CA: Westly's history of questionable IPO stock trades

SFGate.com ^ | 2/19/06 | Lance Williams

[NormsRevenge]

State Controller Steve Westly made a $286,000 profit at the height of the dot-com boom through a pattern of stock trades that experts say is consistent with participation in a banned stock-market manipulation scheme.

His tax returns show that on 33 occasions between April and October 1999, Westly -- then an executive at the online auction house eBay and today a Democratic candidate for governor -- bought blocks of hot new dot-com stocks at the initial public offering price,...

--snip--

Then, after the market opened and public trading began, Westly bought more of the same stocks -- almost always an identical number of shares. He paid premium prices, sometimes as much as triple what he paid for the IPO.

A Westly spokesman said Westly did nothing improper, but several experts consulted by The Chronicle said Westly's pattern of stock trading suggested "laddering," a scheme in which investment banks pump up the price of a new stock by requiring IPO purchasers to buy more of the stock after it opens for trading.

The insiders' post-IPO purchases drive up the price, creating the illusion that the stock is in heavy demand. Ordinary investors, unaware of what is happening, often lose heavily after insiders start to sell and the stock price drops.

In all 33 cases, Westly sold the stocks soon after buying them, his tax returns show. He lost more than $71,000 on the shares he bought after the stocks were made available to the public.

But Westly's losses on those trades were more than offset by the hefty profits he obtained by selling the shares he obtained via IPOs -- returns of as much as 208 percent. Overall, he came out $286,000 ahead for holding stocks for only a few hours or days.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Well, well. But since his name is followed by a (D), I expect he'll get a pass.

[ElkGroveDan]

As you sow, so shall you reap. Let's hope he's the nominee and we can bash him with the "shady businessman" tag the rats tarred Bill Simon with (for reasons far more benign than this.)

[Amerigomag]

Let's hope he's the nominee and we can bash him with the "shady businessman" tag

The November race is the CRP's to loose.The announced Democrat candidates are not a factor.

If the CRP can hold their traditional base together, the gang will make sufficient inroads in the traditional Democrat base that victory is not possible with the current crop of weak candidates.

Nunez has publicly admitted a similar dilemma in the Assembly:

Besides, Núñez said, many of the things Schwarzenegger wants to do this year have been Democratic Party priorities for years. "Everything we've been saying he wants to do now," Núñez said. "So why should we not do it? We're going to work with him."