Capital market fraud update

["Lisa & Ian Murray" <seamus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Paris, Tuesday, September 12, 2000
[this one raises the specter of that age old social science question: do
events in history refute a hypothesis? full article
http://www.iht.com/IHT/TODAY/TUE/FIN/hot.2.html ]

U.S. Options Exchanges Censured in Competition Suit


The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Four U.S. options exchanges reached an agreement Monday with
the Justice Department in a lawsuit alleging they had illegally stifled
competition in the $260 billion options market by refusing to list the same
stock options on more than one exchange.
At the same time, the four exchanges - the American Stock Exchange, part of
the Nasdaq Stock Market; the Chicago Board Options Exchange; the Pacific
Exchange, and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange - agreed to be censured by the
Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly failing to enforce traders'
compliance with their own rules. Without admitting or denying wrongdoing,
they also agreed to spend $77 million on market surveillance and
enforcement.

The exchanges also agreed to a consent decree in the Justice Department's
civil antitrust lawsuit that, if approved by a federal judge in Washington,
would resolve the suit. Under the decree, the exchanges would be prohibited
from continuing their options listing agreement and from interfering with
exchanges that seek to list options already listed on another exchange. U.S.
regulators have been investigating alleged improprieties at the options
exchanges since last year.