July 8, 2008
Dear Chairman Cox,
Ms. Nancy M. Morris, Secretary
Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F. Street, NE
Washington, DC 20549-1090
Re: Comments on Proposed Amendments to Regulation SHO
File No S7-19-07
Dear Secretary Morris:
I appreciate the opportunity to provide comments on the Commissions proposed amendments to Regulation SHO.
I am aware that the SEC is delaying release of trust funds that are intended for distribution to the shareholders of CMKX. I respectfully request that you release these funds that have been wrongfully withheld from us for the past 16 months.
Should the funds not be released in a timely fashion, I intend to contact the proper representative about this issue. The economies of our countries can not be sustained should the markets continue to stay corrupt, with shareholders/investors having no justice or respect for the system. More banks will fail. It is your responsibility to correct this situation and elimination of Regulation SHOs options market maker will be a vital step in bringing accountability and honesty back into the market system.
I am a shareholder of a company that has appeared on the Regulation SHO threshold list day after day after week and month after year.
I support the Commissions proposed elimination of Regulation SHOs options market maker exception and encourage the Commission to complete the administrative steps to accomplish this change as quickly as possible (e.g., by years end). The options market maker exception has been a well known tool of manipulation and must be eliminated promptly to ensure a level playing field for public companies and shareholders.
I commend the Commissions recent action to strengthen Regulation SHO through the elimination of Regulation SHOs grandfather provision. I am also pleased that over the past several months that Chairman Cox has personally spoken about the abuses of naked short selling and the need to end this manipulative practice. However, I remain concerned that, despite the Commissions recent efforts and Chairman Coxs public comments, these abuses continue.
While the elimination of the options market maker exception and the grandfather provision will significantly strengthen Regulation SHO, these changes alone will not adequately solve the problem that results in continued naked short selling and failures-to-deliver. I request that the Commission (1) impose in Regulation SHO a requirement of a firm location of shares to be borrowed before a short sale can be executed, and (2) enable transparency by requiring timely disclosure of the volume of failures-to-deliver shares of companies on the Regulation SHO threshold list. The Commission should issue and complete promptly a notice of proposed rulemaking to implement these two critical components of effective Regulation SHO reform.
Respectfully submitted,
Mr. F. Cazzorla