Anthony Elgindy

Anthony Elgindy (born November 28, 1967), born Amr Ibrahim Elgindy [ cite web
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/business/01trial.html?ex=1257051600&en=1b1c0d8a4274c8e6&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland
title=Broker Who Aided U.S. Going on Trial for Fraud
author=Eric Dash,"The New York Times"
date=2004-11-01] in Egypt, is the founder of Pacific Equity Investigations, and is best known as "Anthony@Pacific", the "Internet's most theatrical short-seller". [ cite web
url=http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/dumb.html
title=The Dumbass, The Daytrader, and the New Democracy
author=Joey Anuff and Gary Wolf,"Wired"
date=August,2000] He is noteworthy as an informant and convicted fraudster.

In the early 1990s, Elgindy, who had worked at several pump and dump brokerages, admitted to authorities that he had accepted bribes from stock promoters. In exchange for immunity from prosecution, he agreed to work as an informant. During this time of rampant fraud in penny stocks, Elgindy showed investigators how such stock frauds worked and helped prosecutors win several convictions. Concurrently, Elgindy defrauded an insurance company by collecting disability benefits while working at Texas brokerage offices from 1994-1995. In 2000, he was convicted, serving four months in prison.

By the late 1990s, Elgindy had gained an Internet following as a stock picker, and sold stock tips for $600 a month to online subscribers. His picks featured short selling stocks of companies that he purported to have negative information about, especially concerning company officials and pending Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations.

In 2003, the NASD ruled that Elgindy and his firm Key West Securities "engaged in a manipulative scheme in 1997 to inflate artificially the share price of Saf T Lok, Inc. through the entering of fraudulent quotations in the Nasdaq system, selling the stock short at the artificially high prices, and then taking active steps to depress the share price of Saf T Lok through the dissemination of negative research comments." Elgindy and Key West Securities were fined $51,000 and had their NASD memberships revoked. [cite web
last =
first =
coauthors = NASD
year = 2003
url = http://www.nasd.com/PressRoom/NewsReleases/2003NewsReleases/NASDW_002908
title = NASD's NAC Bars Tony Elgindy and Expels Key West Securities, Inc. For Manipulative Short Selling Scheme ] However, the NASD's finding was overturned the following year by the SEC, which pointed out that the “Courts have found that the dissemination of accurate information in the securities market is not a manipulative act.” ("In the Matter of the Application of Amr Elgindy, et al.", Admin. Proc. File No. 3-11145 (March 10, 2004), at 6). The NASD attempted to appeal to the SEC’s decision to the D.C. Circuit. However, the D.C. Circuit dismissed the NASD's petition, which it characterized as “not only unprecedented, but legally insupportable,” thus upholding the SEC's reversal of the NASD's decision against Elgindy. In addition, in its ruling, the D.C. Circuit described NASD as a “disgruntled first-level tribunal, complaining because it has been reversed by a higher tribunal”. ("National Association of Securities Dealers v. Securities, Inc. v. Securities and Exchange Commission", 431 F.3d 803, 812 (D.C. Cir. 2005)

Elgindy was convicted in January 2005 of racketeering, securities fraud and other crimes in connection with a scheme to steal confidential law enforcement information relating to FBI and SEC investigations of various companies. Elgindy used this information to trade in the stock of those companies and to make millions of dollars in the financial markets. [ [http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nye/pr/2005/2005aug1.htm DOJ Investigation] ] In June 2006, Elgindy was given a nine year sentence, and was also sentenced to an additional two years on a separate conviction for making false statements to federal officials while attempting to board a flight under the name "Manny Velasco" before his trial. [ [http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nye/pr/2005/2005aug1.html DOJ Press Release, Aug 2005] ] The sentences are to be served consecutively, for a total of 11 years in prison. He was also ordered to return $1.5 million. [ [http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nye/pr/2006/2006Oct02.html DOJ Press Release, 0ct 2006] ]

Elgindy's convictions are currently being appealed in the Second Circuit.

References

*Linda Christiansen, "When Telling the Truth is a Crime, Elgindy Faces Charges that He Manipulated Stocks with Accurate Information," "The Wall Street Journal", November 1, 2004
*Conor Dougherty, "The San Diego Union-Tribune", "SEC overturns ban on stock trader | Elgindy's firm also ordered reinstated," March 11, 2004
*John R. Emshwiller, "A Felon's Wife Picks Up the Pieces Of Her Luxury Life," "The Wall Street Journal", November 29, 2005
*John R. Emshwiller, "Online Maverick Sells the Internet Short," "The Wall Street Journal", July 22, 1999
*John R. Emshwiller, "Scam Dogs and Mo-Mo Mamas: Inside the Wild and Woolly World of Internet Stock Trading"
*Gary Wolf and Joey Anuff, "Dumb Money: Adventures of a Day Trader," "Wired" (Apr. 2004)
*David Cohen, "Chasing the Red, White, and Blue"

External links

*cite web
last =
first =
coauthors =
year =
url = http://www.asensioexposed.com/readingroom.htm#Elgindy
title = Manuel Asensio's Reading Room, The Elgindy Files
work =
accessdate = 2007-12-3

*cite web
last = Kowalski
first = Robert
coauthors =
year = 2000
url = http://www.thestreet.com/tech/internet/940672.html
title = This Silicon Investor Is Now [e-mail]
work =
accessdate = 2007-04-30

*cite web
last = Weiss
first = Gary
coauthors =
year = 2002
url = http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_26/b3789634.htm
title = What to Bet Against
work =
accessdate = 2007-04-30

*cite web
last = Berenson
first = Alex
coauthors =
year = 2002
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805EEDF1E38F930A15756C0A9649C8B63
title = Five, Including F.B.I. Agents, Are Named In a Conspiracy
work =
accessdate = 2007-5-1