Overstock CEO resigns after admitting part of political espionage in 2016 election.


www.globenewswire.com

Overstock.com CEO Comments on Deep State, Withholds Further Comment

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 12, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK) CEO Patrick M. Byrne has released the following statement: “Sara...
www.globenewswire.com www.globenewswire.com
Archive: http://archive.fo/nqxCE

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 12, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK) CEO Patrick M. Byrne has released the following statement:
“Sara Carter has published two articles relating the following claims of mine:
  1. Starting in 2015 I (operating under the belief that I was helping legitimate law enforcement efforts) assisted in what are now known as the ‘Clinton Investigation’ and the ‘Russian Investigation’ (in fact, I am the notorious ‘missing Chapter 1’ of the Russian investigation). It was the third time in my life I helped the Men in Black: the first was when my friend Brian Williams was murdered, and the second was when I helped the M.I.B. shake up Wall Street a decade ago. Unfortunately, this third time turned out to be less about law enforcement and more about political espionage conducted against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump (and to a lesser degree, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz).
  2. In July 2018 I put the pieces together. I immediately (last July) came forward to a Congressman and a senior military officer, to the Department of Justice this April, and (upon my Omaha Rabbi reminding me of my duty as a citizen late this June) to a small set of journalists this summer. Ms. Carter was among them. Her two stories are accurate.
Having confirmed Ms. Carter’s two articles, I have fulfilled those citizenship obligations of which my Rabbi reminded me. I will speak no more on the subject. Instead, having lived in places lacking Rule of Law and having witnessed the consequences of its absence, I plan on sitting back and watching the United States Department of Justice re-establish Rule of Law in our country.”
About Overstock.com
Overstock.com, Inc Common Shares (NASDAQ:OSTK) / Digital Voting Series A-1 Preferred Stock (Medici Ventures’ tZERO platform:OSTKO) / Series B Preferred (OTCQX:OSTBP) is an online retailer and technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Its leading e-commerce website sells a broad range of new products at low prices, including furniture, décor, rugs, bedding, home improvement, and more. The online shopping site, which is visited by nearly 40 million customers a month, also features a marketplace providing customers access to millions of products from third-party sellers. Overstock was the first major retailer to accept cryptocurrency in 2014, and in the same year founded Medici Ventures, its wholly-owned subsidiary developing and accelerating blockchain technologies to democratize capital, eliminate middlemen, and re-humanize commerce. Overstock regularly posts information about the company and other related matters on the Newsroom and Investor Relations pages on its website, Overstock.com.
O, Overstock.com, O.com, Club O, Main Street Revolution, and Worldstock are registered trademarks of Overstock.com, Inc. O.biz and Space Shift are also trademarks of Overstock.com, Inc. Other service marks, trademarks and trade names which may be referred to herein are the property of their respective owners.
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact. Additional information regarding factors that could materially affect results and the accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained herein may be found in the Company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2019, which was filed with the SEC on August 8, 2019, and any subsequent filings with the SEC.
SOURCE: Overstock.com, Inc.

Whew lad, is all I gotta say.
 
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"upon my Omaha Rabbi reminding me of my duty as a citizen late this June) to a small set of journalists this summer"
"Having confirmed Ms. Carter’s two articles, I have fulfilled those citizenship obligations of which my Rabbi reminded me. "
Every fucking time, without fail.

"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: /pol/ was right again." -Anonymous
 
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How the fuck does selling furniture on the Internet result in taking part in political espionage? Does their ad of having colored people in their ad makes people want to not vote for Trump and turn them into violent people?
 
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Here's an article that isn't written like it's having a seizure:

www.bloomberg.com

Patrick Byrne’s Overstock Exit Came After Admission He Romanced Russian

Patrick Byrne finally gave his critics the flameout they’ve been predicting for years.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com

Patrick Byrne finally gave his critics the flameout they’ve been predicting for years.



In a 1,600-word email statement in which he vowed to disappear “for some time,” Byrne, 56, resigned as chief executive officer and board member of Overstock.com, the online retailer he’s led for 20 years.



In a series of public announcements the last two weeks, the flamboyant entrepreneur cited entanglements with the “deep state” that included cooperating with law enforcement agents he called “Men in Black” with their “Clinton Investigation” and “Russia Investigation.” Byrne said he’d been romantically involved with Maria Butina, a Russian operative jailed for failing to register as a foreign agent. When it came to explaining how these confessions fit together, and why they forced his resignation, Byrne has proved less than coherent.



“While I believe that I did what was necessary for the good of the country, for the good of the firm, I am in the sad position of having to sever ties with Overstock,” Byrne wrote in the Thursday statement.



Overstock.com Sales Rise To $264.3 Million From Year Earlier

Patrick Byrne

Byrne’s bizarre comments -- contained in today’s statement, in an Aug. 12 release and a New York Times interview published Aug. 15 -- come as little surprise to followers of his career. After all, this is the e-tail impresario and cryptocurrency and blockchain evangelist who espoused grassy-knoll theories about Wall Street and the evil -- and unnamed -- “Sith Lord” hedge fund manager who conspired to take him down.


He likened Overstock’s crypto ambitions to Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine and joked on a conference call in recent weeks about loaning office space to the Securities and Exchange Commission amid an investigation into the company’s tZero blockchain push.

Byrne has talked about the dark underbelly of Wall Street, been spoofed in the tabloids with UFOs hovering over his head and accused journalists of performing sex for access. He launched Overstock in 1999 as a sort of Internet garage sale.

His departure takes effect Thursday. He’ll be succeeded by director Jonathan Johnson on an interim basis. Johnson has been with the company for nearly 17 years and recently served as president of Overstock’s blockchain business, Medici Ventures.

Confused Investors
Passages in Byrne’s Aug. 14 release bewildered investors and left some wondering about his stability. The statement quoted Byrne as saying the probes were “less about law enforcement and more about political espionage.” He elaborated in the Times interview, saying he went public this month because of concern about the U.S. government’s prosecution of Butina, who is serving an 18-month prison sentence.

Butina is a self-styled Russian gun-rights activist who befriended senior officials from the National Rifle Association and Republican Party in the run-up to the 2016 election. Aspects of Byrne’s story remain fuzzy, but some of it can be fashioned from the Times’s account of its interview with him, Overstock’s statements and articles published on the website of a Fox News contributor named Sara Carter, which Byrne “confirmed.”

In those, Byrne is depicted as becoming involved with Butina after they met in 2015, growing suspicious of her as she pressed for information on Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, notifying the FBI of their interactions, then coming to regret the handling of her prosecution.

Overstock shares surged as much as 18% Thursday after the announcement and later pared the gain to 10%. Before climbing, shares had lost nearly a quarter of their value since the company published his comments on Aug. 12. The stock had gained 85% this year before last week’s statement.

Stock catalyst
“This is a tremendous catalyst for the stock,” said D.A. Davidson’s Tom Forte, one of two Wall Street analysts covering Overstock. “I think the latest controversy was one too many.”


Overstock has been considering a sale of its online retail business and Byrne’s departure will probably accelerate that process, according to Forte, who is bullish on Overstock.

“I think his legacy will be the shareholder value created on the blockchain investments,” he said. “He saw the writing on the wall early on.”

For all his weird, inspired and ill-considered pronouncements, Byrne was done in not by something he said, but by his relationship with a Russian operative. How long he remains out of the public eye is one more mystery in his volatile life story.

— With assistance by Bob Ivry
 
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Does anyone really care about this? (soon we probably will have incentive once the connections of who was in this are revealed)

They just had him on CNN where he says James Comey knew about this whole situation with him being forced to date this girl by the FBI and that there were 2 other people that also knew about this, but those people weren't Tramp or Obama. He also said that the FBI was trying to pin the Russian conspiracy on Tramp, not the Democrats...which is weird.
 
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Freddy Freaker said:
I'm really fucking confused? He was spying on Trump AND Hillary? Russian NRA chick was involved? I didn't know about overstock getting into blockchain and crypto stuff. My inner conspiracy theorist is saying theres something with that too. This story is a mess
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Russian NRA chick is my waifu.
 
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