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I worked for a startup that contracted with the major record labels at the time, with a lot of the funding coming from the record labels. One day a group of fo
by snarfy 6y ago
I worked for a startup that contracted with the major record labels at the time, with a lot of the funding coming from the record labels.
One day a group of four men arrived at the office. They were investors and not too happy with how the stock had been performing. This was a time before naked shorting was illegal. They all wore suits and one of the men carried a baseball bat into the office. They all had stereotypical gangster accents. They had a closed door meeting with the CEO that day, baseball bat and all, and I'm pretty sure they got paid that day.
It was one of the most bizarre work experiences in my life. Mafia in the music industry? Yes, yes it is.
- beambot 6y ago> before naked shorting was illegal It might be illegal now, but certainly not enforced!
- freddie_mercury 6y agoYes it is. It took me less than 5 seconds to Google and find cases of it being enforced: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2014-20 https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2014-20 The attitude of "they don't catch every criminal, therefore it isn't being enforced" that people take towards financial crimes is silly. 40% of murderers get away with it but no one goes around trying to claim that "murder but by illegal but it certainly isn't enforced". Over 60% of rapists get away with it. 70% of robbery. 80% of theft. 87% of burglary. Just because financial crimes (maybe) have a slightly higher rate of "getting away with it" is no reason to make the disingenuous claim that it isn't enforced.
- dragonwriter 6y ago> 40% of murderers get away with it but no one goes around trying to claim that "murder but by illegal but it certainly isn't enforced". Well, maybe not murder in general, but there is certainly a point where the prohibition is seen as theoretical. Consider BLM.
- beambot 6y agoRefer to "Practices Related to Naked Short Selling Complaints and Referrals" by the Office of the Inspector General: https://www.sec.gov/files/450.pdf https://www.sec.gov/files/450.pdf > Our audit disclosed that despite the tremendous amount of attention the practice of naked short selling has generated in recent years, Enforcement has brought very few enforcement actions based on conduct involving abusive or manipulative naked short selling. > Of approximately 5,000 naked short selling complaints received in the ECC between January 1, 2007 and June 1, 2008, only 123 (approximately 2.5 percent) were forwarded for further investigation. I guarantee that more 2.5% of murders are investigated. Reg SHO violations remain massively under-investigated still today, to the extent that the SEC is well aware of simple ways to bypass: https://www.sec.gov/about/offices/ocie/options-trading-risk-alert.pdf https://www.sec.gov/about/offices/ocie/options-trading-risk-...
- at-fates-hands 6y agoThe stories around Death Row Records are now legend. Dr. Dre said he saw one sound tech get beat down by six guys because he rewound the tape back too far. The amount of intimidation, blackmail and extortion many in the rap game talked about was legit. Even in the DMX documentary, the two founders talked about twice strong arming record labels and their owners to let artists they wanted to sign out of their contracts.
- alexizorba 6y agois this something common? i mean, beating ceos for not-going-well-stocks?
- swiley 6y agoThis is why I don't listen to the music they play on the radio and only listen to demoscene tracks and armature folk recordings. You can feel this stuff going on in the music.