SEC accuses Dallas investors of insider trading (AP)...a banner year for FRAUD and the SEC

By TERRY WALLACE (AP)
DALLAS — Famed Dallas billionaire investors Sam and Charles Wyly made $550 million in undisclosed profits through 13 years of insider trading in the shares of companies on whose boards they served, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit filed Thursday.

In a 78-page complaint filed in a Manhattan federal court in New York, the SEC said the Wylys held and traded tens of millions of securities in the companies and "defrauded the investing public" by misrepresenting the Wylys' ownership and trading of those shares.

"The apparatus of the fraud was an elaborate sham system of trusts and subsidiary companies located in the Isle of Man and the Cayman Islands ... created by and at the direction of the Wylys," the SEC complaint stated.

Using this offshore system, the Wylys were able to sell stock worth more than $750 million in four public companies where they served as corporate directors. They also committed an insider trading violation at one of the companies that resulted in an unlawful gain of over $31.7 million, according to the complaint.

The complaint lists the four companies as Michaels Stores Inc., Sterling Software Inc., Sterling Commerce Inc. and Scottish Annuity & Life Holdings Ltd., which is now known as Scottish Re Group Ltd.

"The cloak of secrecy has been lifted from the complex web of foreign structures used by the Wylys to evade the securities laws," Lorin L. Reisner, SEC deputy director of enforcement, said in a statement Thursday. "They used these structures to conceal hundreds of millions of dollars of gains in violation of the disclosure requirements for corporate insiders."

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are the Wylys' investment attorney, Michael C. French of Dallas, who was accused of covering the operation "with a false cloak of legality that was essential both to its concealment and its execution. Another defendant was the Wylys' stockbroker, Louis J. Schaufele III of Dallas, who was accused of using his position to conceal and misrepresent the Wylys' control over the securities and making insider trades himself.

The Wylys' defense attorney, William A. Brewer III of Dallas, called the charges "without merit" and said the Wylys "intend to vigorously defend themselves — and expect to be fully vindicated."

"At worst, the claims appear to represent an after-the-fact justification for a misguided six-year investigation," Brewer said in a statement issued by his law firm.

Attorneys for French and Schaufele had no comment Thursday.

In March, Forbes magazine estimated Sam Wyly's net worth at $1 billion. He has given generously to Republican causes and candidates, including the Swift Boat campaign that helped re-elect President George W. Bush in 2004 by tarring his Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry.

Grandpa: Welcome to the new era of the U.S. Equity Market. Fraud is rampant, Wall Street Banks stiff the entire globe, publically traded companies are sued for fraud and accounting irregularities by the SEC. RESULT: banks get bailed, turn record profits and share the welath in bonus issuance and the SEC collects fines while no one admits any wrongdoing.

The U.S. government manipulates data in each and every economic report and spends the next 3 months to 3 years making downward revisions, congress is a collection of 535 buffoons, publically traded companies "manage" their quarterly earnings and the banks play "extend and pretend" with their mortgage portfolios courtesy of FASB.

CNBC continues their cheerleader role on behalf of their Wall Street buddies while discussing the lack of confidence of the retail investor.

And to think we give our children and grandchildren a "time-out" for unacceptable behavior. That smell in the background is Rome burning....