Bernard Madoff, the Mafia, and the Friends of Michael Milken (Mark Mitchell)

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

Bernard Madoff, the Mafia, and the Friends of Michael Milken
February 3rd, 2009 by Mark Mitchell

In 2005, Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com and future Deep Capture investigative reporter, began a public crusade against illegal naked short selling (hedge funds and brokers creating phantom stock to manipulate stock prices down). He said, over and over, that the crime was destroying public companies and had the potential to trigger a systemic meltdown of our financial markets.

Soon after, I began to investigate a network of short sellers, journalists, and miscreants. I concluded that many of the people in this network were connected to two famous criminals – “junk bond king” Michael Milken and his associate, Ivan Boesky. I also began taking a close look at the Mafia’s involvement in naked short selling.

In my last installment (click here to read), I described some of the strange occurrences that attended this investigation. Where the story left off, I’d recently been threatened in a bookstore, and then ambushed by three thugs who told me to stay away from this story. My unwitting employer had been bribed by short sellers, Patrick had been told by a U.S. Senator that his life was in danger, and a Russian matryoshka doll had appeared on the desk of an offshore businessman.

Inside this matryoshka doll was a slip of paper marked with the letter “F”…

Here's a little reality therapy for you guys. Patrick Byrne has been a lone voice in the economic wilderness for some time. Now, he has some good writers working with him. Here are Mitchell's bona fides:

Mark Mitchell is a reporter for DeepCapture.com. He previously worked as an editorial page writer for The Wall Street Journal in Europe, chief business correspondent for Time magazine in Asia, and as an assistant managing editor responsible for the Columbia Journalism Review’s online critique of business journalism. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Pay attention. This is why we are where we are today.

http://www.deepcapture.com/bernard-madoff-the-mafia-and-the-friends-of-michael-milken/

[aquart]

1. Hmmm. SEC head resigned today. Hmmm.

"Madoff’s brokerages engaged in naked short selling (offloading stock that had not been borrowed or purchased—phantom stock), likely on behalf of miscreant hedge funds looking to drive down prices. In fact, Madoff successfully lobbied the SEC to enact a rule that allowed market makers such as himself to engage in naked short selling. At the SEC, this rule was called “The Madoff Exception.”"

[blm]

2. immense thanks, TS....and....

tough out the inevitable conspiracy theorist smears - there are some folks who just can't read OR comprehend what they're reading.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Quite frankly, fuck 'em.

There are plenty of good reasons I and a lot of other older DU'ers don't contribute as much as we used to. The willfully and aggressively blind is one of them. This place is stiff with them.

[blm]

5. btw, T......Madoff's bona fides smell an awful lot like Marc Rich's.... kid glove treatment

by a grateful (covert) government?

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Quite a good read on the Criminality that's been around this mess

for years. Thanks

[earth mom]

6. "Pay attention. This is why we are where we are today."

Exactly.

:yoiks:

[earth mom]

7. Kick!

:kick:

[Blue_Tires]

8. kick for later