RE: from the UEX board-redwings6...we all are getting screwed !
What a system !
This firm took over Westind. In 2004 they were charged by the SEC and fined 12 million. I posted a excerpt from that report. Sounds like they up too their old tricks again. IMO
Thomas Weisel Partners engaged in acts and practices that created and maintained inappropriate influence by investment banking over research analysts. Thomas Weisel Partners analysts worked as a team with the firm's investment bankers and were deeply involved in the firm's efforts to pitch and win investment banking business. Firm analysts also participated in pitches for investment banking business and prepared portions of pitchbooks used in such solicitations. Some pitchbooks contained information that implied to issuers that Thomas Weisel Partners would provide positive research coverage if selected for an investment banking transaction, and that such coverage could result in rising stock prices for those companies. The firm's investment bankers also evaluated the firm's research analysts and those performance evaluations were considered in setting the analysts' compensation.
In certain instances, Thomas Weisel Partners issued research reports that contained exaggerated or unwarranted claims and/or opinions for which there was no reasonable basis. For example, the Thomas Weisel Partners analyst covering InfoSpace, Inc. maintained a buy rating on the stock in January through July 2001, while, during the same time period, privately telling colleagues in e-mails, among other things, that InfoSpace is "dead $" and "I can't . . . believe that I still have [InfoSpace] as a buy rating. I need a drink."