“I’m Not a Cokehead” and Other Truths from Patrick Byrne, CEO
WARNING: THIS MAN RUNS A PUBLIC COMPANY.
I agree that CEO’s who spend time worrying about shorts or obsessing about shorts are fools. And that most of the CEOs who tangle with shorts are crooks...
I believe there’s been a plan since we were in our teens to destroy our stock, drive it down to $6 to $10...
These are the folks I’m going to talk about….Leon Black I’ve put in there just because he’s a well-known financier hedge fund guy. Got nothing to say about him. Sort of putting him in as an example of a -- just somebody in a hedge fund...
Jim Caruthers is an interesting fellow. He’s up at Eastborne Capital, north of San Francisco. Eastborne has an “E” at the end. It’s funny because there’s a fellow holding himself out in a nearby location by the name of Jim Karruthers, with a slightly different spelling, holding himself out as a private investigator from Eastborn Investigations, no “E” at the end. I know that couldn’t be this Jim Caruthers, because that would be a felony for a person to hold himself out as a PI when he’s not. And that PI has a very interesting relationship with a certain lawyer in Detroit who has some very odd practices that maybe we’ll have time to get back to...
Kevin Ingram was a prominent fellow in the late 1990’s in Wall Street. He left Wall Street, started a dot com. I think it was crashing. He got caught attempting to sell Stinger missiles or obtain Stinger missiles for some Pakistani ISI agent, who turned out to be undercover feds. In fact, he agreed to work on obtaining a nuclear trigger for them. So he went to the pen for a few years. He’s out now and he’s basically a gopher for some of these folks...
I finally wrote Herb and I said, “Herb, is this some subtle way of approaching me? It’s okay if it is, but I’m just not into that.” He just seemed obsessed with me. Well, oddly enough, he stopped in February, more or less stopped writing about me. And the same week practically he stopped a blog was created by Jeff Matthews who runs Ram Partners. And in my view, I think the assignment got passed from Herb to Jeff...
And somebody, a politically connected investor with the hedge funds calls up the SEC or the DOJ and says hey, you know, “Listen I was just having breakfast with George and Laura and they sends their regards. And by the way, I know a guy on Wall Street who’s come across something you really need to take a look at.” And so then one of the hedge funds goes in, sends somebody in with this white paper and they try to get an investigation started. That’s how the basic system works...
And they turned that into a white paper that said Byrne is tied up Al-Qaeda and terrorism and money laundering and you ought to look at this guy...
I’ll only talk to a Wall Street Journal reporter with a phone on because they’re such crooks…
Well, something else funny happened. My phone went dead, my phone went dead and a message came up in Spanish that said this has been diverted to some telephone company in Mexico and the line was out...
As this went on I started realizing that there was actually some more orchestration here being provided, by what I’m calling here is the Sith Lord…He’s one of the master criminals from the 1980s, and he’s back in business. But I’m not going to. I’ll just call him the master mind today...
So, in the words of Wayne and Garth, “Squeeze me?”
By the way, Carol Remond has something stuck in her craw about the fact, most people I think understood that when I said “those I took baths with” to mean like my cousins and brothers, whatever, girlfriends. She’s calling around and saying that there’s a, Byrne has a gay bathhouse cabal and that’s where this has been organized. Something about the whole bath reference has steamed Carol. My theory is it’s because she’s French…
I put information down there that I was gay. And…I put information down that I was a coke head. Now my apologies to my gay friends, both within and without, outside the company, I don’t mean to equate the two. I don’t care. I’m a libertarian and I don’t care at all. In fact I don’t give a hoot if anyone thinks I’m gay, but I thought that by keeping, by putting that information down on one channel and putting the coke head information down the other channel, I would then know if it leaked…
On the coke head thing, and by the way, I’ve never, with one exception, I’ve never even seen cocaine in my life so in case you’re wondering, no, I’m not a coke head...
I made something up. I said, “I’m going to Venezuela, I’m going to need some bodyguards.” Well, there’s no way he could really say no. And he’s a fine guy. I mean, I don’t envy him. So I went in to see him and he met me, brought a witness and my guess is he was taping it...
So that’s where we are. You may think I’m nuts…. If you think I’m nuts about all this, just ignore. Just ignore me. Just don’t do anything about it...
I like these guys, they’re sort of guys out of a John Grisham novel, real smart, O’Quinn is a great big strapping Texas cowboy. He sued Texas, he sued big tobacco on behalf of Texas and won $17 billion, pocketed a couple of it himself. And now he just funds lawsuits that he thinks has a social purpose. And we met. It was like two lost brothers meeting because we’ve come from very different directions to the same conclusion...
Why not take it to the authorities? Well, to that I say, “The SEC, come on, look at those, the graph of the Miscreants Ball and tell me the SEC is up to taking something like on. They’re up to going after Martha Stewart on a good day. They’re not up to taking on a web like that. They probably are afraid it might cause volatility.”
Did I stutter? Did I stutter or did I say I was going to take this fight to you? Well now you know what I meant. And lastly, the man I’ve identified here as the Sith Lord of this stuff I just say, you know who you are and I hope that this is worth it, because if the feds catch you again, this time they’re going to bury you under the prison. And I’m going to enjoy helping.
Those are the words of Doctor Patrick M. Byrne, Chairman and CEO of Overstock.com, reprinted straight out of the conference call transcript announcing a lawsuit against short-sellers.
"Squeeze me?" and "Sith Lord" and "Stinger missiles" and all.
For first-time readers, Overstock.com is a money-losing, internet-based enterprise whose stock is currently recommended as a “BUY” by Legg Mason analyst Scott Devitt and W.R. Hambrecht & Co. analyst Craig Bibb.
Nobody can make that up.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews' recommendations.
posted by Jeff Matthews @ 7:36 AM
154 Comments:
OSTK, Byrne, Bob Obrien, NCANS, have gone from laughingstocks to truly frightening. Frightening because it is clear that Byrne actually believes this absolute nonsense. (And yes Bob OBrien it is all sheer nonsense.)
Publishing your phone number and email is truly a low blow.
This 'conference call' and accompanying slide show should be required reading not for Investing 101, but Psych 101.
Jeff, keep up the fight exposing these frauds for what they are.
I see big problems for the directors of this company. Talk about a liability...
"selltowhom": thanks, but I have no problem with Byrne publishing my email to Kathryn Huang Hadley.
I wrote nothing in there that I wouldn't have published here, except my cell phone number.
Patrick Byrne, on the other hand, has written emails he would not be happy to see published here.
More interesting, frankly, was Kathryn's reaction to my email. Rather than simply delete it or email me back and tell me I have Patrick all wrong...she went to the company.
I find that fascinating.
HOLY FREAKING CRAP. Are you serious? I'm at a complete loss of words here. Mr. Byrne speaks like he just took a double hit of crack and crystal-meth at the same time. The guy is paranoid, and all over the map.
He's really the CEO of a publicly traded company? If that's possible, God help us all...
--Craig
I guess he bought Andy Grove's book..."Only the Paranoid Survive". Problem is Dr. Bryne needs to read it and not just look at the cover and think being paranoid is a management skill one should rely on especially on conference calls. Can't wait for the next conference call. I wonder if some analyst will recommend people buy the stock based on how many people are on the call like that dope from MER did with TYC?!!
Are you kidding? This is a Gong Show. This is a serious disconnect in almost every way, in a kinda surreal way.
Byrne can and will tell us about drugs , sex, the press , the SEC , the hedge fund world , conspirators and just about everything but the diamond deal and the Eydeas lawsuit...amazing! Hey Patrick, before i forget ,what relationship does Fisher and Macklin have with Legg Mason and W.R. Hambrecht ?
Warning, Jeff Matthews is a Rocker friend and an exassociate. Warning, Matthews does not beat his wife.
Hey Jeff, you're truly pathetic and I hope Dr. Byrne sues your pathetic ass for defamation and libel.
Your kind of "business" men is the scum of the Earth.
I read Jeff's transcript, and I just couldn't believe it was accurate. It had to be paraphrased, or out of context, or something.
But no. It was accurate in every way, and not misleading at all. And this guy runs a billion dollar company. It amazes me that there is anyone out there that wants to buy the stock for any reason other than orchestrating a short squeeze. And who knows, it might succeed. The stock's already up abou 40% after the conference call, even though it is almost impossible to imagine that the call would give any long investor comfort.
Betting on a short squeeze isn't exactly a high probability way to generate a positive return. Because even if the short squeeze happens, the one thing that is inevitable is that the stock will eventually drop.
(Also labeled 'overweight' by Doug Anmuth at Lehman. I think the only analyst at a company involved in the November offering that doesn't have a 'buy' on them right now is Aaron Kessler at Piper Jaffray.)
Jeff~ You are doing a great job!! Below is some additional information you may find interesting on Overstock:
I used to do a lot of biz. with Overstock as VP of Sales and Marketing of
>USA Inkjets, their primary supplier of printer cartridges...
>
>I left USA Inkjets when I found out they were putting Chinese cartridges in
>Made in the USA boxes...I also allerted Overstock to this, but they
>continue to knowingly market and sell this company;s fraudulent products
>(import / Export fraud)
These links show some of the USA Inkjets products that are chinese made:
http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?page=proframe&prod_id=682211
http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?page=proframe&prod_id=399120
http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?page=proframe&prod_id=373572
They note "Made in USA" in the Description line and display the box, which also states "Made in USA"
Overstock is marketing them as MADE in USA...
Ok, I confess. The Sith Lord is me.
I was sleeping with this charming exotic dancer and later she winds up with the CEO.
I want my gal back and the best way is to get his money.
Sith Lord
For a person who detests yahoo type posters, Jeff certainly makes them feel at home.
So a few facts:
1) If you've not heard the Webcast yet, check it out:
Video & Transcripts: http://www.shareholder.com/overstock/
2) Byrnes on CNBC shortly after: http://www.vmsdigital.com/MyFiles.aspx?Onum=B6AA2C8D-B6D9-4623-B5C0-37B128860FFF
A few odds and ends:
1) Some strange coincidences between Rocker, Milberg & Weiss, and The Street.Com:
http://ncans.net/milberg.htm
2) Many believe Michael Milken is the one that Patrick references as the Mastermind or Sith Lord in the webcast.
A bio of Milken can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milken
Do note that Rudy Giuliani was directly responsible for putting Milken away in the 80's and coincidentally his name is on one of the law firms assisting Patrick in this suit.
A few additional quotes from the webcast not chosen by Jeff to post:
1) Patrick refers to some odd entries in the SEC FAQ at: http://www.sec.gov/spotlight/keyregshoissues.htm
To date I've yet to hear any good explanations for the items he brought up. I would appreciate those in the know to share their thoughts.
1a) F. Grandfathering Under Regulation SHO
...The grandfathering provisions of Regulation SHO were adopted because the Commission was concerned about creating volatility where there were large pre-existing open positions. The Commission will continue to monitor whether grandfathered open fail positions are being cleaned up under existing delivery and settlement guidelines or whether further action is warranted.
**** As Patrick notes, (and I'll paraphrase), it wasn't but 1.5 yrs ago they [SEC] were denying the existence of Naked Shorting, now they're worried about creating volatility for the prior violators.
1b) 11. Can I obtain fails information?
Currently, threshold lists include the name and ticker symbol of securities that meet the threshold level on a particular settlement date. Some investors have requested that the SROs provide more detailed information for each threshold security, including the total number of fails, the total short interest position, the name of the broker-dealer firm responsible for the fails, and the names of the customers of responsible brokers and dealers responsible for the short sales. The fails statistics of individual firms and customers is proprietary information and may reflect firms' trading strategies. The release of this information could be used to engage in unlawful upward manipulation of the price of the securities in order to "squeeze" the firms improperly.
**** My interpretation to this point goes something like: "So naked shorting by everyone but the MM's are illegal, however some institutions use it as a trading strategy". Hmmm...
2) An interesting rule from the NSCC (an Self Regulating Organization): http://www.nscc.com/impnot/notices/notice2005/a6029.pdf
"The approved changes create a uniform standard limiting NSCC’s liability to direct losses caused by
NSCC’s gross negligence, willful misconduct, or violation of Federal securities laws for which there is
a private right of action. In addition, the changes: (a) memorialize an appropriate commercial
standard of care that will protect NSCC from undue liability; (b) permit the resources of NSCC to be
appropriately utilized for promoting the accurate clearance and settlement of securities; and (c) are
consistent with similar rules adopted by other self-regulatory organizations and approved by the
Commission."
Anyone interested in starting an SRO with me, getting it sanctioned by the SEC, and then creating God like rules to govern itself?
You're right on this one Jeff. One simply cannot make this stuff up.
Maybe I'm oversimplifying this a bit, and I definately know I'm repeating stuff. but..
No matter who is connected with who on Wall St., or who conspired with who to sell short at the same time and write negative articles, etc. For you longs, wouldn't this all be a moot point if Overstock, the company, was actually doing well and making money, instead of booking continued loses?
At this point, Overstock is a pretty heavily followed company. I work for another NASDAQ company of about the same market cap, and we're not nearly as heavily followed, even after our stock has tripled in the past year.
My real question for the longs is, considering that not everything at Overstock is in order - they are still not profitable, they're having a lot of IT issues, etc., why is your CEO so obsessed over something that has nothing to do with Overstock's growth or profitability? What percentage of his day is he devoted to this kind of garbage, organizing law suits and NCANS instead of figuring out how to make his company turn a profit? If I was a shareholder, I would be outraged.
I don't care who knows who on Wall St or who writes what - if Overstock could be consistantly profitable and grow earnings and revenue at these large multiples, this wouldn't matter, and you'd probably have the most massive short squeeze ever.
That last company I remember that was targeted negatively by Wall St. was Google. Look at what happened to them after a few breakout quarters.
But then again, Google has never had to have a spokesperson announce that it's CEO "is not currently under any psychiatric care and that he was sober when he gave the presentation."
Chris, fair questions.
Regarding the company and the CEO
1) I believe they're expected to go profitable next year. They have minimal debt, a good reserve of cash, and doubling in revs YOY
2) The CEO consistantly buys shares in his company on the open market (www.insidercow.com), takes no salary, and refuses all bonuses offerred to him. If he's a conman only interested in bilking people out of their money, he sure is bad at it.
Regarding the crusade against shorts..
1) You'll note that the lawsuit has nothing to do with shorting. It is about a hedgefund conspiring with an independent research firm to unfairly denigrate the company. Something not unlike what Spitzer did against the brokerage houses.
2) In his most recent presentations, he laid out the state of the union with respect to OSTK shares-- something, as a long, I am very interested in. Certainly I am concerned about groups that attempt to damage the company through illegal actions.
Regarding your final comment on the spokesman. I doubt it was spontaneously announced as you make it seem. I'm sure you are not so naive to believe that it wasn't queried in such a way to make it sound as such.
I do find it odd that people assault him for trying to stop illegal activities that are happening in our markets (is it because he's a CEO and couldn't possibly do both?) The SEC and NSCC publishings that I referenced earlier should have made one pause in itself.
HTH
To 'MFairview,' repeating an earlier post which you may have missed. Lehman Brothers no longer sees 'a profit' in 2006. After the Q2 results, they lowered their 2006 estimate from a 2c profit to to 60c LOSS. That sounds like another "Swing and miss! Strike 3!" kind of year for Overstock. As for 'It's Strange's' reference to the Macklin/Fisher/WR Hambrecht connection, it goes something like this: John Fisher is a former MD of the Consumer Group at Hambrecht & Quist, Macklin is a former President of H&Q (and a lousy one at that) so that makes both FOB's (Friends of Bill H.). Macklin has the dubious honor of being a member of the Board of Directors of MCI Communications and got to keep his seat on the Worldcom Board so he could preside over the largest accounting fraud in US corporate history. Nice job, Gordon. FWIW, Gordo got the original gig via a friendship he had with Bill McGowan who founded MCI when Gordo was President of NASDAQ. Gordo retired from NASDAQ to become President of H&Q. WR Hambrecht was the lead underwriter of Overstock's IPO. For the record, John Fisher is a good guy (yes, I have met/knew him), Gordo is a true idiot (yes I met/knew him too), Bill Hambrecht is a good guy (met/knew him) and that is where the disconnect is on this OSTK. I am appalled that Fisher allows himself to be associated with this circus. Bill H. while a decent guy has had research coverage of some very iffy companies over the years: Lernout and Miniscribe to name two. And for those of you who think that Bryne's behavior on the conference call (I listened to all of it) was anything other than a complete joke than you deserve to swallow this worm of a fantasy hook that Milken is the Sith waiting to steal OSTK at $6.
Regarding the company and the CEO
1) I believe they're expected to go profitable next year. They have minimal debt, a good reserve of cash, and doubling in revs YOY
A good reserve of cash for what? Their burn rate is awfully high relative to their cash level. Doubling in revenues? Yeah, wonderful when they have a positive cash conversion cycle on the incremental revenues, they need to set up SPEs to sell diamonds with a fishy background, and the incremental gross margin on those revenues is so paltry as to not even keep up with their higher operating expenses.
2) The CEO consistantly buys shares in his company on the open market (www.insidercow.com), takes no salary, and refuses all bonuses offerred to him. If he's a conman only interested in bilking people out of their money, he sure is bad at it.
This assumes all confidence games look the same. Some people actually try to dress theirs up in different clothing -- this doesn't mean they're not cons.
Regarding the crusade against shorts..
1) You'll note that the lawsuit has nothing to do with shorting. It is about a hedgefund conspiring with an independent research firm to unfairly denigrate the company. Something not unlike what Spitzer did against the brokerage houses.
My guess is this company would still be screwy and so would the CEO if there were no one shorting the stock and no one talking about it.
2) In his most recent presentations, he laid out the state of the union with respect to OSTK shares-- something, as a long, I am very interested in. Certainly I am concerned about groups that attempt to damage the company through illegal actions.
You should be equally concerned with the entirely legal actions of your entirely whacked-out CEO.
Regarding your final comment on th spokesman. I doubt it was spontaneously announced as you make it seem. I'm sure you are not so naive to believe that it wasn't queried in such a way to make it sound as such.
Uh, maybe they responded in that way because it sounded to some listeners like the CEO was inebriated and is disturbed.
I do find it odd that people assault him for trying to stop illegal activities that are happening in our markets (is it because he's a CEO and couldn't possibly do both?) The SEC and NSCC publishings that I referenced earlier should have made one pause in itself.
I find it odd shareholders are so satisfied with how their CEO spends his day.
The Mobil gas station i go to on a regulator basis raised prices about 10% in the last week. It just might have hit a level where people start seriously watching thier money. And heating season is right around the corner. Retailors had better pay attention . Better run thier businesses and focus . What does OSTK plan for the holidays ?
Whether the company is profitable or not is irrelevant. Its wheter the CEO is a wingnut. To know that, we'd need to know if Rocker is doing what they claim. I just read on the YAhoo chat room that milken did hire Jules Kroll to investigate Boesky. So there's the Kroll-milken link. If milken is doing what he was in the 80's and using hedge funds this time this will blow up bigger than hiroshima.
Byrne reads pretty rambling, but I downloaded his slides and read along and it hangs together other than the tangents, whch could be his style of talking. If the hedge fund/milken/kroll stuff is real and he has afidavits that will get him there in discovery this will be bigger than enron, and overstock will trade over 200 on speculation. If he can get the feds on this I can tell you as a law enforcement man they will be pitbulls with a name like milken in the game.
I say lets wait to hang the ceo until we know all the facts. It seems plausible so far.
Do we now know what/ who OSTK will blame disspointing future results on ?
Have we found out who bought those 126 diamonds at the end of the quarter that Jeff mentioned ? Has Macklin looked into it ?
Tahoe, Yahoo has 12 analysts listed and an avg. estimate of 0.26 earning for next year with the low estimate at (0.23) and high estimate 0.73.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ae?s=OSTK
I recall Patrick saying they will scale back on the aggressive growth path once the company hits 2B in revs. They are on schedule to do that in 2007 (estimates, again from yahoo, for 2006 are in the 1.2-1.3B range so 2B in 2007 seems reasonable to me).
I don't know or have ever met any of the people you have mentioned. It is unfortunate that Gordon Macklin, who is on their BOD, is the one of 3 people you dislike from that group.
DaleW: We are both entitled to our opinions. As you served up no facts or questions in your response, I have no comments.
Fred: I agree with your assessment that the trial will be one for the ages. The stakes are staggering.
BTW- The last few responses are more aligned with what I was looking for at this blog. My thanks to the contributors. Would still appreciate comments on the SEC/NSCC publishings. They couldn't possibly be this arrogant or obtuse could they?
aleW: We are both entitled to our opinions. As you served up no facts or questions in your response, I have no comments.
You are welcome to your opinion. The facts are the company is burning through a ton of cash in operations and in the financing line. I disagree with the assessment that this company has lots of cash relative to this and I wonder how they are going to raise capital given the CEO's bravura performance the other day. Maybe he'll put the bear hug on Dad for more capital in addition to the board seat. Forgetting the X-Files thing the other day, the bear hug he put on his Dad regarding the chairmanship of the company was absolutely ridiculous.
As for facts and how they work in investing, I have found the weighting of facts and the assembly of an argument in an investment hypothesis is much more important than having every last fact that everyone else has. It's an efficient market -- the facts eventually come out, but the incorrect ordering of facts can persist for years in a stock.
Stormy baby. I am Sith Lord and I want you back!
http://mrbssithlord.blogspot.com/
What does one do if they take Bob's and Patrick's advice and get their stock certs and than need to sell in a fast market. I mean timing is very important in high beta stocks ? What should they do Bob ? Patrick ?
I didn't say I disliked Macklin. I said he was an idiot. I actually think he's a very pleasant guy. I just think his track record speaks for itself. He is not qualified to sit on the board of a publicly traded company.
Jeff, I'm wondering when you are gonna pull the leash on Sith. Surely this isn't what you are intending here or is it ok because he's taking cheap shots at Byrnes? The fact that you instigated this Stormy/Exotic dancer business in error, I would think you'd be quicker to rescind and respond appropriately.
Reposting an interesting claim from Dave Patch (of www.investigatethesec.com) regarding one of Byrne's new lawyers. This is the same Dave Patch who Byrnes references in the CC about having his pictures taken at his house by some anonymous individuals and posted on the net which, in turn, started the whole O'brien/Cohodes affair (something many believe that Jeff is making too big of a deal of). This posting is gotten from Mark Cuban's blog-- Mark seems to enjoy Jeff's work. I'm posting the entire entry for completeness.
BTW- Looks like Byrnes picked up another 14500 shares on the open market yesterday (www.insidercow.com).
DaleW: Do you really believe OSTK will burn through it's cash before going profitable? If so, I'd enjoy debating that with you.
----
35. Posted Aug 16, 2005, 5:44 PM ET by Dave
Jon,
I think you should review the list of Attorney's that Patrick Byrne has enlisted. On that list is Brent Baker. Mr. Baker IS a former SEC Enforcement Attorney working for the commission earlier this year. He worked on the naked shorting issues and resigned over the abuses he was requested to stay away from.
Mr. Baker has written to me personally and called this "more than a problem, it is near approaching a systemic breakdown". The other attorney with Baker is the Former head of SEC Enforcement in a field office as presented by Byrne.
The people he put within this campaign have direct knowledge and awareness of the problem and probably have evidence to utilize to boot. How else would these Industry affadavits be so readily available.
Ironically Marc ignored these facts in the Blog presented as it is more self-serving to trash a stock you are short than it is to present the total picture unbiased.
Ironically, the Blog that Marc quotes as Gospel [Jeff Mathews] is getting ripped for the numerous factual inaccuracies he has presented pertaining to OSTK. Mathews is getting ripped BY HIS SUPPORTS! Notice Marc never came back to mention that either.
When it is all about integrity, we frequently see that those with excessive money fail the integrity test. They are too wealthy to admit fault.
-------
I can even up the ante a little. At the NCANS.net site on the news page right now is an article that puts a very plausible set of names to the Sith Lord and the Bottom Feeder.
But it gets better. I always tried to figure out how Cuban fit into all this.
Guess who he worked for when he was in his twenties? Give up?
Hint: Initials MM
Jeff posted a link from Findlaw and so did I . It appears Findlaw was wrong and Jeff removed the reference and link. Bob, you have a link that identifies Sith Lord ?
Why didn't your associate Mary Helburn and Patrick sue Rocker for naked shorting ?
Find out anything about the diamond purchase just before the quarter ended ?
Why didn't Patrick address the Eydeas lawsuit on the conference call ? I mean Patrick said it was important stockholders know whats going on a number of times.
Strange, I do recall that you had first initiated the claim that Stormy was a dancer. I believe Jeff ran with it.
Regarding this "Sith Lord" that Byrnes refers to, this article on Milken has an interesting sentence.
http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_19/b3628001.htm
Note the line: "So when he was ready to start his next business, Milken--a huge science-fiction fan who loves to make references to Star Trek and Star Wars in his speeches--decided to marry entertainment and technology with education to make learning more accessible for both kids and adults."
Regarding the bottom feeder person, Patrick refers to, this link makes a plausible explanation:
http://www.webspawner.com/users/milken1/index.html
Note the paragraph:
The second tier up from the Master Mind is a box marked "Bottom Feeder - Final Owner". This is the money guy with beneficial ownership of the sleazy hedge funds that engage in illegal activity, and supposedly directs the operations on a tactical level, with the Master Mind directing it on a strategic level. Bryne said, on his conference call, "Now, can I tell you who that designated bottom feeder was who was supposed to end up with our company? Can I tell you? I can." I can. Another fun play on words? I can. Icahn? Carl Icahn? The billionaire takeover specialist and corporate raider? If true, and Bryne's vision is correct, we have Carl Icahn acting as the money guy and tactical point, Milken acting as the Strategic thinker, and Kroll acting in much the same role as he did for Milken in the 80's - digging up dirt and doing corporate espionage on target companies.
If it is indeed these two people, you must admit that 1) Patrick has a funny sense of humor 2) He knows his adversaries quite well.
Jeff, I'm sure I owe you some copyright fees for this but "You just can't make this stuff up". (It's very catchy!)
Just for this once I'm leaving a "Bob O'Brien" post up.
I advise all to read it.
It tells you better than anything I could write what kind of whack-jobs we're dealing with here.
You can run but you can't hide from the freedom of information. The DTCC data will discredit your pathetic position on Naked short selling.
It is a reality, it is systemic and it has the SEC freaking out.
Yes, you are right, you've got the whole story dead to rights.
The link goes from the hedge funds right past the grassy knoll in Dallas, through Area 51, down the corridors of the SEC and the Trilateral Commission straight to the White House.
Have you seen who the new chef is at the White House? Do you know who she used to worked for? His initials were "MM."
Case closed.
This is fantastic! Jeff, I'm watching you right now on CNBC and if this is a debate you are definitely winning: it is common sense vs paranoia.
Byrne is only making things worse for his company... Now you've got me thinking about buying puts.
Just in case you are the Sith Lord, you are doing a brilliant job.
'Swarming innuendo.'
Thanks for keeping wall street sane.
I just saw Byrne on CNBC....and god is he nuts. He took some shots at you ('those who don't have an argument hide behind smarmy remarks.' Hope he likes the fact that he's a kettle). It doesn't hide the fact that a) Overstock.com is losing money b) no one wants anything to do with them c) his conspiracy charges are total bullsh*t (and I'm not an investor).
I would love to see Byrne when making his charges actually having some quality evidence that can be proven and isn't his opinion.
Jeff, you did great on CNBC and I love how you were overblown and arrogant, but instead, let the facts speak for itself.
Oops, I mean you weren't overblown and arrogant. My bad.
That was hilarious. Patrick Byrne (CEO of Overstock) just came off looking like a total jackass.
WHO'S THE SITH LORD?!?!?!
WHO'S THE "MM"???
Good job keeping your composure up there Jeff.
WHAT?......lol I have to watch CNBC all day and I've never seen anyone come across as badly as Jeff Matthews.....He said nothing....Insana couldnt believe it....he prodded and prodded but Matthews couldnt think of anything to say.....i have never seen a guest that bad...he asked him to comment what Byrne just said and he answered "What"....ha......is he senile, mildly retarded or what?
Naked Short Selling is real and not just a market conspiracy, as our articles are trying to prove. Read about it.
http://www.antandsons.com/faceoff/overstockshortselling
The issue is not going away.
I used to think that Chainsaw Al was the nuttiest person I'd ever met in this business; Dr. Byrne is giving him a serious run for the money. He's definitely climbed into rarified territory, however, with his recent performances. It never ceases to amaze me how such a large proportion of senior executives of public companies in corporate America are complete boneheads, but the potentially clinically insane proportion of that population seems to be growing quite rapidly.
Thanks for great comedic theater on CNBC today; my colleagues and I were nearly in tears listening to Dr. Byrne.
JM came off as smug, unrepentant and in general not very likeable. PB came off as not very forthcoming as to specfics of his allegations and trying to be cute with the facts. Perhaps it will be told if it happens in open court. If you do not like what the talking head investor says walk away from the telly clutching your money. Personally I listen to Cramer before any of these other stiff shirts. Good Luck.
LOL.... What an idiot Dr. Byrne is; I can't believe this guy has a doctorate.
Who is the Sith Lord?
Who is MM?
Maybe it is the Dukes from the movie "Trading Places."
Patrick and his NCANS associates , Bob & Mary seem to think the naked shorting is happening on the overseas exchanges. Why ain't they going after them ? Perhaps they aren't interested on real answers
that Bryrne guy may be completely insane but at least he appeared somewhat LUCID....10 years of watching CNBC and Matthews is the all time worst guest Ive ever seen
Why, because he was soft spoken ? Because he runs money and isn't hollywood ? Because he felt Patricks claims were so absurd they didn't deserve comment ? I guess things would have been different if Patrick identify Sith and his partners
soft spoken?.....Insana couldn't get him to expand on anything.....it was like it was beneath him to be talking on CNBC...lol....he looked like a complete ass....almost as funny as that economics proffessor who told that guy to "shut the hell up" about a month ago on CNBC
Should Mary Helburn sue her lawyers for allowing Patrick to flap away about Sith Lord and naked shorting ? I mean his appearence on CNBC today just underscores the notion the suit is just a attempt to squeeze
If Byrne has proof of a crime , like he claims, couldn't the gov force him to identify the players ....identify Sith Lord ?
Lots of dotcoms have been taken out behind the woodshed, yet we never saw the CEO of Amazon, Yahoo, etc., modeling the latest in tinfoil-hat fashions.
Seems to be like Byrnes has disconnected from reality. Maybe he knows that OSTK is doomed to fail and the only way he can handle it is by going off the deep end.
Anyone who knows anything about e-retailing can plainly see that OSTK is a fourth-rate e-commerce platform---and that's being generous. And when you combine a failing biz model with a nutjob CEO, look out below.
Seems like Byrnes is going to try and take as many as he can down with him. But enlisting the "help" of fellow foil-fashionistas like "Bob O'Brien" will only hasten his demise.
Great theater, of course, but bad business.
I see Macklin still doesn't do his job.
My blog continues to follow the naked short selling news. I support Overstock and Dr. Byrne. Jeff came off as a real you know what today. Wasn't it funny how he tried to laugh off the fact he made such nasty posts about Stormy Simon that were proven to be inaccurate. Jeff I hope you get sued and loss your azz on OSTK puts. I hope Byrne puts you, Cramer, and Herb all out of business. You're the problem with America.
http://www.nasdaqtrader.blogspot.com
If nothing else, there is a lot of attention now being paid to this area of the market thanks to the "theater". Dollars to donuts that not all of them are mocking Byrnes.
Mr. Matthews, I saw your appearance on CNBC today… and let me say that you held your position very suavely in confronting that lunatic Overstock.com CEO. I’ve never seen such a paranoid individual such as Patrick Byrne. Like many of those who have posted on your blog, I had initially found this character to be amusing; but now, I truly find this person beyond frightening. Props to you in analyzing their flawed business model and clearly pointing them out.
“May the Force be with you.”
People wonder who the Sith Lord is. It is me no less.
Why is there any doubt?
Incidentally Yahoo! has removed all my posts.
But I know why. Mr B has connections you see.
I guess I will have to solve this with a Stinger Missile.
Sith
This was not a threat. I could not obtain a Stinger Missile since Mr B has exposed my source of them!
The SEC Freedom of Information showing 200 million fails in a single day vindicates Byrne whether it's happening in his stock or not.
Matthews, Cuban and all the other naysayers will be exposed. It's coming.
Jeff,
With all due respect, Patrick Byrne looked a lot more intelligent than you today.
Roberto-
I think you're dead wrong. People like Jeff and Herb are what America needs. Maybe if there were more people like them, gigantic frauds like Enron, Worldcom, etc., would get exposed sooner and you wouldn't have people loosing all their retirement savings, etc.
There are tons of fast talking CEO's out there. We've already seen Patrick lie and actually STAGE things on a conference call. Jeff badmouthing Overstock does nothing to hurt Overstock's business. If OSTK wasn't losing money and burning cash, it wouldn't have to worry about shorts.
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Patrick Byrne described Jeff Matthews perfectly: smarmy innuedo backed-up with nothing. Mathews was evasive, couldn't provide a straight answer to a single question, and back-pedaled the entire time, just like his smear of an Overstock VP.
There's this thing called credibility, Matthews, and you don't have any. You worked for Rocker, you wrote for TSCaM, and Greenberg and Eisinger are both your former TSCaM colleagues. No wonder you can't provide a straight answer to a simple question.
Why don't you bring your WSJ columnist buddy and former TSCaM colleague, Jesse Eisinger, next time so he can explain that citation for trespassing in Nevada last May?
You have so much venom for Bob O'brien posting Cohodes' address from a publicly available search engine, so what do you have to say about a WSJ columnist breaking the law by trespassing in a gated community and harassing a 78-year-old woman?
What would your reaction had been if O'brien had shown up at Cohodes' house uninvited and knocked on his door? So what do you have to say about Eisnger? Nothing, you arrogant, hypocritical jerk.
One last question, how did Eisinger get the address for that woman he was harassing? By illegal means? We know where Cohodes' address came from, but where did Eisnger get the address for this lady?
You just can't make this stuff up, can you? Take some advice. Stay off TV and away from witness stands. You come across as a complete weasel.
Mr Matthews,
It's a shame that people use such profanity on your blog, I'm sure that is not what you want here. I enjoy reading your posts and the comments from 'its strange' and others. But these ostk longs are really nasty individuals. It appears that they don't get any attention at their blogs and ncan sites so they need to come over here to be heard. When I start to read a comment , after the 1st or second line it becomes such a turn off that i don't even continue readng their post.
Keep up the great work.
I guess their posts are helpful, because i realize what kind of mentality is long such a bad business model. Its not like their the Peter Lynch's of the world giving market savy reasons for being long.
Are those 2 buy recommendation still out there after the 10Q was filed this morning? I mean they couldn't have read the Q today and still kept their "buy" ratings.(or could they?)
Who signed the affidavit ? I'm sure you are reading this blog . Please identify yourself . You signed it , you clearly expect it to be made public . Or was Patrick pulling a smoothy ?
And Patrick made it clear........the crimes are STILL UNDERWAY ! Right now ! As we speak ! He has a signed affidavit ! He went on TV and let the whole world know crimes were underway , right now ! ..Did the Gov demand to see who signed the affidavit ? Shouldn't they have ? Shouldn't they step in and protect the public from the criminals ? Certainly the person who signed the affidavit had to figure the Gov would act to stop a crime that are in progress or underway. ....Now ain't it beyond bizarre that Byrne didn't take the affidavit to the SEC..
This is not reasonable behavior. This makes no sense and yet we have Wallstreet analysts calling it a buy.
Sorry Stormy
Underling Jeff Matthews has withdrawn his suggestion that you were ever an exotic dancer and I should apologise to you on bended, grovelly knees.
Sith
PS. You still look exotic to me.
Your Lord
This blog is truly degenerating. I didn't realize they found the citation for Jesse; The internet is the great equalizer. So far, Byrnes is on the mark.
Per Byrnes in the CC:
And Jessie Eisinger was given the
assignment to basically track down O’Brien. And I think it was more than that. He actually, he found me at a conference I was in. And I refused to talk to him without a tape recorder on because I’ve dealt with the Journal before and they’re
just a bunch of dishonest reporters. Over and over and they’ll play this trick by the
way where they say you - I mean - I’ll only talk to a Wall Street Journal reporter with a phone on because they’re such crooks, or with a tape recorder on. And
literally I’ve had them do that and then afterwards say - write me a little email that says oh, my tape recorder turns out to have been broken, but don’t worry, I took
good notes. Well, they’ve done this once to a friend of mine and they did it once to me, so now I only talk to them with a tape recorder on. But Jessie really wasn’t doing an interview. He was there to show me he had obtained my banking record. He had obtained records of two wires I sent or a few wires, he didn’t even have all the records, but of some wires I had sent to this organization NCANS to pay for an ad in the Washington Post and stuff. Now, I’ve been public about that. I don’t know why it was such a big deal. I’ve been public. Yes, I paid for that. I largely wrote the ad, I 50% or more wrote the ad.
But it was really, as far as I could tell, I had two other folks that were listening, was basically to tell me hey, we’ve got access to your wire information at O’Brien’s.
Well, something else funny happened. My phone went dead, my phone went dead and a message came up in Spanish that said this has been diverted to some telephone company in Mexico and the line was out. The same hour that happened,
you see, they got a hold of O’Brien’s cell phone record, they got a hold of O’Brien’s cell phone records and they started calling everywhere O’Brien had called. And I know this sounds like a John Grisham novel, but bear with me. They started calling everywhere he had called. So for example, there is a woman, who she is a psychiatrist who has a patients only telephone number. That number
started getting calls. Who was doing the calling? Jessie Eisinger from The Wall Street Journal. Some lawyers O’Brien had called, a guy they think is O’Brien’s
brother who has some alcoholic problems and sort of easily set off. They were literally calling him six times an hour at one point. That was Jessie Eisinger of The Wall Street Journal. Same with - there’s an elderly lady in Las Vegas that was just picking up the phone, “Jessie Eisinger” hanging up over and over and over harassing her. Jessie eventually flew to Las Vegas and trespassed within a
gated community and would not leave this woman’s porch hoping, trying to get her to confirm that she was Bob O’Brien’s mother, until the neighbors seized him and they called the police and the police arrested him and they cited him. And evidently he had a tantrum on the porch and was screaming, “This is bullshit. I’m a reporter for The Wall Street Journal.” But the police cited him in this community in Las Vegas."
Per Jeff Matthews on his blog on Jesse:
As for truly cheap shops, "It's Strange" takes one by picking on Jesse Eisinger--who happens to be one of the most aggressive reporters at the WSJ and has done more than his share of exposing hypsters and scamsters.
Per the Nevada Police:
http://ncans.net/img/Eisinger%20citation.pdf
It kinda writes itself doesn't it?
Stormy Simon was identified as "an exotic dancer" in a Utah Supreme Court document available at "FindLaw" which summarized the verdict against murderer David Mead, at whose trial Stormy Simon was a key witness, for reasons I will not repeat here.
The reference to her as "an exotic dancer" was later removed from the document, which was removed from this site and replaced with the revised court report.
Jeff,
You claimed on CNBC that you do