I was able to get the AP story, its not JY, but someone else
publishing a withdrawn doc... more like Gilmore finding that withdrawn
book in a tree-library.. these are financial not intel secrets...
Jul 5, 2000 - 01:07 PM
Deleted Documents Do Double
Duty on Rogue Web Site Via AP
BARNES CNET News.com
The Associated Press
A Web site trying to make a name for itself by
publishing deleted Securities and Exchange
Commission filings scored a coup recently when a
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. clerk accidentally filed a
document outlining $20 billion worth of the firm's
holdings.
Fran Finnegan, a former investment banker with EF
Hutton and First Boston, posted the document his Web
site, Finnegan O'Malley & Company Inc.'s SEC Info,
after receiving it through a regular feed from the SEC on
May 15.
New York-based Lehman realized on June 7, however,
that the document gave a far more detailed look at its
investments than it intended. It asked the SEC to
remove the filing and replace it with a pared-down list of
investments.
The SEC complied, as did several other Web sites that
post such filings. But not Finnegan, who not only refuses
to delete withdrawn filings but actively promotes their
availability on his site.
Finnegan, 49, realized what he had after a Lehman
attorney phoned him and requested that the 69-page,
confidential document be removed.
"I said, 'Jeez, we have an architectural structure, and we
have a business plan.' He'd have to pay us a lot of
money to change our business plan. Then I got to
thinking, maybe I should talk to some people and get
some publicity out of it," Finnegan said.
In a business where traffic means everything, Finnegan
used Lehman's misstep as an opportunity to distinguish
SEC Info from the millions of other financial posted, but
he has highlighted it in yellow at the top of his site.
Publicity about the posting has resulted in a surge in
traffic. Finnegan also said two companies have inquired
about buying his site, although he won't say which ones.
Lehman spokesman Bill Ahearn said the firm is not
concerned about the posting "because it was such an
old filing. It's information as of March 31, and it's also
incomplete."
Still, Ahearn revealed his irritation with Finnegan, calling
his refusal to remove the document "a very clever
publicity stunt."
Finnegan, who lives in San Francisco with his wife and
two sons, ages 7 and 9, is the first to agree. "I wanted to
draw attention to us," he said. "(Posting deleted SEC
filings) is one of the things that makes us exclusive, and
I'm trying to get in the mode of getting us well-known."
He said he is only using this "tabloid" tactic to highlight
his site, which he sees as an information tool for
bankers, investors and analysts. "It's not really a juicy
site as much as practical," Finnegan said. "My target
market is investment bankers."
Finnegan's other victory came last March in the form of
Bill Gates' Social Security number, which was
accidentally filed along with a routine SEC filing. It is
also highlighted on SEC Info. "Why did I highlight it?" he
asked rhetorically. "Just kind of for the fun of it, and
because I'm trying to say, 'This is what we have.'"
The SEC does not approve of posting deleted filings
but says there is little it can do.
"Naturally, we delete (mistaken) filings, and we would
hope (our subscribers) would delete them, but we don't
have any contractual control over them," said Rick
Heroux, the Edgar program manager for the SEC. "The
burden is on the filer to make sure what they send us is
what they want to send us."
SEC Info is one of 21 companies that pay $44,000
annually to receive an automatic transmission of all
documents, according to the SEC.
