On March 11, 2008 a mystery buyer negotiated a special purchase of $1.7 million of very short term put options for Bear Stearns, a speculation unusual enough to spark news coverage, and which one commentator described as "not even on the page of rational behavior unless you know something". Just 10 days later, those options were worth $270 million, after an unprecedented surge of naked short selling (release of fictional shares into the market). The official narrative on this is confused at best, with contradictory commercially-controlled media reports of whether the SEC officially investigated this. We begin the show this week with a report into this from 2009 courtesy of deepcapture.com.

Our main piece this time, from SEC whistleblower and investigator, Gary Aguirre, tells in detail how he gradually became a whistleblower just because of his determination not to be a party to criminal wrongdoing. We hear how he was victimized by the the SEC, which used the corporate media to try to undermine his credibility while using an array of mendacious legal tactics to deprive him of the evidence he needed. Ultimately, we hear how good fortune combined with his own legal skills - and an anonymous 'deep throat'-style informer - to prevail over the SEC and secure a legal judgment in his favor. His experience as a whistleblower fits with the analysis of episode 715 that whistleblower protection is worse than useless. In the ensuing Q & A, he notes that had he not been rich, lucky and a skilled lawyer, then his chances of successfully being rewarded as a whistleblower might have been very different.