Manipulator Sets 'Sweeping Investigation'...

...of manipulation!

SEC chairman Christopher Cox (right) has the same name as
a manipulator active in Friday’s markets. He is also
said to be a junior associate of the Hank (left) & Tim crack cartel

Securities regulators of various stripe have burned candles at both ends all over Washington DC for weeks now, and while US Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox has been mostly MIA, his sense of the ironic (if any) is obviously under strain. 

A press release issued late Friday proclaiming:

SEC EXPANDS SWEEPING INVESTIGATION
OF MARKET MANIPULATION

Measure Will Require Statements
Under Oath by Market Participants

included the following declarations: 

“Investors have a right to know that the rule of law is being enforced and that our capital markets are not being manipulated,” said SEC chairman Christopher Cox.  “We are working together with our regulatory partners at NYSE Regulation and FINRA in order to quickly identify, isolate and aggressively prosecute any violations of the federal securities laws during this period of market turmoil.”

Linda Chatman Thomsen, director of the SEC’s division of enforcement, added, “Abusive short selling, market manipulation and false rumor [early facts, surely? — Ed] mongering for profit by any entity cuts to the heart of investor confidence in our markets.  Such behavior will not be tolerated.  We will root it out, expose it, and subject the guilty parties to the full force of the law.”

NakedShorts’ Sweeping Investigator (David S. Products) contemporaneously announced that he has identified the first suspect. 

“I think there was this other person with the same name as Christopher Cox who banned short selling in certain financial stocks at 5:56 am on a quad-witching Friday, triggering a massive short squeeze, and violent moves in certain stocks. Perhaps he could testify. 

“Our Sweeping Investigation is developing evidence that he is a junior associate of the infamous Hank & Tim Posse, a notorious crack cocaine distribution ring. They are the main suppliers to the Primary Dealer cartel, responsible for a crime wave once contained to the shabbier suburbs of California, Ohio, Arizona and Florida, but whose vicious spree has now spread across the world.”

SEC Expands Sweeping Investigation of Market Manipulation
Press release Sep. 19 2008