Market Manipulation

IN THE FALL of 2002, two international firms made headlines in the United States for their involvement in market manipulation. Specifically, Enron Corporation and Tyco International were charged with artificially inflating the value of their firms' respective stock. For example, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found that Enron had manipulated the price of its stock and hid the related transactions. There were several other large firms also charged in this time period, culminating in several task forces, commissions, reports, media coverage and ultimately resulting in structural reforms.

Manipulation has been formally defined by Blacks' Law Dictionary: “A series of transactions involving the buying or selling of a security for the purpose of creating a false or misleading appearance of active trading or to raise or depress ...