The Sith Lord revealed!
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Thousands of people have wondered over the years who on earth Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne was talking about when he started muttering darkly about a “Sith Lord” orchestrating a devious conspiracy of short-sellers. Well, Max Abelson has finally found out who it is, from Byrne’s lieutenant Judd Bagley:
The Sith Lord turns out to be Sith Lords. “It’s Steven Cohen and Mike Milken, though I’ve never said that to a reporter,” says Patrick Byrne, Overstock’s CEO.
So there you have it: one guy who makes most of his money from high-frequency algorithmic trading, and another guy who’s pretty much a full-time philanthropist at this point. But maybe those public profiles are just covers for their nefarious conspiracy!
A bit further down in the piece, Patrick Byrne flouts Regulation FD by telling Abelson that Overstock is about to report its first annual profit. I wonder which accounting firm will ratify them.
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If you believe that the significance of Cohen and Milken ends at high frequency trading and philanthropy… I don’t know, I just don’t know. This is saddening.
Sam states in his post who the next accounting firm will be. Or you can read this headline: http://goingconcern.com/2009/12/kpmg-to- be-the-next-auditor-of.php
you have to find the video clip of this from several years ago, with Jeff Matthews – it’s a classic. In it, Byrne makes a point of enunciating a “Master Manipulator” – it seemed clear he was talking about MM – michael milken – at the time.
ps – felix – i think you have Stevie Cohen confused with Ken Griffen of Citadel when you refer to HFT.
Just go take a look at Milken’s website. If you don’t come away with “Sociopath on Steroids,” your Aspergers has gone terminal.
If Milken were to return to the financial markets today, after having basically created the junk-bond market in the 1980′s and having made more money than God, even after the fines and prison — I can’t imagine he’d get much of a kick out of manipulating the widely derided stock of Overstock.com, market cap $300M. IIRC Milken paid more than $300M just in California taxes one year in the 1980′s!
Felix:
As an alleged member of Byrne’s delusional conspiracy fantasy, I have good information that REAL Sith Lord is a cute stripper named Molly.
http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-the- sith-lords-2009-12#sam-e-antar-new-york- ny-20
Sam E. Antar