The insider-trading scandal

Martha Stewart
Full Name: Martha Helen Kostyra
Born: August 3, 1941
Birthplace: Nutley, New Jersey
Graduate of Barnard College
2004-2005: Spent five months in prison
Currently hosts the syndicated The Martha Stewart Show

Stewart was indicted in 2003 on criminal charges and faced several civil lawsuit related to her sale of the ImClone stock. According this case, she sold the stock on December 27, 2001, one day before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused to review ImClone system’s cancer drug Erbitux and the stock price tumbled after FDA’s announcement.
The scandal touched some of the ImClone insiders which are:
-John Landes , ImClone’s counsel who dumped $2.5M on December 6
-Ronal Martell, vice president of marketing who sold $2.1M on December 11
-Four other company executives who cashed in shares between December 12 and December 21.

Developments in the scandal

Sam Waksal, the CEO of Imclone and a close friend of Stewart's, instructed his broker Peter Bacanovic who was also Stewart's broker to transferred $4.9M in ImClone stock to account Aliza Waksal, daughter of Sam and she also requested that Bacanovic sell $2.5M of her own ImClone stock and Sam also tried to sell the shares he had transferred to Aliza but was blocked by brokerage firm Merrill Lynch.

Sam was arrested on charges of insider trading, obstruction of justice, bank fraud and in addition to previously filed securities fraud and perjury charges. Although he pleaded innocent for nine months but he eventually plead guilty to insider trading and another six charges. He was later sentenced to more than seven years in prison and ordered to pay $3M fine. Prosecutors continue to investigate his family members who sold $30M of biotechnology company’s shares. His daughter and father also faced a criminal investigation and possible forfeiture of nearly $10M that government contended was obtained from illegal insider trading. In 2006, Sam agreed to pay $3M penalty and his father returned $2M in profits.

Stewart denied that she engaged in any improper trading. Stewart says she was flying in her private jet to Mexico for a vacation with two friends. However, she called her office to check her messages which included one from Bacanovic, with news that her ImClone stock had dropped below $60 per share. Stewart claimed she had previously issued a “stop-loss” order to sell the stock if it fell below $60 per share. She also called Sam but could not reach him. Stewart’s assistant left a message for Sam and wanted to ask him what happen in Imclone but Sam did not call her back.

However, investigator was discovered that she did not sell the stock below $60. Stewart’s explanation that she unloaded her stock because of prearranged sell order collapsed when Douglas Faneuil who was broker's assistant told Merrill Lynch lawyers that Bacanovic had pressured him to lie about stop-loss order. Although Faneuil initially backed Stewart’s story, he later told prosecutors that Bacanovic prompted him to advice Stewart that Waksal family members were dumping their stock and that she should consider doing the same. He acknowledged that Bacanovic never “explicitly” directed him to lie. Faneuil pled guilty to a misdemeanor and received a $2000 fine. Merrill Lynch fired Faneuil. Bacanovic was also fired for declining to cooperate with investigators looking into trading activity of ImClone’s shares anf served five months in prison.

The probe
In August 2002 , investigators requested Stewarts phone and e-mail record on the ImClone stock trade. Congressional investigators could not find any credible record . The committee did not call Stewart to testify- Stewart invoke her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. After the scandal broke , Stewart and her spokespeople declined to commented . Thus many wonder if she been straight about wonder , why wouldn’t she tell it under oath ? SEC indicated that it was ready to file civil securities fraud charges against Stewart .

The charges
On June 4 2002, a federal grand jury indicted Stewart on charges of securities fraud, conspiracy, making false statement , and obstruction of justice. It alleged that she lied to federal investigators about the stock sale, attempted to cover up her activities. The indictment further accused Stewart of deleting a computer log of the telephone message. Meanwhile, Bacavonic was also indicted on charges of making false statements, making and use false document, perjur, and obstruction of justice. Bacavonic had altered his personal notes to create the impression of a prior agreement for stop loss limit. Additionally, SEC filed a lawsuits accusing both Bacovonic and Stewart of insider trading. At her trial, The indictments for securities fraud were dropped, but the other indictments were prosecuted. As a consequence, Stewart was sentenced to serve 5 months in prison and 5 months in home detention.

Martha Stewart is convicted and sentenced to prison.

In February 2004, the judge threw out the most serious of the charges against Stewart—securities fraud. A jury convicted Stewart on four remaining charges of making false statements and conspiracy to obstruct justice. She was sentenced to serve five months in prison and five months in home detention. She finished her prison time in March 2005.

How Malaysian economy, financial markets and system would be affected by the sub prime mortgage loan crisis in 2008

Monetary Policy on Interest Rate versus Inflation
In Malaysia, as most divisions are doing well and there is no need to decline the interest rate at this time to stimulate the economy growth. Lower dollar caused stronger Ringgit and stronger economy give further support to the Ringgit. Furthermore, stronger currency does help in containing a little on inflation and this given us an optimal economy development contrast with others. So, we have a better interest level with controllable inflation and growing GDP. Therefore, value of Ringgit today is around 3.27 for 1 dollar, 2.87 for 1 Aussie dollar and 2.28 for 1 Singapore dollar.
The insignificant concern is if Federal Reserve is to lower down its interest rate further in the coming quarters. Bank Negara Malaysia may face the stress to lower its rate and lessen the upwarding pressures on Ringgit that may harm industry of export and the potential global funds that looking for a higher return to Malaysia. In general, local front interest rate is steady and potentially heading south. Commodities prices will still be a potential set back with upward pressure for the Fed and BNM when managing monetary policy through interest rate. That means which both Malaysia property and stock market will take advantage from stable to a potential lower interest rate if it occurred. The only concern is hot fund will become speculative and re-generate another 1993 bull run and then move away. This will not be a good thing to the economy.


Currency Strategy
For the local front, Ringgit is already undervalued when all ASEAN currencies recovered from the currency crisis at year 1997. Some other currencies are even above the pre-crisis level. We could see Ringgit to move further around 3.0 to 3.1 levels depending on our Bank Negara’s policy. In fact, Ringgit should be traded around 3.0 to 3.2 levels due to BNM interference in 2007; it has closed around 3.3 to 3.4 level against US dollar in 2007. The cause is simple that it is Malaysia’s culture to protect the local manufacturing in order for them to have enough time to change into a high value added industry or move upstream before it is getting hurt by stronger Ringgit that still in a situation to compete cost with China.
In term of currency market trend, there is further sign that falling dollar can be good for US market and strengthening Ringgit trend will invite more local and foreign buyers for Malaysia property and a steady Malaysia economy. Needless to worry that cost of materials will continue to increase in 2008 giving more potential upward trend for local property price.

Stock Market
Contagion from the US sub prime crisis is expected to be limited to the capital markets as foreign hedge funds unwind their positions in Malaysia securities. The economic impact will depend on whether the sub prime crisis in the United States cascades into the real economy and affects employment and consumption, which economists say is not happening at the moment. The unwinding of sub prime debt and its problems has been snowballing in the United States over the past few weeks. Fear finally gripped the market when American Home Mortgage Investment Corp said that it could no longer fund home loans and might liquidate assets.
On KLCI front, it will breach 1500 level in 2008. So that will be many matured emerging markets have move up a lot in 2007 like Hang Seng, STI, KOSPI, Shang Hai SE, AllORDS, many global funds may find expensive to invest in those markets and they are higher require for higher return. Thus, Malaysia sound economy and most valuation of stocks are still relatively cheaper than those mentioned market above. Fund managers may turn aggressively into KLSE and this year potentially can be another good year for KLCI. Further supports are national election is under way, 9MP is still on going, tough corporate profits, regionalized results for some blue chips, lower corporate tax, stable to lower interest rate trend, positive fiscal policies from budget 2007/08 will create strong support to the stock market.
With Dow Jones able to hold up well and may re-challenge new high before end of year and KLCI is now set to go for another target at 1600 level. Stock market will give a sturdy support for another rally in 2008 for Malaysia property market. But bear in mind, in Malaysia, nothing is fast moving up due to our protectionism culture except Call Warrant traded in KLSE. In general, bullish from stock market that will spill out over to property market as well.


Growth of GDP
The Malaysian government’s aim that growth of GDP in 2008 is 6 to 6.5 percent could be at risk if the US sub prime mortgage crisis deepens and creates a steep drop in external demand. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) showed it ids expecting Malaysian growth to slow to 5.6 percent in 2008 from the 5.8 percent estimated for 2007.
The weaker outlook for the advanced economies is likely to slow down the growth of export to going forward. It is also slower demand for Asia’s exports and electronic goods in particular and the likelihood of further international financial market turmoil are particular negative aspect concerns. In September, 2007 the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila-based multilateral institutions were announced that it is expecting GDP of Malaysia will grow up 5.7 percent in 2008.
However, both the IMF and ADB numbers are lower than the official growth targets because there is a downside risk to the official predict as growth of export has already been slowing down. Malaysian export growth is highly reliant on demand from the US but the outlook for the world's major economy does not look good as chances are that the sub prime turmoil is not over yet and is likely to get worse. The latest trade figures showed that Malaysian exports to the US fell 12 percent from last year, suggesting that the slowdown in the US has already filtered down. The Malaysian economy grew 5.6 percent in the first half, somewhat short of the official was aim that 6.0 percent.
The government has recently announced additional measures to enhance the domestic economy and wish to maintain growth and to guard it from any external distresses.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is set to announce the East Coast Economic Region (ECER) which is one of the three growth projects outlined in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP), the government invest RM200 billion on development blueprint which will run through year 2010.
Malaysia has set motivated investment goals for the development projects but analysts are not impressed with the progress so far. So, the three Corridors have helped to refresh investment interest, but actual investment commitments have been slow in coming.

Export of Malaysia
Malaysia's exports grew more slowly than expected at 2007 at 2.7 percent as shipments of electrical and electronic products shrank, but growth is expected to pick up in 2008..
Exports grew up to RM605.1 billion in 2007 as increasing sales to emerging markets such as China helped offset a slowdown in shipment to the United States, the country's top trading partner. Imports grew 4.9 percent last year to RM504.6 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of RM100.53 billion. Total trade hit a record RM1.1097 trillion it was grow up 3.7 percent from 2006.
Despite volatile global oil prices and a possible U.S. economic slowdown and make Malaysia's exports are expected to grow at 2008 in line with a World Bank forecast of 3.3 percent growth in the world economy and 7.6 percent growth in global trade.
These are difficult times but also confident exports will continue to be on upward trend, hovering around the global average forecast. Although we can see a better state of economy in the U.S. and other major markets, and continued growth in emerging markets, but we do not see that why Malaysian exports cannot expand.
Export growth last year came primarily from traditional and emerging markets such as Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan and the Netherlands, helping to equalize a 14.5 percent decline in exports to the U.S. Then, exports of electrical and electronic goods contracted 5.2 percent, but are likely to bounce back this year, advanced by a projected 7.7 percent rise in global semiconductor sales and local manufacturing expansion. Otherwise, manufactured products accounted for around 75 percent of Malaysia's total exports last year. Crude oil and other mineral fuels contributed 14 percent, while palm oil and other agriculture products accounted for another 9 percent.
Economists said Malaysia's export growth in 2007, which was a quick fall from expansion of 10.3 percent in 2006, was weaker than expected due to the U.S. sub prime crisis. The slowdown in U.S. demand has affected not just Malaysia but the region. We can expect have an insignificant recovery this year, backed by strong demand for petroleum and palm oil. The strengthening of the local currency is not a concern for exporters. Malaysia's managed float of the Ringgit provided "an element of stability" to the Ringgit. The Malaysian Ringgit, which has risen 2 percent so far in 2008, was trading at 3.243 to the U.S. dollar. If the currency is functioning against exporters, they should be competent to factor in this aspect b y being more competitive.

Why Invest In Stocks?

Investing means making your money work for you by getting your money to generate more money. Investing in stocks has consistently proven to be one of the most profitable forms of investment available.

The benefits include:
You can Immediate Buy or Sell so you can sell part of your investment any time.
Very low transaction cost.
The freedom to work at your own place, at your pace in your own time.
Easy monitoring, you just log in to the market from anywhere in the world.
Being able to maximise returns whilst spreading your risk.
A predictable form of investment if you know what you’re doing.
Putting you in control and freeing you of fund management fees.
Considerable tax advantages.

Things to watch out for:
The market can be a volatile place.
You must acquire knowledge of what you are doing.
You must monitor your investments.
You must learn the discipline to enter and exit the market on entry and exit signals.

For my personal advice, high risk high return, you must have the extra money as capital, this is investment not gambling. Be smart in your investment planning, analyse the market before you invest, don't invest all your money because changes in stock market can't 100percent to let you make sure that you can beat the market or forecast the stock price successfully.

Overview of The Malaysian Dual Banking System

Malaysia is the unique country to implement the dual banking system which called as a full fledged Islamic banking system operating on a parallel basis with a full fledged conventional banking system. Then, not only do the two banking systems work on a parallel basis and they also operate fundamentally the similar set of banking infrastructure.

The Malaysia’s model has taken some advantages while contrasted to the banking systems of other countries. The range of Islamic banking products and services in a dual banking system tend to be wider when compared to the single Islamic system. In this dual banking system, the Islamic banks cannot afford to be self-satisfied because they operate in a competitive and dynamic situation. On the other hand, the financial institutions of single Islamic system model would not have a similar inducement to enlarge the range of the Islamic banking products and services as the possibility of domestic customers shifting away to the conventional system does not rise.

In addition, the products and services of the Islamic banking in the dual system can also be expected to have a higher level of sophistication contrasted to the Islamic banking products of the single Islamic system from perspective of wider range of services. In the international conventional banking system, innovations are necessary over the time so new products announce one stream very regularly. In a dual system of banking, such innovations will rapidly get their way to the domestic conventional banking system. The Islamic bankers operating in the dual system would have no choice but to create alike sophisticated products on an Islamic basis. This will be a continuing process, whereby the level of sophistication in the Islamic banking system will incessantly be upgraded.

Today, Malaysia has been successful in executing a dual banking system and has emerged as the first nation to have a full-fledged Islamic system operating abreast with the conventional banking system. The goal to establish a widespread Islamic banking and finance system has created a lot of effect to the non-bank Islamic financial intermediaries which started to offer Islamic financial products and services. Such institutions include the takaful companies, the savings institutions and the developmental financial institutions.