Some of you may have noticed Overstock.com’s (NASDAQ:OSTK) 27% jump in share price thanks to a stellar Q1 earnings call last week. Zac Bissonnette has an interesting story at BloggingStocks.com about former Crazy Eddie CFO and sometime Overstock.com critic Sam E. Antar posting an item on his blog accusing that company of a “stock market manipulation scheme.”

Link to the story – Overstock earnings questioned by ex-con
Read Overstock.com and Patrick Byrne: Anatomy of a Stock Market Manipulation Scheme – First Quarter Earnings Release here.

In the post, Antar alleges that the first quarter earnings press release issued on Friday was “intentionally timed with expiration of options to manipulate the market (i.e., as a “short squeeze”) and to bury and downplay grave news of a criminal investigation in California.”
Check out the 5 day move:

Analyzing the company’s numbers, Antar points out that the company’s revenue from its auction business declined more than 44% year-over-year, in spite of CEO Patrick Byrne’s claim as recently as January that “things look better from here” for the auction site.

Antar accuses the company of violations of SEC rule 10b-5: interesting given that the company is currently the target of an SEC investigation.

Here are a few of Zac’s past posts on the company that one securities lawyer affectionately refers to as OverSchlock.com:

Shop at Overstock, Support Cyberstalking.
Patrick Byrne, Hypocrite
Patrick Byrne Defending USXP Fraud?
More Goofy Press Releases
Byrne overpaid at $0?

SOURCE: BloggingStocks.com

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