Tuesday, March 31, 2009

George Soros fined $1.6 million for illegal stock manipulation in Hungary, October 2008, adds to his fine in Belarus, conviction in France

  • Update 7/19/09, Budapest Times: Soros fights fine: "Sunday, 19 July 2009, "The Budapest Municipal Court will hear in December the appeal of New York-based Soros Fund Management against a record HUF 489 million (EUR 1.79 million) fine handed down by the Hungarian financial regulator PSZÁF in March.

  • In a short selling deal, the firm made a last-minute bulk sale of stock in the Hungarian bank OTP on 9 October last year. PSZÁF said the transaction led to the price of shares in Hungary’s largest domestic bank plummeting by over 14 per cent, and it went on to lose over half of its value.
  • Soros Fund Management was set up by the Hungarian-born billionaire financier George Soros, although he no longer plays an active part in its running. The fine imposed on Soros Fund Management is the largest that the Hungarian financial regulator has ever imposed for a deal of this type. PSZÁF set the penalty at four times the profit it estimated that the firm had made from the deal." ****************

Budapest Times, 3/30/09: "Hungary's financial supervisory watchdog announced Friday it had slapped a 1.6-million-euro fine on an investment fund founded by US billionaire George Soros, for manipulating the market.

  • The PSzAF said it had fined Soros Fund Management LLC for transactions on the Budapest stock exchange on October 9 that led to a "significant loss in value" of
  • Hungarian OTP bank stocks, which fell in days from 4,000 forint (13.2 euros, 17.86 dollars) to 2,500 forint.

The PSzAF "is imposing a 489-million-forint fine on Soros Fund Management LLC... for violating the rules regarding the

the supervisory authority said in a statement on its Internet site.

  • The Soros Fund has 30 days to pay this record fine.

The PSzAF said the fund started putting OTP shares up for sale at 4:27 pm on October 9, just minutes before closing.

  • "The timing, the number and the effects of these transactions on the market point

OTP, Hungary's biggest bank, was already hit hard by the financial crisis, like many other banks, but then saw its share value crumble in a few days after October 9.

In a statement Friday, Hungarian-born Soros responded he had been informed of the fine but insisted that he was not involved in the transactions."...Budapest Times, 3/30/09, "Soros Sorry over Decimation of OTP's Share Price" via Lucianne.com, American Thinker.

(McCain was in the lead when the crisis hit),

This is not the first time Soros has been fined for illegal market manipulation. That he is the most significant financial backer

  • of the American left should serve as a clarion call to Americans. Do not trust this man." ************
"Soros has often drawn criticism for speculating heavily on the collapse of fragile currencies."...6/14/2006, NY Times

"In 1979, he signed a consent decree with the Securities and Exchange Commission in a civil proceeding relating to his trading in the stock of an American computer manufacturer that was about to issue fresh shares. Commission officials contended that
  • Mr. Soros had sold shares to push down the price of the new shares.

Mr. Soros acknowledged no wrongdoing, but agreed not to engage in similar practices in the future. Unlike American law, French law does not provide for civil enforcement actions

they may be pursued here only as criminal matters."...NY Times, 12/21/2002, "Soros is found guilty in France on charges of insider trading,"

.


No comments: