Word: kott
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Dates: during 1996-1996
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Your report on [discount brokerage company] JB Oxford is replete with erroneous inferences and inaccuracies [BUSINESS, Dec. 9]. Extensive information provided to your reporter by the company was simply omitted from the story. You referred to [JB Oxford consultant] Irving Kott as "the power behind" the firm who wants "to stay out of sight." The fact is that not the board, management or Kott would describe himself as "the power behind" our company...
...told your reporter, Kott cannot make policy, hire, fire or otherwise commit the company. Kott's role as a consultant has been written about, with the company's cooperation, in a number of major news and business publications since 1993 as well as disclosed to regulators...
Your story also indicates that Oxford "hotly denied" allegations that our firm was engaging in dubious practices associated with Kott. But we were not asked about any specific incidents. We now see in the story vague references to complaints from three customers about "price-manipulation schemes," but since we were not given details, it was virtually impossible to respond. Suffice it to say, we have not received complaints or inquiries that purport to suggest price manipulation at JB Oxford. Your reporter's allegation is false. Our company executes or clears approximately 3 million trades per year, as you noted...
...date, JB Oxford has never seen fit to inform its shareholders of the key role Kott plays at the company. Although most of Oxford's customers and stockholders are in the dark, U.S. securities regulators have known for years that Kott is connected to JB Oxford. When regulators have looked into the matter, Oxford has assured them that Kott is nothing more than a consultant...
Long before arriving at JB Oxford, Kott ran other brokerage firms by operating through front men. Authorities weren't fooled. In his native Quebec, for instance, regulators yanked the license of one brokerage, L.J. Forget, citing Kott as the secret mastermind. Dutch authorities came to the same conclusion about First Commerce. Kott-related bucket shops have also been shut down in Britain and Luxembourg. In the U.S., by contrast, by calling himself a consultant, Kott has an ongoing license to work his stock-market alchemy...