Edward Pastorini Unmasked as Theodore Roxford

Back in April, Bloomberg's Stewart Bailey reported on a possible takeover in the gold mining industry: "Gold Fields May Receive Bid From Pastorini-Led Group". The story was met by guffaws in London, and now the other shoe has dropped: "Edward Pastorini" has been unmasked. His real name, it turns out, is Theodore Roxford, and he makes something of a career out of bogus takeover bids:

U.S. securities regulators on Friday sued a partnership and one of its founders, alleging they made bogus offers to buy such well-known entities as Sony Corp. and Playboy Enterprises Inc. in an effort to manipulate their stock prices...
Roxford also made offers for Zapata Corp., Edgetech Services Inc. and PeopleSupport Inc., according to the complaint.

Even Theodore Roxford is a made-up name, it turns out: "Pastorini" was born Lawrence David Niren, and has sometimes answered as well to Theodore Vakil.

I'm glad that Roxford is being brought to justice. Memo to the SEC, in case you care: I have eight emails from "Edward Pastorini," sent between April 17 and April 22, during which he sent me details of his Gold Fields offer and offered to set up an interview between me, him, and his mining-company "partners".

Interestingly, Bloomberg hasn't published anything about Pastorini since its editor in chief, Matthew Winkler, told the New York Times back in April that he would continue to investigate the story. What more are they waiting for?