In stories the "Mission: Impossible" teams all seem to accept that no one is going to stand up for them if their missions fail. Chances are Bank of Montreal trader David Lee and his boss Robert Moore had similar expectations when Lee's multi-year winning streak had stalled and he actually started racking up losses. After The Bank disavowed the duo, they were discreetly processed through the legal system as cooperating witnesses and jettisoned to safety.
Things didn't go as smoothly for the folks at Optionable. Optionable's CEO Kevin Cassidy had an unrelated previous criminal record. Cassidy's past was publicly available old news which wasn't required to be disclosed in Optionable's SEC filings. Revealing Cassidy's public knowledge "secret" however provided The Bank with an opportunity to portray Lee's trading losses as a conspiracy between a rogue trader and his ex-con broker, rather than The Bank's failure to manage a known business risk associated with the type of trading they were heavily involved in.
Even though the Impossible Mission took place in 2007, it may still be too soon to tell if the Bank has gotten away with it. Oh sure, there's me, an Optionable investor who calls himself Trader Elvis. I've been blogging about this one case for over 6 years. I'm easy for the Bank to dismiss. There is however another player on the scene. His name is Mark Nordlicht and he is the current majority shareholder of Optionable. Nordlicht knows what really happened and has the resources to expose The Bank's skullduggery in a court of law. Stay tuned.......
Disclosure: I am an investor in Optionable. This blog does not offer advice on buying or selling any security.
