- Editorial Commentary -

October 21, 2009 (FinancialWire) (By Mark Faulk) — I wrote this little piece as I was on my way to the SEC’s Securities Lending and Short Sale Roundtable that took place on September 29th and 30th in Washington, D.C. Considering the cast of characters who dominated the panels during the roundtable, including Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS), State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT), and Citadel Investment Group, L.L.C., it seemed unlikely that even a single voice of dissent would arise from the dog and pony show I anticipated. And that was for the most part true, until Dennis Nixon, Chairman of International Bancshares Corporation (NASDAQ: IBOC), provided some fireworks from the perspective of a company that has had its stock manipulated by predatory short selling over the past year. Here are my thoughts before the roundtable, to read the post mortem report, go to: Will the SEC Finally Help Investors? (http://www.financialwire.net/2009/10/07/will-the-sec-finally-help-investors/):

I’m on a plane. Oklahoma City is below me, out one side, sunrise looms, all oranges, reds, and yellows. Out the other, it’s still dark, with lights dotted everywhere, and tiny cars driving lord knows where at 6:45 in the morning. Oklahoma City almost looks like a real city from up here.

If this had been one year ago, I might have written “I’m on a plane!!!” with multiple exclamation points to emphasize my excitement, the beginnings of a journey into the unknown. But now, some ten flights later, I guess I’m a little jaded, so it’s just: “I’m on a plane (yawn)”.

In the past year, I’ve worked on a major documentary about financial fraud, first as an interviewee, then as a writer, then as an associate producer/writer. Numerous flights back and forth from the almost city I live in to the hyper-surreal city of New York City, months living in a hotel while I pretended to be an experienced screen writer, only to discover that in the film industry, as in most walks of life, almost everyone is pretending to be qualified. Nonetheless, I made new friends in New York, and my middle-aged passion seems to have compensated for my lack of real qualifications. Such is life.

To be fair to myself, I have spent five and a half years learning and writing about the intricacies, and most importantly, the simplicity of financial fraud, immersing myself in a cesspool of unbridled greed launched into overdrive by bad regulations and even worse enforcement. The methods employed by those who profit from this sea of bad regulation/worse enforcement are varied and complex on the surface, but the goal is straightforward and simple: to move as much money from the many pockets of Main Street, America to the bank accounts of the privileged few. Oh — and to not get caught doing it.

But now, I’m on a plane. Yawn. This particular plane is on its way to Atlanta, where I’ll catch another plane that will take me to Washington, D.C., where I’ll meet up with some of members of the neophyte film production company that had the audacity and naivety to tackle the issue of financial fraud. The project was originally scheduled for release in mid-2008, then moved to September of 2008. Then the market collapsed in its own version of Shock and Awe, and the cautionary tale that the film was to convey was suddenly turned upside down. A warning to America about impending financial disaster emanating from the dark shadows of Wall Street became a prophetic tale of a few unlikely visionaries whose wilderness cries fell on mostly deaf ears, both at the regulatory and congressional levels.

Until the unthinkable happened. The collapse. The economic house of cards that toppled not over the course of months or even weeks, but almost overnight, exposing a financial shell game held together by little more than baling wire and duct tape. And the documentary, along with its producers, went into retooling mode. I was out, and the editors tried to piece it together into something still useful, perhaps a story of a system that failed Middle Class America, or maybe a forward-looking documentary that implores us to learn the from the epic failures of our recent past so that we don’t repeat them in our near future.

I spent that past year (contrary to what that hack with a computer Gary Weiss has written about me) working with a potential phoenix of a company called CMKM Diamonds, trying to help a handful of idealistic activists find justice in a often unjust world. I have been told that I was instrumental in revitalizing a stalled criminal investigation into massive fraud that resulted in the theft of an estimated $250 million from over 50,000 shareholders of CMKM (infamously known by its old trading symbol CMKX on the internet). I only know that a few dedicated individuals, supported and sometimes reviled by a shareholder base that simply wouldn’t give up, convinced our government that even the oft ignored middle class deserves justice.

In the past couple of weeks, I was asked to fly back out to New York (by way of Washington, D.C.) to complete work on the mythical documentary. Simultaneously, a number of personal issues that had been put on the proverbial back burner demanded my attention. Then, on September 17, 2009, the Department of Justice filed criminal charges against six individuals in the CMKX case. It seemed like a good time to move on, at least long enough to see if I had a future in writing. My job was finished at CMKM Diamonds, and it was time for me to begin to speak out again, to resume my self-appointed role as one of the voices in the wilderness calling for reform of our financial markets.

In a few hours, my plane will touch down in our nation’s capitol, where I first visited over four years ago and met many of the fellow advocates I have come to know and respect. At least one of those, Dave Patch, who began his journey even before I did, will be there as well. Together, we’ll attempt to crash the party of the SEC Roundtable on stock market reform. Maybe we’ll get to ask a question or two, more likely, we’ll be lucky to even get in the door to watch the dog and pony show that I expect to take place over the next couple of days. Either way, we’ll film whatever happens, and from there, I’ll take a bus to New York City, where I’ll work with the producer and editor of the film to try to put something together that is both an exposé of the neglect and greed that brought an entire nation to its knees, and a warning to America that unless we are ever vigilant, Wall Street will simply take our bailout money — and then continue to take what little we have left.

The economic events of the last twelve months have left me feeling at times merely disillusioned, at other times downright despondent. I fear I’ve lost hope, that Greed has trampled the Middle Class dream that our nation was ostensibly built upon. But I hope to regain it soon, for without passion there is little left to live for.

So here it is, once more with feeling:.”I’m on a plane!!!!”

Mark Faulk, author of “The Naked Truth: Investing in the Stock Play of a Lifetime”, (http://www.thenakedtruthbook.com) and editor of The Faulking Truth (http://www.faulkingtruth.com/)has written over 150 articles on the topic of financial reform and naked short selling since 2004, and has logged hundreds of hours in radio and television interviews. For over five years, he and a small group of dedicated activists have been educating America about the imminent danger of allowing rampant fraud to continue. In his very first article on The Faulking Truth website on March 19, 2004, he coined the phrase “financial terrorism”, which has come to epitomize the culture of greed that dominates Wall Street. His articles have been reprinted or excerpted in numerous major publications, including The Huffington Post and Financial Wire, and financial journals such as the prestigious Capco Journal of Financial Transformation. In the fall of 2009, he will complete work on a major documentary about financial fraud, due to be released in December, 2009.

FinancialWire(tm) is a fully independent, proprietary news wire service. FinancialWire(tm) is not a press release service, and receives no compensation for its news, opinions or distributions. Further disclosure is at the FinancialWire(tm) web site  (http://www.financialwire.net/disclosures.php). Contact FinancialWire(tm) directly via inquiries@financialwire.net.

Free annual reports for companies mentioned in the news are available through the Free Annual Reports Service (http://investrend.ar.wilink.com/?level=279).

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.