (of Christian, Smith, Wukoson and Jewell) have been uncharacteristically quiet for the past few months. That's because Dateline has kept a muzzle on the two attorneys until the ‘StockGate’ segment airs.
“However, lead attorney Wes Christian has filmed over twenty hours of exclusive interviews for the Dateline segment. Although exclusivity contracts involving the media aren't unusual, this situation is a bit different. This scandal is ongoing, and in fact seems to be accelerating in the past couple of months, even after new NASD regulations supposedly aimed at putting a halt to the corruption went into affect on April 1st.”
FinancialWire has learned that Dateline may be pointing a large finger of conflict at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission itself, which reportedly receives a slice of every transaction fee as part of its budget. According to court filings supported by the O’Quinn/Christian network, almost $1 billion annually is received by the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. for its “Stock Borrow Program,” which the lawsuits claim is just a fancy name for counterfeiting, as the DTCC purportedly lends out many multiples of the actual certificates in the float. Apparently the SEC receives a transaction fee for each transaction facilitated by these loans of non-existent certificates, which could knock a hole in its budget should the revenues from the practice be halted.
The North American Securities Administrators Association, comprised of state and Canadian regulators, has pointedly told the SEC that either it must rethink its cozy DTCC relationship, or it hints, some of its more aggressive state practitioners (think Eliot Spitzer) may do the rethinking for the SEC.
“The shelving of this important expose' by Dateline NBC raises some very important moral and ethical issues, in this writer's opinion,” said Faulk.
“If in fact they have collected information that would help to put a stop to the massive criminal activity that is robbing American companies and their stockholders of literally hundreds of millions of dollars every day, aren't they at the very least morally obligated to release that information in a timely fashion? And since they have postponed the show for the last four months, shouldn't they release attorneys O'Quinn and Christian from their exclusivity contract, so that they can disseminate information that might be vital in helping the victimized companies, their shareholders, and the various governing bodies put to end this ongoing corruption? And if in fact the money being stolen from honest Americans is being used to fund terrorism and organized crime, then shouldn't Dateline immediately make public any information that could help put an end to those insidious activities? Dateline declined to respond to repeated email inquiries for this article.