Stock scams up for discussion on Canadian news program Friday night.
Tonight, as luck would have it, mere days after the investor advocacy group called Junior Mining Investors Robbed By Canadian Investment Banks (let’s call it JMI group for short) formed on Stockhouse, BNN will be presenting a special guest on Market Call. At 7:30pm EST, Howard Green will be talking to Scott Boyle, “Assistant Manager, Investigation & Head of boiler room unit, Ontario Securities Commission.”
The subject of the discussion, as outlined by BNN on its website, reads: “BNN takes your calls and emails on investors [sic] scams. How you can prevent them from happening and how to recognize the most common scams out there today.” (For more about the show and to get time, phone and email information, visit: http://www.bnn.ca/marketcalltonight.aspx.)
It’s blatantly obvious how important this is for Stockhouse members. But now members have a chance to come at it from a (somewhat) united front.
zhengis, administrator of the JMI group, has mobilized the members there in an effort to get them to participate in tonight’s Market Call by emailing and/or calling in to ask questions. zhengis has offered up a “possible script” for members to refer to when they call in, posted here:
Possible script:
1. Why is the OSC not protecting investors by stopping the Canadian Investment banks from illegally trading with inside knowledge? EG: Before financings – naked shorting
2. Scott Peacock, Deputy Director Compliance and Enforcement recently stated in a phone call on June 3, 2008, “I am trying my best in monitoring the trades, but you need to understand, currently I am by myself!”
3. If Scott, by his own admission, is unable to do his job, why has he done nothing to change it? It sounds like he needs help. Why doesn’t the OSC consider recruiting investors who are able and willing to help enforcers such as Scott Peacock?
4. Why is the punishment for securities fraud so laughable? OSC regulators only pretend to oversee securities rules; that’s not my opinion, that’s the verdict of Claude Lamoureux, the recently-retired CEO of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. It’s so bad that Canada has been described as a first world country with second world capital markets and third-world enforcement in a study comparing the OSC to the SEC by an Indiana finance professor.
5. Stockhouse has formed a group, “Junior Mining Investors Robbed By Canadian Investment Banks” that has jumped to 176 members (and counting) in less than two weeks. http://www.stockhouse.com/Groups/GroupInfo.aspx?g=50176
If we manage to get through, the story is assuredly going to get picked up by additional media attention. – Please call and email!
I took the extra step of inboxing zhengis privately to suggest that any Stockhouse members that manage to get through on the line might do well to identify themselves as members of the Stockhouse investor advocacy group. In this way, Scott Boyle will begin to get a feel for how important the subject of “investor scams” is to Stockhouse members.
The Stockhouse editorial department is going to go a step further and submit its own email note to Market Call, just to bring it to their attention in advance that we have a group that is serious about making its presence known on the program.
Will anything become of this? Tough to say. But what’s not tough to say is how crucial it is that all active investors, and particularly our own community of members, get educated about the situation so that they can better understand what’s going on with their hard-earned investment dollars.
One thing to clear up is that, judging by the title of guest Scott Boyle, the program does not appear to be focused specifically on the naked short selling practices of investment banks and other financial institutions, which is what the Stockhouse group is interested in. Chances are it will be more about retail stock scams, pump and dump schemes, stock email blasts, etc. Scott may even talk about the dangers of stock forum bashing –Stockhouse members have a thing or two to say about that too, I’m sure.
There is opportunity for change here. Join the JMI group and watch BNN tonight. If you like, call in. Identify yourself as a concerned Stockhouse member. This is your realm of expertise, and it’s your money – be heard.
For more background on the JMI group, read the following articles by Stockhouse staff: Naked short selling irks Stockhouse members, by Darin Diehl, and Naked short selling gets investors motivated, by Robert Arber
