New York (HedgeCo.Net) – CEO and Chairman of Overstock.com Patrick Byrne took out a strange full page advert in the Wall Street Journal in order to mock SAC Capital’s Steve Cohen, calling him a “Sith Lord.”

Byrne become known for his campaign against the practice of naked short selling. Byrne says it has been used in violation of securities law to hurt the price of his and other companies’ stock. Under his direction, Overstock.com has filed two lawsuits alleging improper acts by Wall Street firms, a hedge fund, and an independent research firm.

“Cohen’s life work is being destroyed,” he told Business Insider, “I feel good. Shooting SAC Capital dead and throwing all of its employees into the streets is simply civilization scraping some dog s**t off its shoe.  I felt it was time I spent $100k on a derisive ad in order to say that.”

“Eight years ago I was roundly criticized by coming out publicly and saying, in brief: A network of dirty hedge funds were practicing all kinds of dicey practices, including insider trading and naked short selling (and being serial killers of firms in the process),” Byrne said in a statement. “The SEC was not doing its job protecting our markets because it is a captured regulator, and this combination was destabilizing the system.”

“Also that the mastermind, the Napoleon of crime, so to speak, was someone I initially identified as the “Sith Lord” of all that was evil and wrong on Wall Street. In the months after, I gradually dropped broader and broader public hints that I was talking about Stevie Cohen. Of course, through all of this my claims were spun, ridiculed, and mocked.”

“Besides, if you’re not going to kick a man when he’s down, when are you going to kick him?” Bryne said.

Editing by Alex Akesson
For HedgeCo.net
alex@hedgeco.net
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership in HedgeCo.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!