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‘Roaring Kitty’ Sued for Securities Fraud over GameStop Rise

bloomberglaw.com

61–70 of 109 posts

Re: ‘Roaring Kitty’ Sued for Securities Fraud over GameStop Rise

#61
post #3

"The would-be plaintiff representing investors in the case, Christian Iovin of Washington state, sold $200,000 worth of call options on GameStop shares when the stock was below $100. The stock quickly eclipsed $400 a share, forcing him to buy the calls back at elevated prices." He's being sued by someone who sold naked call options and got burned. This case is going nowhere. I'd love to start suing people for every t…

If you watched r/wallstreebets during this whole thing there was a lot of stuff going on; people saying things, people buying advertisements and billboards, people explicitly encouraging market manipulation... there was a lot going on which could easily be marked as securities fraud.

Re: ‘Roaring Kitty’ Sued for Securities Fraud over GameStop Rise

#62
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Gill’s deceitful and manipulative conduct not only violated numerous industry regulations and rules, but also various securities laws by undermining the integrity of the market for GameStop shares,” the suit said. “He caused enormous losses not only to those who bought option contracts, but also to those who fell for Gill’s act and bought GameStop stock during the market frenzy at greatly inflated prices.” As a re…

I have seen a lot of protests defending Gill. I think there is another side to the story though with many people who lost money buying the stock (selling options is different) based on his advice. Gill is held to a much higher standard than a normal person as he is a licensed security broker. If you look at my comment history on HN, you will see at the time I was pointing out a lot of Redditors were engaging in a pum…

Wasn't it blatantly obvious to pretty much everyone that the whole situation was just totally crazy and a horrible thing to get involved with on either side of the trade? I mean, this guy was on reddit with stupid memes, not in an office in a suit and tie being paid to give people advice.

Re: ‘Roaring Kitty’ Sued for Securities Fraud over GameStop Rise

#63
post #24

No way this is happening for real...he's suing /u/DeepFuckingValue because he took a loss trading? Then what's next? Suing your state's DoT every time you get a flat on the road?

You can actually do this in some cases....

I once got a flat tire where INDOT was clearly at fault (or their contractors). I contacted them to warn them about the very dangerous situation[1], and they offered to pay my expenses, although I had road hazard coverage on the tires so it wasn’t necessary.

[1]: If anyone’s curious, I was compelled to drive over a mile on a tire rapidly losing air because of a pothole that should have been patched before they started highway construction that day. Both shoulders were blocked by barriers, the busy highway had been narrowed to two lanes, and the very deep/sharp pothole was just past an exit, so I could do nothing but speed (carefully) through a construction zone to get to the next exit before my tire went completely flat.

Re: ‘Roaring Kitty’ Sued for Securities Fraud over GameStop Rise

#64
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Gill’s deceitful and manipulative conduct not only violated numerous industry regulations and rules, but also various securities laws by undermining the integrity of the market for GameStop shares,” the suit said. “He caused enormous losses not only to those who bought option contracts, but also to those who fell for Gill’s act and bought GameStop stock during the market frenzy at greatly inflated prices.” As a re…

I have seen a lot of protests defending Gill. I think there is another side to the story though with many people who lost money buying the stock (selling options is different) based on his advice. Gill is held to a much higher standard than a normal person as he is a licensed security broker. If you look at my comment history on HN, you will see at the time I was pointing out a lot of Redditors were engaging in a pum…

Did Gill represent himself as a licensed security broker to his audience?

Re: ‘Roaring Kitty’ Sued for Securities Fraud over GameStop Rise

#65
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Gill’s deceitful and manipulative conduct not only violated numerous industry regulations and rules, but also various securities laws by undermining the integrity of the market for GameStop shares,” the suit said. “He caused enormous losses not only to those who bought option contracts, but also to those who fell for Gill’s act and bought GameStop stock during the market frenzy at greatly inflated prices.” As a re…

I have seen a lot of protests defending Gill. I think there is another side to the story though with many people who lost money buying the stock (selling options is different) based on his advice. Gill is held to a much higher standard than a normal person as he is a licensed security broker. If you look at my comment history on HN, you will see at the time I was pointing out a lot of Redditors were engaging in a pum…

It is at best extremely unclear that there was a serious pump-and-dump scheme going on Reddit. To qualify as a pump-and-dump you have to deliberately inflate prices through false or misleading statements. That wasn’t really happening; everyone knew what was happening.

People off r/wsb may not have had as clear a picture (and I imagine many of the people who quadrupled the size of the sub in a week may not either), but it’s incredibly hard to blame Gill for other peoples reporting of him. By the end of things he wasn’t even really posting text, just portfolio shots.

Re: ‘Roaring Kitty’ Sued for Securities Fraud over GameStop Rise

#66
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Gill’s deceitful and manipulative conduct not only violated numerous industry regulations and rules, but also various securities laws by undermining the integrity of the market for GameStop shares,” the suit said. “He caused enormous losses not only to those who bought option contracts, but also to those who fell for Gill’s act and bought GameStop stock during the market frenzy at greatly inflated prices.” As a re…

I have seen a lot of protests defending Gill. I think there is another side to the story though with many people who lost money buying the stock (selling options is different) based on his advice. Gill is held to a much higher standard than a normal person as he is a licensed security broker. If you look at my comment history on HN, you will see at the time I was pointing out a lot of Redditors were engaging in a pum…

I don't think this case will go anywhere but those are good points. It does sorta look like this was a "kind of" pump and dump market manipulation but I don't know if they will be able to pin it all on him. He's allowed to "give advice" but I don't know if misrepresenting himself as a novice trader would affect that. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. I am split between thinking it will go nowhere and a judge "making an example" out of him.

Re: ‘Roaring Kitty’ Sued for Securities Fraud over GameStop Rise

#67

Why is he always referred to as 'Roaring Kitty' from youtube when he is undoubtedly better known as DeepFuckingValue from reddit? Because of the `F-Word`? It will be interesting how congress will refer to him during the hearings, considering that reddit also has to appear and not youtube, so his alter ego DeepFuckingValue should be in focus?

They should have used his real name, if they don't like fucking.

Re: ‘Roaring Kitty’ Sued for Securities Fraud over GameStop Rise

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, there's no meat to the suit detailed. Still, though. The fact that DeepFuckingValue just turns out to have been a licensed broker complicates the narrative quite a bit. Needless to say he can be expected to have known that the whole short trading theory of "Hold the Line" was bunk, and did nothing to disabuse the community of it. I say it every time this comes up: this guy's criminal exposure is really signif…

> find the idea that he Just Happened to stumble on a tulip bubble and had nothing to do with encouraging it just too much to believe. He was long gamestop and published his reasoning to the internet with explicit disclaimers before each video. When his bet started to pay off, people started to hop into the trade. How is this materially different than any other firm or person that gives price targets or argues in fav…

If he had sock puppets and unreported holdings, it is substantially different.

Also, he apparently misrepresented his qualifications in such a way that it makes the story that much more attractive to investors who could pump his holdings up.

Re: ‘Roaring Kitty’ Sued for Securities Fraud over GameStop Rise

#70

The plaintiff should be smart enough to know most blog posts are pumps.

It is your position that the existing laws and regulations against certain kinds of pump-and-dump shouldn't exist, because instead everyone should just be smart enough to know that it happens pervasively?
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