Market Rap – 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.

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Tags: ceo, famous criminals, financial-markets, investigative reporter, ivan boesky, journalists, junk bond king, mafia, meltdown, michael milken, miscreants, ostk, patrick byrne, phantom stock, public crusade, rap, short-sellers, stock prices