Reply #10: Elgindy began investing in stocks in 1988,

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.onthecanvas.com/elgindy_docket.htm


http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060620/news_1b20elgindy.html

June 20, 2006
Elgindy began investing in stocks in 1988, after briefly attending USC and San Diego State University.
Elgindy's career path took a turn in 1995, when the firm where he was working – Armstrong McKinley & Associates – became the target of a federal sweep of San Diego stock brokerages.
To avoid trial, Elgindy spent 16 months as an FBI informant, wearing a wire in conversations with his then-employer, Melvin Lloyd Richards, and co-workers who were making money by peddling worthless stocks through a network of boiler-room brokerages.
Elgindy's testimony was key to the government's conviction of Richards and several of his confederates. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jasmine Saide wrote that “the government could not have made its cases” without his help.
After the Richards case, Elgindy began ferreting out scam stocks and exposing them with his now-defunct blogs, Dear Anthony, AnthonyPacific and InsideTruth.
Elgindy made millions of dollars by identifying overpriced stocks and short-selling their shares.
“My trading, my timing, my skills at dissecting financial and news announcements for hidden clues and fraud are all blessings that I cherished and guarded,” Elgindy said in his letter to the judge.
Elgindy and his fellow bloggers bought stock in the companies and then slammed the companies on blogs and e-mails in often scatological terms, poking holes in their financial statements and news releases.
As the stock prices fell, Elgindy and other short-sellers reaped the benefits.
Elgindy made enough money to buy a $2.2 million estate in the Encinitas hills as well as a collection of cars that included a Humvee, Ferrari, Bentley and Jaguar.
In the criminal court case, prosecutors acknowledged that most of the companies that Elgindy attacked were scam operations. But they said he improperly manipulated their prices and that he used confidential information in his blogs, obtained from Royer, the FBI agent.