A Statement by Bear Stearns' General Counsel Bill Philek -

By DP

On the December 13, 2004 Conference Call regarding regulation SHO, with Peter Murphy, senior managing director of the Bear Stearns Clearing Division in attendance as part of the panel (as recorded and available as audio here - requires Windows Media Player):

"To give you that brief introduction in Reg SHO, the history (of) how we got to where we are today. For the past few years we have been hearing from many different regulators regarding their concerns about the increase in the level of fails that they are seeing. They believe, and they have stated on numerous occasions, that one of the primary causes of the high level of fails was that various participants in the short sale process, prime brokers, executing brokers, clients, were not following already established rules."

Here it is, in black and white. Proof positive that the regulators are aware of violations, are concerned about the increase of violations, and know the cause, and the culprits.

This implicates the entire broker/clearing house/hedge fund network in securities violations, without enforcement actions by Regulators, who instead looked the other way. Exactly what these high level of fails and illegal short sales did to the markets will be determined in State and Federal courts across America. This also implicates the Regulators in aiding and abetting the fraud.

So for any elected officials who doubt that the NCANS take on the problem is, if anything, less alarmist than the situation deserves, I would direct you to the above statement and caution you to think long and hard as to the chronicle of abuses it confirms.

And then decide whether you are part of the problem, or part of the solution.