Exhibit 5: Deposition of Brendan Clarke (Dkt. 567-5, S.D. Fla.)
Summary
Exhibit 5 (Document 567-5) in Case 1:21-md-02989-CMA, entered on the FLSD docket June 7, 2023, is a 152-page transcript, marked confidential, of the virtual videotaped deposition of Brendan Clarke, taken by Defendant on March 24, 2023 before Sharon Pearce of Veritext Legal Solutions. Phillip Kim, Laurence M. Rosen and Michael Cohen of The Rosen Law Firm appear for Plaintiffs and Carolyn Young of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP for Defendant, with Howard Brodsky as videographer. Ms. Young opens the examination, asking whether Clarke has ever been deposed before, to which the answer is no, and the record closes at 1:03 p.m., Central Daylight Time.
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Cite this document
“Exhibit 5: Deposition of Brendan Clarke (Dkt. 567-5).”
Original at archive.org. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2023-06-07-covid-era-misc-48262586-1/
, SHA-256 4826258680fc5c14b1559aaaea79b5fa28310f13437eca700406881eaacaa293.Full text
Case 1:21-md-02989-CMA Document 567-5 Entered on FLSD Docket 06/07/2023 Page 1 of
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Exhibit 5
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Page 1
1
2 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
3 Case No. 1:21-MD-2989-CMA
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x
4
IN RE JANUARY 2021 SHORT SQUEEZE
5 TRADING LITIGATION
6 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x
7 March 24, 2023
9:05 a.m. CDT
8
9 ***** CONFIDENTIAL *****
10 Virtual Videotaped
11 Deposition of BRENDAN CLARKE,
12 taken by Defendant, pursuant to Notice,
13 held remotely, before Sharon Pearce, RDR,
14 CRR, CRC, NYRCR, a Registered Diplomate
15 Reporter, Certified Realtime Reporter, and
16 Notary Public of the State of New York.
17
18 * * *
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
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1
2 A P P E A R A N C E S:
3
4 THE ROSEN LAW FIRM
Attorneys for Plaintiffs
5 275 Madison Avenue
40th Floor
6 New York, New York 10016
7 BY: PHILLIP KIM, ESQ.
LAURENCE M. ROSEN, ESQ.
8 MICHAEL COHEN, ESQ.
9
10
11 CRAVATH, SWAINE & MOORE LLP
Attorneys for Defendant
12 825 Eighth Avenue
Suite 4043B
13 New York, New York 10019
14 BY: CAROLYN YOUNG, ESQ.
15
16
17
18 ALSO PRESENT:
19 HOWARD BRODSKY, Videographer
20 VINEET SURAPANENI, law clerk,
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
21
22 * * *
23
24
25
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1 CLARKE - CONFIDENTIAL
2 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: Good morning.
3 Here begins the video recorded virtual
4 remote deposition of Brendan Clarke
5 appearing from his location in
6 La Grange Park, Illinois. This
7 deposition is taken by the defendant
8 in re January 2021 Short Squeeze
9 Trading Litigation, Case
10 No. 1:21-MD-2989-CMA, in the
11 United States District Court, Southern
12 District of Florida.
13 Today is Friday, March 24, 2023,
14 and the time is approximately
15 9:05 a.m. Central Daylight Time. My
16 name is Howard Brodsky, and I am the
17 legal video specialist in association
18 with Veritext Legal Solutions with
19 offices located in New York, New York.
20 The court reporter is Sharon Pearce in
21 association with Veritext.
22 And counsel have stipulated that
23 the court reporter shall enter all
24 appearances for this proceeding into
25 the stenographic court record and have
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2 further stipulated and agreed that the
3 court reporter may swear in the
4 deponent remotely.
5 Will the court reporter please
6 swear in the witness.
7 B R E N D A N C L A R K E,
8 having first been duly sworn by
9 Sharon Pearce, the Notary Public,
10 was examined and testified as
11 follows:
12 EXAMINATION
13 BY MS. YOUNG:
14 Q. Good morning, Mr. Clarke.
15 A. Good morning.
16 Q. My name is Carolyn Young. I'm
17 an attorney from Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
18 And we represent the defendants in this
19 matter, Robinhood.
20 Have you ever been deposed
21 before?
22 A. No.
23 Q. Okay. So I'll go over some
24 basics before we begin.
25 Do you understand that you've
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2 been sworn in and your testimony today is
3 given under oath?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Is there any reason why you
6 cannot give complete and truthful
7 testimony today?
8 A. No.
9 Q. The court reporter is taking
10 down everything that we say. So it's
11 important that you provide a verbal
12 response to any questions. For example,
13 nodding your head or shaking your head
14 won't be recorded by the court reporter.
15 In a similar vein, let's just
16 try to make sure we don't talk over each
17 other. I know that's challenging
18 sometimes on Zoom. But I'll get through
19 my whole question, and I'll make sure to
20 wait until you get through your whole
21 answer before I jump back in.
22 During the course of the
23 deposition, your counsel might object to
24 some of -- the form of the questions that
25 I've asked. That objection is just for
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2 the record. Unless your counsel
3 specifically instructs you not to answer a
4 question, then you should proceed to
5 answer the question even after you
6 objects. Okay?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. If you don't understand any
9 question that I've asked you, please just
10 let me know, and I will clarify it. Same
11 thing if you don't hear any question
12 fully, just let me know, and I'll repeat
13 the question.
14 We'll try to take sort of
15 regular breaks every hour ish. But if you
16 do need to take a break at any point, just
17 let me know, and I'll find a good place
18 for us to stop.
19 Did you take any steps to
20 prepare for your deposition today?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. What steps did you take?
23 A. I met with the Rosen legal team
24 and reviewed documents.
25 Q. When did you meet with the Rosen
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2 legal team?
3 A. Over the past two days.
4 Q. Okay. How many times?
5 A. Twice.
6 Q. And how long were those
7 meetings?
8 A. Approximately two hours each.
9 Q. And so you mentioned you
10 reviewed some documents to prepare for
11 this deposition?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Did any of those documents help
14 refresh your recollection about the events
15 in this lawsuit?
16 A. No.
17 Q. Other than your counsel, did you
18 speak with anyone else to prepare for your
19 deposition?
20 A. No.
21 Q. Have you spoken with anyone else
22 about this deposition other than your
23 counsel?
24 A. No.
25 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
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2 Asked and answered.
3 Q. Other than meeting with your
4 counsel for four hours and reviewing some
5 documents, did you take any other
6 preparatory steps before this deposition?
7 A. No.
8 Q. Okay. Have you discussed this
9 lawsuit with anybody other than your
10 attorneys?
11 A. No.
12 Q. Have you ever been a plaintiff
13 in a lawsuit before?
14 A. No.
15 Q. Have you ever been sued before?
16 A. No.
17 Q. Have you ever been in a criminal
18 proceeding before?
19 A. No.
20 Q. Have you ever participated in a
21 class action?
22 A. No.
23 Q. Are you currently employed?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. What is your job?
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2 A. My official title is operations
3 analyst.
4 Q. At what company?
5 A. Morningstar.
6 Q. What is Morningstar?
7 A. It's a financial services
8 company. They basically sell software
9 service to investment managers and the
10 general public.
11 Q. Okay. And what do you do in
12 your role as operations analyst?
13 A. I more or less just manage kind
14 of back-end responsibilities for one of
15 Morningstar's products called Retirement
16 Manager, so doing -- using Excel and SQL
17 for, like, data analysis and -- yeah.
18 Q. What is Retirement Manager?
19 A. It basically automates someone's
20 portfolios that they reach their input
21 retirement goal by the date at which they
22 want to retire.
23 Q. And so when you say you work on
24 the back end, is that, like, a technical
25 role?
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2 A. I would say somewhat technical.
3 Q. All right. Can you elaborate on
4 that?
5 A. I mean, I'm not coding per se,
6 but I'm using SQL and working with
7 databases.
8 Q. What kind of databases are you
9 working with?
10 A. Just standard relation
11 databases, so MySQL.
12 Q. Okay. And what kind of data are
13 you working with?
14 A. Essentially a lot of securities
15 data, so fund data, and then PII data, so
16 personally identifiable information data,
17 customer data.
18 Q. And what do you mean when you
19 say fund data?
20 A. Essentially just, you know,
21 CUSIPs, internal IDs for identifying
22 certain funds that customers use in
23 Retirement Manager.
24 Q. What kind of customers use
25 Retirement Manager?
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2 A. So there's an individual product
3 for, like, anyone that wants to use the
4 product, and then there are also, like,
5 employers that use Retirement Manager to
6 handle their -- you know, their retirement
7 plans for their employees.
8 Q. So is Morningstar a broker?
9 A. I don't know exactly.
10 Q. So let me ask you this.
11 For an individual that uses
12 Retirement Manager, are they investing
13 their funds with Morningstar?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Okay. In your role, do you
16 manage any client funds?
17 A. No.
18 Q. Does Morningstar also provide
19 services to help investors or investment
20 managers do research about particular
21 investments?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Okay. What is that service or
24 software called?
25 A. Well, they have, I mean,
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2 numerous products, if you will, for sort
3 of investment research. They have a
4 software service called Morningstar
5 Direct, and then they also have --
6 essentially their Morningstar.com product
7 is sold for that purpose.
8 Q. Okay. Can you describe those
9 two products to me, the Morningstar.com
10 and the Morningstar Direct.
11 A. So Direct is basically a
12 downloadable software that usually
13 investment managers use to get a full
14 breakdown, just many different point --
15 like, types of data on a particular
16 security or fund. And then
17 Morningstar.com similarly offers a lot of
18 data on, you know, stocks, bonds, ETFs,
19 funds that with a subscription anyone from
20 the general public could use or, you know,
21 a fund manager.
22 Q. So is Morningstar Direct
23 targeted to investment managers, or is
24 Morningstar.com is what the sort of
25 general public, as you say, would use?
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2 A. More or less, yeah.
3 Q. Okay. Do you use either of
4 those services?
5 A. I do, yes.
6 Q. Which one do you use, or either,
7 I guess?
8 A. Both.
9 Q. Okay. And what do you use those
10 for?
11 A. So Morningstar Direct I use more
12 for my actual job occasionally, and then
13 Morningstar.com I use personally.
14 Q. Okay. How do you use
15 Morningstar Direct for your job?
16 A. Just to see if a fund is
17 incepted, and it's -- like, I can pass a
18 particular identifier in, search for it,
19 and if it's a valid fund, the fund will
20 come up in Morningstar Direct.
21 Q. Okay. And how do you personally
22 use Morningstar.com?
23 A. Mostly to read news articles and
24 then also do analysis on individual
25 stocks.
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2 Q. What kind of analysis does
3 Morningstar.com let you do on individual
4 stocks?
5 A. So it's mainly useful in my
6 opinion for looking at determining if
7 certain securities are undervalued.
8 Q. And what do you mean when you
9 say undervalued?
10 A. That their fair market value is
11 above what the current stock price is.
12 Q. Okay. And when you say fair
13 market value, how would you define that?
14 A. Well, it's basically determined
15 by doing financial statement analysis.
16 It's not a super straightforward thing.
17 Q. Okay. Can you give me a little
18 more than based on financial statement
19 analysis?
20 A. Yeah. I'm not an equity
21 analyst, so it's not my, you know,
22 complete -- to my complete understanding.
23 But more or less, you know, you can assign
24 an equity certain maybe risk rating based
25 on -- you know, you can discount it as a
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2 different value essentially depending on,
3 like, you know, the beta of an equity.
4 And then you're also just looking at, you
5 know, earnings per share. Yeah.
6 Q. Okay. And so what is the goal
7 in identifying stocks where the fair
8 market value is above the stock price?
9 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
10 Q. You can answer.
11 MR. KIM: The goal of what?
12 Q. The goal of identifying stocks
13 where the fair market value is above the
14 stock price.
15 A. The goal is to purchase a
16 security less than it should be worth in
17 hopes that you can make a good return on
18 it.
19 Q. Does Morningstar have any
20 policies that restrict what securities you
21 yourself can buy and sell?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. What are those policies?
24 A. Well, for example, I -- we have
25 blackout periods where I cannot buy or
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2 sell Morningstar stock in certain dates,
3 usually near earnings announcement.
4 Q. So do the policies relate only
5 to Morningstar stock?
6 A. There are other restricted
7 securities, but they're generally not,
8 like, standard common stocks.
9 Q. What kind of stocks are they?
10 A. I'm not 100 percent sure, in all
11 honesty. But, I mean, they're very, like,
12 obscure securities that I -- I don't
13 really know the reason why they're
14 restricted per se. But --
15 Q. Okay. But so it's a restricted
16 list of particular securities.
17 A. Correct.
18 Q. Okay. So before you make a
19 trade, you have to consult that list.
20 Would that be accurate?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Okay. Are there any other steps
23 with your employer that you have to take
24 before you make an investment?
25 A. I don't think so. I think
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2 that's it.
3 Q. Okay. You have a college
4 degree; is that correct?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Okay. What degree do you hold?
7 A. I have a bachelor's degree in
8 finance and economics.
9 Q. From what school?
10 A. Marquette University.
11 Q. That's in Milwaukee?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Is that right?
14 Okay. When did you -- when did
15 you graduate?
16 A. In May of 2021.
17 Q. You provided your résumé to your
18 counsel; is that correct?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. And your résumé lists coursework
21 for your bachelor of science in finance
22 and economics. And one topic of
23 coursework is investment analysis.
24 Do you recall that?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. Okay. What does that entail?
3 A. Well, that course covered many
4 topics. More or less, I think the most
5 important aspects of the course were
6 basically just financial statement
7 analysis, trying to determine fair value
8 for a stock.
9 Q. Okay. The résumé also lists
10 coursework in financial modeling.
11 Can you tell me about that?
12 A. Yeah. So basically just
13 doing -- you know, using Excel,
14 determining the fair value of a stock,
15 using financial statements in Excel,
16 essentially.
17 Q. Okay. So your coursework in
18 financial modeling and investment analysis
19 are sort of one and the same.
20 Is that what you're saying?
21 A. More or less. I mean, there's a
22 lot of other things we did do. But I
23 can't recall everything. It was a while
24 ago.
25 Q. Other than your bachelor degree,
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2 do you have any other educational
3 credentials, like licenses or
4 certifications of any kind?
5 A. No.
6 Q. So you don't have any
7 certifications that relate to finance or
8 investing, for example.
9 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
10 A. No.
11 MR. KIM: Asked and answered.
12 A. No.
13 Q. Thank you.
14 Do you have a Facebook account?
15 A. No.
16 Q. Have you ever had a Facebook
17 account?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. When did you have that account?
20 A. I don't remember exactly, but
21 maybe back in 2013.
22 Q. When did you close that account?
23 A. I don't remember exactly.
24 Q. I guess -- sorry.
25 A better question is did you
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2 close that account?
3 A. I -- honestly, I can't remember.
4 Q. Do you recall when the last time
5 you used that account was?
6 A. No.
7 Q. Would it have been in the last
8 two years?
9 A. No.
10 Q. Do you have an Instagram
11 account?
12 A. No.
13 Q. Have you ever had an Instagram
14 account?
15 A. No.
16 Q. What about TikTok?
17 A. No.
18 Q. You've never had a TikTok
19 account?
20 A. No.
21 Q. And do you have a Twitter
22 account?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Okay. What is your Twitter
25 account handle?
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2 A. I don't remember.
3 Q. How long have you had your
4 Twitter account for? Do you recall?
5 A. I don't remember. Maybe four to
6 five years.
7 Q. How often do you use Twitter?
8 A. Infrequently.
9 Q. So would that be, you know,
10 weekly? Monthly?
11 A. I only recently downloaded it
12 again. So I hadn't been using it for
13 years prior to maybe a couple of weeks
14 ago.
15 Q. Did you provide your counsel
16 with your Twitter handle?
17 A. I can't remember.
18 Q. Okay. So we're going to mark
19 the first exhibit here, which will be
20 exhibit --
21 MR. KIM: Are we going
22 sequential?
23 MS. YOUNG: We are. But this
24 was just marked in the prior
25 deposition. So this is the previously
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2 marked Exhibit 2.
3 MR. KIM: And Brendan, they're
4 going to put this in Exhibit Share.
5 So your window, it will populate once
6 they put it up in there.
7 THE WITNESS: Okay.
8 MS. YOUNG: You'll need to
9 refresh, but we'll let you know once
10 it's dropped in there, and then you
11 can refresh.
12 THE WITNESS: Okay.
13 (Defendant's Exhibit 2, A letter
14 dated February 27, 2023, was
15 previously marked for identification.)
16 Q. Okay. You can refresh. It
17 should be -- it should be there for you.
18 A. Okay. I see it.
19 Q. Okay. So have you seen this
20 document before?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Okay. If you can scroll down to
23 what is marked as page 2, but it's the
24 third page of the PDF.
25 Do you see your name?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. The YouTube account provided
4 here is
5 Do you see that?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Is that the correct account
8 name?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Do you ever post videos to this
11 account?
12 A. No.
13 Q. Do you ever communicate with
14 other YouTube users through this account?
15 A. No.
16 Q. Do you ever post comments on
17 YouTube videos?
18 A. I mean, I'm sure I have in the
19 past, but very rarely.
20 Q. Is this account active today?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. When was the last time you used
23 this account?
24 A. Probably yesterday.
25 Q. Was that just to watch a video?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. And below the YouTube account,
4 we have a Reddit account here,
5 is that correct?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Is that your correct Reddit
8 account handle?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. You can put that to the side.
11 MS. YOUNG: Vineet, can you
12 introduce Tab 9.
13 And we're going to introduce
14 another exhibit. Okay. This will be
15 Exhibit 12, because we're going
16 sequentially from the prior
17 deposition.
18 (Defendant's Exhibit 12, Brendan
19 Clarke Reddit post history, was hereby
20 marked for identification, as of this
21 date.)
22 Q. Let me know when you can see
23 that.
24 A. I still see Exhibit 0002.
25 Q. Okay. Okay. See if you can
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2 refresh now. It should be -- should be
3 there.
4 A. Yeah. I see it.
5 Q. Do you recognize this page?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. What is it?
8 A. My Reddit post history.
9 Q. And is your Reddit account then
10 actually You can see that here
11 at the top left above "Welcome to Reddit"?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Great. And when did you create
14 this account?
15 A. I suppose four years ago.
16 Q. One of the things that you
17 posted on this account is your résumé to
18 solicit comments when you were first
19 applying for jobs; is that correct?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. You can put this exhibit to the
22 side.
23 MS. YOUNG: Vineet, can you
24 introduce Tab 23.
25 So this will be Exhibit 13.
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2 (Defendant's Exhibit 13, A
3 Reddit post and résumé, was hereby
4 marked for identification, as of this
5 date.)
6 Q. We'll let you know when you can
7 refresh when it's in there.
8 Okay. You can refresh and see
9 if you can see it.
10 A. Okay. I see it.
11 Q. Do you recognize this page?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. What is it?
14 A. Just one of my posts about my
15 résumé asking for feedback.
16 Q. Why were you asking for feedback
17 on your résumé?
18 A. Just to try and prove it to
19 increase the probability of me getting
20 interviews.
21 Q. Can you scroll to the final
22 page -- or sorry -- the second-to-last
23 page of this document.
24 A. Page 5 out of 6?
25 Q. Let me just confirm.
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2 Sorry. This will be page 6 of
3 the PDF?
4 A. Yeah. I think I see it.
5 Q. Do you recognize this résumé?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. So this is one of the résumés
8 that you -- one of the draft résumés, I
9 should say, that you posted to Reddit for
10 feedback?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. So I want to direct you under
13 "Projects," there's a section called
14 "Equity Portfolio Construction &
15 Analysis."
16 Do you see that?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. This section says that you have
19 built and analyzed equity -- three equity
20 portfolios.
21 A. Yeah.
22 Q. Can you tell me about that
23 project.
24 A. Yes. So I don't honestly
25 remember that well what course this was
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2 in, but yeah. I mean, it might have been
3 in my investment analysis class. But
4 essentially, I'm pretty sure what we did
5 is we picked -- like, we were put into
6 teams. We picked equities, and then we
7 basically used those as our portfolios,
8 and then we -- after, say, like, four
9 weeks, we, you know, analyzed the
10 portfolios based on the close of, you
11 know, X date, and we, you know, analyzed
12 who had the better, you know, alpha Sharpe
13 ratio, et cetera.
14 Q. Okay. And so you selected the
15 equities that went into these three
16 portfolios that you built.
17 A. Correct, yeah. Well, yes. I
18 built one and then analyzed three.
19 Q. Can you tell me what a Sharpe
20 ratio is?
21 A. Yeah. So it's been a while, but
22 I think it's basically for risk-adjusted
23 returns. A higher Sharpe radio, the
24 better risk-adjusted return.
25 Q. What is a risk-adjusted return?
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2 A. Basically a particular return
3 that takes into account the -- you know,
4 the risk, the riskiness of the investment
5 choices.
6 Q. Okay. How does it take that
7 riskiness into account?
8 A. Mathematically, I can't remember
9 exactly, but you look at betas of
10 securities basically.
11 Q. What is a beta of a security?
12 A. A beta is, like, a statistical
13 variable that I think measures the
14 standard deviation from, like, a mean
15 return of that security, and, like, a
16 riskier security will have more kind of,
17 you know -- be more standard deviations
18 away from the mean, so it will have a
19 higher beta.
20 Q. And this says that you built
21 regressions calculating portfolio alphas,
22 betas, and Sharpe, Treynor, and Info
23 ratios.
24 So we just talked about betas.
25 What's a portfolio alpha?
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2 A. A portfolio alpha is essentially
3 a variable for, like, determining if your
4 equity selection or equity -- or security
5 allocation was -- gave you an ex-assess
6 return relative to a benchmark.
7 Q. And what is a Treynor ratio?
8 MR. KIM: Carolyn, can we get to
9 the relevance at some point? I mean,
10 I don't want to sit here and relive
11 Mr. Clarke's entire college course
12 career. So, I mean, let's wrap this
13 up. I mean, is this going to get tied
14 into anything?
15 MS. YOUNG: Yeah. This is about
16 investing, which is why we're here
17 today. And so this is our time, and
18 we're going to go through these
19 questions. But we appreciate the
20 commentary.
21 BY MS. YOUNG:
22 Q. So this résumé indicates that
23 you calculated Treynor ratios.
24 Can you tell me what that is?
25 A. So the Treynor radio, it's --
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2 it's a more obscure ratio, same with
3 Information ratio. Honestly, I don't
4 remember the exact details.
5 Q. Is it another way to understand
6 an investment's risk-adjusted return?
7 Does that sound correct to you?
8 A. I -- I -- honestly, I don't
9 remember, but, I mean, generally, yes, all
10 of these things do that.
11 Q. At the bottom here -- so I think
12 it's on the next page of the PDF -- you
13 list some interests, one of which is
14 equity research.
15 So is this a personal interest
16 of yours? Is that why you're listing it
17 here?
18 A. More or less, yeah.
19 Q. And what is the purpose that
20 you're doing equity research on a personal
21 basis?
22 A. Just for my personal
23 investments.
24 Q. For your own investments.
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. You can put that exhibit to the
3 side.
4 MS. YOUNG: Vineet, can we do
5 Tab 25.
6 (Defendant's Exhibit 14, A
7 Reddit post and résumé, was hereby
8 marked for identification, as of this
9 date.)
10 MS. YOUNG: This will be
11 Exhibit 14.
12 Q. And it should be in your folder.
13 A. Okay. I see it.
14 Q. Okay. Do you recognize this
15 page?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Okay. Is this you posting
18 another version of your résumé on Reddit?
19 Is that correct?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Okay. Can you turn to the
22 second-to-last page again, which will be
23 the résumé.
24 A. Okay.
25 Q. And here, under "Projects," the
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2 second category is now "Equity Analysis &
3 Modeling."
4 Do you see that?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. And you list various analyses
7 that you did for particular individual
8 investments or for companies; is that
9 right?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Can you tell me about these
12 analyses that you did for these particular
13 investments.
14 A. Yeah. So this was another
15 project. So basically, we were put into
16 teams. We picked three individual
17 securities. I picked NVIDIA. And then
18 for each of the different securities,
19 we -- we used different kind of forms of
20 analysis. So there's, like, different
21 financial models you can use to determine
22 a security's fair market value.
23 So, like, in this case, I did a
24 DCF model. So -- and then the other ones,
25 there was, like, a discount dividend
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2 model. There's -- it might say it in
3 here. I don't think it does. But yeah.
4 There's other financial models you can do.
5 And there was another one. But yeah.
6 Q. So all of these financial models
7 that you were running, are they all trying
8 to get to the fair market value of a
9 stock? Would that be accurate?
10 A. More or less, yes.
11 Q. You can close out of that
12 exhibit.
13 So we've been looking at --
14 these résumés were posted on some
15 sub-Reddits -- a Financial Careers Reddit,
16 a Résumé sub-Reddit.
17 How much time would you say you
18 spend on Reddit?
19 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
20 A. I used to spend a good amount of
21 time on it. I don't have the app
22 installed anymore, though.
23 Q. Are you familiar with a
24 sub-Reddit Wallstreetbets?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. What is Wallstreetbets?
3 A. It's basically just a place
4 where a bunch of people go and give more
5 or less their opinions about certain
6 investments.
7 Q. Are you a member of that
8 sub-Reddit?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Have you ever posted or
11 commented on posts on Wallstreetbets?
12 A. I don't think I've ever posted
13 anything, and I don't really remember if
14 I've ever commented on anything.
15 Q. When did you first join
16 Wallstreetbets?
17 A. Prior to maybe really early on
18 in the whole GameStop saga.
19 Q. Do you have a sort of month in
20 mind that you would characterize as early
21 on in the saga?
22 A. Honestly, I'm not 100 percent
23 sure.
24 Q. It would have been in 2020; is
25 that correct?
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2 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
3 A. I don't know for sure, but
4 possibly, yes.
5 Q. What caused you to join that
6 sub-Reddit?
7 A. Well, it was kind of getting a
8 lot of attention on the internet through,
9 like, news articles. And so I heard about
10 it and had to check it out for myself,
11 basically.
12 Q. What was it getting attention
13 for?
14 A. Just a lot of the kind of crazy
15 bets that certain people had on certain
16 securities, people doing, you know, due
17 diligence, if you could call it that, on,
18 like, certain securities getting a lot of
19 attention.
20 Q. Okay. And when you say "due
21 diligence, if you could call it that," why
22 would you characterize it that way?
23 A. Because they're -- I mean,
24 they're doing some research on security
25 that may or may not include, like, you
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2 know, data from financial statements. But
3 at the end of the day, you know, they're
4 giving their opinion and -- yeah. It's
5 sort of, you know, research, due
6 diligence.
7 Q. Do you recall visiting
8 Wallstreetbets in January of 2021?
9 A. I can't recall exactly.
10 Q. You said earlier that you joined
11 Wallstreetbets sort of early on in the
12 GameStop saga.
13 What is the GameStop saga that
14 you're referring to?
15 A. So more or less, there was this
16 YouTuber. I think his name was, like,
17 Roaring Kitty or something. And for,
18 like, quite some time -- I'm not exactly
19 sure how long, but prior to the stock
20 price of GameStop increasing, like, a
21 great deal, he was posting, you know,
22 like, more genuine, like, analysis of the
23 company, seeing how it was undervalued,
24 you know, how its shortage risk didn't
25 represent the actual, like, fair value of
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2 the stock, and so he was purchasing the
3 stock. And then, you know, over time,
4 those videos just got more attention, and,
5 you know, then it moved to Reddit, and
6 people just started, you know, giving it
7 even more attention, et cetera.
8 Q. What kinds of things were being
9 said about GameStop at that time on
10 Reddit?
11 A. So a lot of things. I can't
12 recall exactly everything. But, you know,
13 there are people doing their own analysis,
14 like I mentioned before, you know, saying
15 why they thought the stock price should
16 increase, more or less.
17 Q. What were they saying about why
18 the price should increase for GameStop?
19 A. Some people thought it was
20 undervalued. Other people thought that,
21 you know, buying the stock, increasing the
22 price of the stock would force, like,
23 short sellers to cover their positions,
24 increasing the stock further.
25 Q. So are you referring a short
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2 squeeze when you say a short -- forcing
3 short sellers to cover their positions?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. So you recall the attempted
6 short squeeze being discussed on Reddit
7 about GameStop.
8 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
9 Q. Is that correct?
10 MR. KIM: I don't know about
11 "attempted," but object -- I don't
12 think that was his testimony. But
13 objection to form.
14 MS. YOUNG: We can remove that
15 word.
16 Q. Are you talking about the short
17 squeeze of GameStop on Reddit, being
18 discussed on Reddit?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. What was your reaction to that
21 discussion on Reddit?
22 A. I mean, at first, I thought that
23 it was just more or less entertaining.
24 Q. Why was it entertaining?
25 A. Just because, you know, I mean,
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2 after the stock price ran up a little bit,
3 I didn't think that the stock was
4 really -- I mean, my personal opinion was
5 that it wasn't fairly valued anymore. But
6 you know, people were still confident in
7 the stock, and that was just very, you
8 know, interesting and entertaining to me.
9 Q. And when you say it's your
10 personal opinion that GameStop wasn't
11 fairly valued anymore after this run-up,
12 what do you mean by that?
13 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
14 A. I mean, you know, I can't recall
15 exact details as to, like, certain price
16 or something. But, like, you know, after
17 it, you know, ran up even, like, just
18 tripled in price, you know, I didn't
19 really think that it was a fair value
20 anymore.
21 Q. Why is that?
22 A. Because, I mean, the company
23 just wasn't in a -- wasn't in a spot to
24 grow organically at that point still.
25 Q. What is your understanding of
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2 why the price was running up so much?
3 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
4 A. There were people who wanted to
5 buy the stock.
6 Q. Okay. And does it relate to the
7 short squeeze that you were talking about
8 earlier?
9 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
10 A. I don't -- I don't know for
11 sure.
12 Q. Okay. Let me rephrase that,
13 then.
14 Based on what you were seeing on
15 Wallstreetbets on Reddit at the time,
16 what's your understanding of why the price
17 was running up on GameStop?
18 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
19 You've already asked him the same
20 question.
21 Q. You can go ahead.
22 MR. KIM: Calls for speculation.
23 Lack of foundation.
24 A. Just because people were buying
25 the stock.
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2 Q. So you testified that you saw
3 people on Reddit commenting that buying
4 the stock would increase the price of
5 stock and would force short sellers to
6 cover their positions.
7 Do you recall that?
8 MR. KIM: Objection to form. It
9 mischaracterizes testimony.
10 A. Yes. Some people discussed
11 that.
12 Q. Okay. So people on
13 Wallstreetbets were discussing reasons
14 they thought the price of GameStop was
15 going to increase; is that correct?
16 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
17 A. Yes, some.
18 Q. Okay. And you recall viewing
19 those conversations on Wallstreetbets.
20 A. Yeah. I mean, some, again.
21 Q. And you mentioned you saw news
22 articles about this as well during the
23 run-up; is that correct?
24 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
25 What is "this" referring to? Are you
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2 saying this Wallstreetbets? This,
3 that, whatever else?
4 Q. Sure. So you mentioned that one
5 of the reasons that you got into
6 Wallstreetbets was because there were news
7 articles about Wallstreetbets during the
8 price run-up of GameStop; is that correct?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Do you recall what those news
11 articles said?
12 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
13 Asked and answered.
14 A. I can't remember exactly.
15 Q. Okay. Do you remember at all
16 what they said?
17 A. I -- I don't know for sure.
18 Q. I understand. But what is your
19 memory? You reference those articles.
20 That is the reason that you joined
21 Wallstreetbets.
22 What is your memory of what they
23 were saying at the time?
24 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
25 Asked and answered. He said he didn't
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2 remember. Now you're asking him to
3 guess?
4 MS. YOUNG: No. He says --
5 MR. KIM: Calls for speculation.
6 MS. YOUNG: He says, "I don't
7 know for sure."
8 Q. I'm asking you just what your
9 memory was.
10 MR. KIM: Then he didn't
11 remember.
12 MS. YOUNG: Phil, it's been
13 asked --
14 MR. KIM: Asked and answered.
15 MS. YOUNG: Okay. Your
16 objection is noted.
17 Q. You can go ahead, Mr. Clarke.
18 A. Like I said, I don't really
19 remember exactly. But, I mean, more or
20 less, they were just giving, like, a
21 summary of, you know, why -- like, why
22 this price of GameStop was, you know, so
23 volatile and also just, like, what
24 Wallstreetbets was.
25 Q. Okay. When you say that price
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2 of GameStop, the articles were noting it
3 was volatile, what does that mean to you?
4 A. Just that it was changing
5 rapidly.
6 MR. KIM: Hey, Carolyn, we've
7 been going for an hour. I mean, I
8 don't want to break your flow. But do
9 you think this is a good time for a
10 break, or if you've got a few more
11 questions to close this topic, feel
12 free. But I just wanted to flag that.
13 MS. YOUNG: Sure. We can do a
14 few minutes here.
15 MR. KIM: Okay. Five minutes?
16 MS. YOUNG: Sure. A couple more
17 questions.
18 MR. KIM: Oh, oh. I thought you
19 said you wanted to take a break now.
20 Okay. Go ahead.
21 BY MS. YOUNG:
22 Q. Are you still a member of
23 Wallstreetbets?
24 A. I don't remember for sure.
25 Q. You don't remember removing
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2 yourself, I guess, from the Wallstreetbets
3 sub-Reddit.
4 A. Yeah. I'm not 100 percent sure.
5 Q. Okay. When was the last time
6 you recall being on Wallstreetbets?
7 A. I can't remember, honestly, for
8 sure. A while ago.
9 Q. Okay. And so you joined early
10 on in the GameStop saga, you said.
11 How frequently were you visiting
12 Wallstreetbets sort of in early 2021?
13 A. In the beginning, like, earlier
14 on in that timeframe, maybe a few times a
15 day, and then as, you know, the stock
16 price was getting even more volatile, I
17 visited it more frequently, you know,
18 maybe, like, a dozen times a day just
19 because, like, there was so much traction
20 on the sub-Reddit.
21 Q. And were you following at that
22 time -- in early 2021, were you following
23 the news as well about GameStop?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. How frequently? Would you say
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2 daily?
3 A. I mean, you know, I don't know
4 for sure, but probably. I mean, it was
5 essentially in the news every day, anyway.
6 So yeah.
7 Q. Are there any particular users
8 that were posting on Wallstreetbets that
9 you followed more closely?
10 A. No.
11 Q. So are you a follower of Roaring
12 Kitty?
13 A. I -- I saw, you know, people
14 talking about him, and then after the
15 fact, I did, like, look at his original
16 videos. But I didn't necessarily follow
17 his Reddit posts.
18 Q. Okay. We can take a five-minute
19 break now if that works for you.
20 MR. KIM: Yeah. Fine. Thanks,
21 Carolyn.
22 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: The time is
23 10:01. We are off the record.
24 (Recess)
25 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: The time is
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2 10:09. We are on the record.
3 BY MS. YOUNG:
4 Q. Mr. Clarke, I just have one
5 question from the discussion we were just
6 having about Reddit.
7 Do you recall ever deleting any
8 posts or comments that you made on Reddit?
9 A. I don't remember.
10 Q. You don't remember either way if
11 you've done that?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. You are an investor in the stock
14 market; correct?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. When did you start investing?
17 A. I don't remember exactly, but
18 say maybe shortly after I turned 18.
19 Q. And how many years ago was that?
20 A. Five.
21 Q. What was the reason that you
22 started investing?
23 A. To try and make money, more or
24 less.
25 Q. You were a Robinhood customer;
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2 correct?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. When did you become a Robinhood
5 customer?
6 A. I don't remember exactly, but
7 maybe 2018, 2019, something around there.
8 Q. Do you still use Robinhood?
9 A. Infrequently, but yes.
10 Q. What do you mean by
11 infrequently?
12 A. I don't really have that much,
13 like, cash or, you know, capital in
14 Robinhood anymore. So I mainly use other
15 brokerages over Robinhood now.
16 Q. What are the other brokerages
17 that you use?
18 A. Charles Schwab. I also have a
19 TD Ameritrade. And then I recently opened
20 up Fidelity just, like, a week ago.
21 Q. When did you open your Charles
22 Schwab account?
23 A. So right after I started at
24 Morningstar. So it has my 401k, and then
25 I also have a Roth IRA in -- at that
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2 brokerage.
3 Q. When did you -- when was that,
4 that you started at Morningstar?
5 A. December of 2021.
6 Q. And when did you open your TD
7 Ameritrade account?
8 A. That was my original account.
9 So I don't know exactly, but probably
10 2017.
11 Q. And do you still use that
12 account today?
13 A. Yeah. The account is still
14 open, and I use it infrequently.
15 Q. Okay. And what do you mean by
16 infrequently in this instance for TD?
17 A. I don't have too much cash on
18 that account, so I don't really make too
19 many trades or purchase many securities on
20 it.
21 Q. Of Robinhood, Charles Schwab, TD
22 Ameritrade, and Fidelity, what would you
23 say is your main brokerage account that
24 you use most frequently?
25 A. Right now my Charles Schwab.
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2 Q. Have you traded in GameStop in
3 any of these accounts?
4 A. Only Robinhood.
5 Q. On any of your brokerage
6 accounts, do you review company-specific
7 information?
8 A. Like, such as?
9 Q. So for example, some apps might
10 have a feature where you can click into a
11 particular stock and view news about that
12 company.
13 Is that the type of thing that
14 you do on any of your brokerages?
15 A. I mean, I look at news for the
16 companies that I invest in, but not
17 necessarily in the brokerage app.
18 Q. On the apps, do you keep
19 lists -- any sort of lists or collections
20 of stocks that you're following?
21 A. I have lists in my Robinhood
22 account, and the other accounts, no.
23 Q. What about news about the market
24 in general? Do you view any of that on
25 your brokerage accounts, on the apps?
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2 A. Not really. I don't -- I don't
3 really think so. I -- like, more or less
4 when it comes to news, I, like, have,
5 like, other apps downloaded specifically
6 for news. So, like, for example, like,
7 CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and then I
8 get notifications frequently about, you
9 know, market news from those sources.
10 Q. Do you have particular
11 notifications set up for market news?
12 A. Well, I have notifications
13 turned on for those apps that I mentioned.
14 So not specifically for market news per
15 se, but they just kind of give market news
16 in general, if that makes sense.
17 Q. So you don't have, right, like,
18 a particular set of terms, for example,
19 that you're getting notifications on.
20 It's just anything that is on those
21 platforms?
22 A. Yeah. Exactly. Just general
23 notifications.
24 Q. Do you invest on behalf of
25 anyone else?
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2 A. No.
3 Q. Does anyone invest on your
4 behalf?
5 A. No.
6 Q. Have you ever hired an
7 investment or a financial advisor?
8 A. No.
9 Q. How much time currently would
10 you say that you devote to investing for
11 yourself personally?
12 A. It depends on kind of, like,
13 what's in the news, more or less. Like,
14 right now, I'm spending a little bit more
15 time than, say, I was maybe, you know,
16 three months ago or so.
17 Q. Why is that?
18 A. Just because I think the
19 markets -- I mean, it's my opinion that
20 the markets are in, like, a little bit of
21 a precarious state, and I have investments
22 in some companies that have run up, like,
23 a good amount this calendar year that I'm
24 debating on whether I should just de-risk
25 and sell off.
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2 Q. What are those companies?
3 A. AMD and NVIDIA.
4 Q. What is AMD?
5 A. Advanced Micro Devices. It's
6 basically a company that creates and
7 sells, like, computer chips in, like,
8 various forms. So, like, it could be,
9 like, a graphics card. Yeah.
10 Q. And what about NVIDIA? What is
11 that?
12 A. They more or less do the same
13 thing. They have more kind of business
14 units. Like, they also do, like, software
15 and -- yeah. Their reach is a bit more
16 broad than AMD's.
17 Q. Is that the same company that
18 you did work on in college to analyze that
19 stock? Is that right?
20 A. Yeah, for that project. Yeah.
21 Q. What kind of analyses do you do
22 on those investments?
23 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
24 A. For those two stocks in
25 particular?
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2 Q. Sure. We can start with that.
3 Yeah.
4 A. More or less just looking at
5 earnings growth relative to market price,
6 you know, trying to get a fair value for
7 the stock relative to market price. And
8 those are obviously growth stocks, so, you
9 know, they may or may not be -- they may
10 be loosely decoupled from the fundamentals
11 at times.
12 Q. Okay. What do you mean by
13 decoupled from the fundamentals?
14 A. Like, essentially, you know,
15 taking into account, like, the book value
16 plus, like, expected growth. You know,
17 growth stocks can go beyond, you know,
18 just, like, the bottom line, taking growth
19 and, you know, bottom line book value into
20 account, more or less.
21 Q. What is a growth stock?
22 A. More or less a stock that has
23 high estimates for increasing earnings
24 over time.
25 Q. Apart from those two stocks,
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2 when you decide that you're considering
3 purchasing a particular security, can you
4 walk me through how you make that
5 decision.
6 MR. KIM: Objection to form. Is
7 there a time period we're talking
8 about? We're talking about now?
9 Yesterday? Tomorrow?
10 Q. I assume we can't talk about
11 tomorrow. But sure.
12 Like, if today you were going
13 to -- you were considering an investment,
14 what would be your process?
15 A. Do -- I mean, it depends why I
16 was purchasing the security, like, for
17 what reason.
18 Q. What are the different reasons
19 you would consider purchasing a security?
20 A. Well, I mean, if I wanted to be
21 a long-term shareholder, my analysis would
22 be different than if I was just trying to,
23 like, make a trade essentially.
24 Q. Okay. In the latter case, where
25 you're just trying to make a trade, what
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2 is your process?
3 A. More or less momentum, so just,
4 like, general volume, sentiment in the
5 current moment, volatility in the stock.
6 Q. How do you assess the sentiment?
7 A. General market news, so, like,
8 any, like, announcements that came from
9 the company, how that's affecting the
10 stock price. Yeah.
11 Q. What about volatility? How do
12 you assess volatility?
13 A. More or less, you know, if
14 volume is increasing or accelerating for a
15 security.
16 Q. In that case, you would consider
17 it more volatile? Is that correct?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Okay. What if you are looking
20 to be a long-term investor? What's your
21 process there when you're considering an
22 investment?
23 A. I would try to come to the
24 conclusion that buying into the company at
25 its current levels is below the fair
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2 market value, and also I just look at, you
3 know, how the company is currently doing,
4 like, what their growth prospects are in
5 the future, like, if they have, you know,
6 a good competitive advantage, you know,
7 how influential in my opinion do I think
8 the company will be in the future, things
9 of that nature.
10 Q. Of the sort of financial
11 statement analyses that we discussed
12 earlier that were part of your college
13 courses, do you undertake those analyses
14 when you're considering a stock?
15 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
16 A. It depends really.
17 Q. What does it depend on?
18 A. Well, like, certain -- like, you
19 might use a different financial model
20 than, like -- you might look at different
21 metrics from the financial statement --
22 financial statements depending on, like,
23 what type of company you're looking at or,
24 like, what industry the company is in, et
25 cetera.
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2 Q. Okay. So you do those analyses.
3 Just it depends what type of stock. You
4 might do a different one of those analyses
5 and rely on different factors for each
6 investment; is that right?
7 A. Yeah, more or less, yeah.
8 Q. In January 2021, would you say
9 this process, both for making a trade and
10 for considering a long-term investment,
11 was that the same process that you used at
12 that time?
13 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
14 A. I can't really remember.
15 Q. Do you recall ever having a
16 different process when you're considering
17 an investment?
18 A. I can't really remember.
19 Q. Do you recall ever considering
20 an investment in January 2021?
21 A. Sorry. Can you repeat the
22 question?
23 Q. Do you recall ever considering
24 making an investment in a particular
25 security in January 2021?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. What was that security?
4 A. GameStop.
5 Q. Was that the only investment
6 that you considered in January 2021?
7 A. I don't know for sure. I can't
8 really remember.
9 Q. You don't recall any other
10 investments that you were considering at
11 that time; is that right?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Okay. When you're determining
14 whether you might sell a particular
15 security, what is your process for
16 considering that sale?
17 A. It again kind of depends on,
18 like, the nature of why I bought the
19 security in the first place. But yeah.
20 Q. Can you walk me through that?
21 A. So for example, if I purchased
22 the security to -- you know, for, like,
23 long-term purposes, I would really only
24 sell the stock if -- I mean, I might sell
25 the stock if I thought the overall market
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2 was going to deteriorate, like, in the
3 near term in hopes of buying it back for
4 an even lower price. Otherwise, I would
5 more or less just hold that security until
6 I thought that, you know, there were
7 material kind of, you know, changes in the
8 business that made it less competitive and
9 less compelling to own and grow in the
10 future.
11 And then on the other hand, if I
12 was, you know, just making a trade or
13 something, you know, I might not want to
14 own the security long term, so I would
15 more or less, you know, try and -- I mean,
16 it would depend on -- there's a lot of
17 different factors. But, you know, I might
18 just sell out when I made a good profit,
19 or, you know, I might hold the trade a
20 little longer because I thought, you know,
21 it could go a little higher in the short
22 term, and then when I thought it got close
23 enough to fair market value, I might sell
24 it. It kind of depends. But yeah.
25 That's generally --
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2 Q. We talked about general sort of
3 news about the market.
4 Are there any particular
5 programs or segments about investing that
6 you follow?
7 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
8 You're talking about TV shows?
9 Programs? I don't understand the
10 question. But --
11 MS. YOUNG: Sure. We can walk
12 through those one at a time.
13 Q. TV shows?
14 A. I mean, occasionally, I'll
15 watch, like, for example, like, CNBC.
16 Q. Any particular program or
17 segment on CNBC?
18 A. No. Just in general, they give,
19 you know, realtime news more or less, so
20 it's sometimes useful to watch for that
21 news.
22 Q. What about podcasts?
23 A. Not really. I -- I can't really
24 remember if I have -- I mean, I've
25 definitely seen -- briefly listened to
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2 podcasts in the past, but, like, I really
3 don't listen to podcasts.
4 Q. The ones you've listened to in
5 the past, those are investment-related
6 podcasts?
7 A. I can't remember exactly, but, I
8 mean, definitely not exclusively.
9 Q. And you don't recall what any of
10 the investing-related podcasts are that
11 you've listened to; is that correct?
12 A. Yeah. I don't really remember.
13 Q. Do you subscribe to any
14 newsletters about investing?
15 A. No.
16 MR. KIM: You don't subscribe to
17 Morningstar?
18 THE WITNESS: Oh, yes. So yes,
19 I guess.
20 Q. Did you start that subscription
21 when you started your job at Morningstar?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Are there any YouTube creators
24 that you follow that discuss investing?
25 A. I mean, not really that I follow
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2 per se. Like I mentioned before, I, like,
3 saw some of, like, for example, Roaring
4 Kitty's videos. Yeah. Beyond that, other
5 creators I don't really watch particularly
6 for investing or -- yeah.
7 Q. Other than Wallstreetbets, are
8 you part of any investing-related
9 sub-Reddits?
10 A. I don't really remember exactly,
11 but possibly, because there were other
12 kind of, like, adjacent sub-Reddits to
13 Wallstreetbets that, you know, more or
14 less went hand in hand, and I possibly
15 could have, you know, looked at or even
16 subscribed to those adjacent sub-Reddits
17 when I used Reddit back then.
18 Q. When you say they were adjacent
19 to Wallstreetbets, is that that they were
20 created sort of around the same GameStop
21 run-up events as Wallstreetbets?
22 A. Well, I don't know if they were
23 created even just for GameStop. But, I
24 mean, you know, they would post, like,
25 more or less the same sort of, like,
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2 things, like, their, you know,
3 conclusions, their own personal opinions
4 about certain securities and other, like,
5 various, like, posts. Yeah.
6 Q. Do you recall during that time
7 period, so let's say December of 2020
8 through February of 2021, any sub-Reddits
9 that were devoted to particular
10 securities?
11 A. No.
12 Q. So you don't recall any, for
13 example, GameStop-specific sub-Reddits.
14 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
15 Asked and answered.
16 A. I -- I really don't remember
17 exactly.
18 Q. Do you receive market news on
19 Twitter?
20 A. Such as?
21 Q. Any news related to the stock
22 market.
23 A. Right now, I -- so recently,
24 since I've re-downloaded the app, yes.
25 Q. Okay. So are you saying that
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2 any of the sort of stock market news that
3 you're now following you only recently
4 followed in the last -- I can't remember
5 what you said -- one month maybe since you
6 re-downloaded it?
7 A. Yes.
8 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
9 Q. And so previously, you didn't
10 follow any market news sources.
11 A. I can't recall exactly, but
12 possibly, yes.
13 Q. Do you use Discord?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. What is your user handle on
16 Discord?
17 A. I can't remember exactly.
18 Q. Okay. What is Discord?
19 A. It's basically just, like, a
20 place where you can chat with other people
21 through text or voice.
22 Q. What do you use Discord for?
23 A. I don't really use it that much
24 anymore, but I used to use it to, like,
25 communicate with people when I was, like,
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2 playing video games.
3 Q. How long have you had a Discord
4 account for?
5 A. I don't remember exactly, but
6 maybe since 20 -- 2017.
7 Q. Were you a part of any
8 conversations on Discord that related to,
9 as you referred to it, the GameStop saga?
10 A. No.
11 Q. How would you describe your
12 current investment strategy?
13 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
14 Asked and answered.
15 A. It kind of depends. I think, as
16 I mentioned earlier, like, it depends what
17 I'm trying to get out of the investment.
18 Q. Okay. So how would you describe
19 that to me, then?
20 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
21 Asked and answered.
22 A. So, like, for example, if I was
23 trying to invest in a company long term, I
24 would more or less buy and hold that
25 security as I deemed, you know, necessary,
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2 and then -- or if I was trying to make a
3 trade, I would, you know, buy and sell the
4 securities as I thought was adequate.
5 Q. Do you focus on any particular
6 type of stocks?
7 A. It depends. I don't really
8 invest in certain -- certain industries
9 exclusively. But, like, for example, I do
10 invest heavily in, like, semiconductors
11 stocks, just because I think they're a
12 good long-term investment. And then
13 beyond that, I just invest in, you know,
14 good companies that are underpriced,
15 generally.
16 Q. How would you characterize your
17 risk tolerance when you invest?
18 A. So right now, I have a pretty
19 long time horizon, so I would characterize
20 my risk tolerance as high.
21 Q. Why does the long time horizon
22 matter for how you characterize your risk
23 tolerance?
24 A. Well, I mean, I'm 24. So I'm
25 not going to be hitting retirement age
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2 anytime soon for the next, you know,
3 30-plus years at least.
4 Q. Would you say that your
5 investment strategy has changed at all
6 since 2021?
7 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
8 A. No.
9 Q. Do you have experience trading
10 options?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. What are options?
13 A. They're essentially a derivative
14 of a security where you have the option to
15 purchase, you know -- like, for example a
16 call option, you have the option to
17 purchase stock -- or a stock at some point
18 in the future at a specified price.
19 Q. Why do you trade options?
20 A. Well, options can be used as
21 insurance. They can also be used as, you
22 know, a kind of a levered investment, you
23 know, financial product.
24 Q. What do you mean they can be
25 used as insurance?
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2 A. I mean, for example, if you had
3 a portfolio that, you know -- and you
4 thought, for example, the market -- the
5 broad market was going to deteriorate for
6 any reason, you could buy, you know, like,
7 put options on, you know, any security or
8 something which would act as insurance,
9 you know, on the rest of your portfolio so
10 that your drawdowns aren't as excessive.
11 Q. You testified earlier that you
12 invested in GameStop in January of 2021;
13 is that correct?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. What kind of company is
16 GameStop?
17 A. A -- essentially a retail
18 franchise store that sells video games and
19 other things.
20 Q. Have you ever done any research
21 into GameStop as a potential investment?
22 A. I don't really remember exactly
23 at the time.
24 Q. You don't recall if you did any
25 research into GameStop in January 2021.
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2 A. In -- yeah. I mean, I would
3 have looked at, you know, general market
4 sentiment and, like, certain things like
5 value of the stock when I purchased it
6 back then, but I don't really remember
7 exactly anything else.
8 Q. Okay. And that's because you
9 were considering it a short-term
10 investment; is that correct?
11 A. Yes, at that time, yes.
12 Q. And so the things that you
13 previously testified you looked for for a
14 short-term investment are momentum,
15 volume, sentiment, and volatility; is that
16 correct?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Anything else?
19 A. I mean, if -- like, for example,
20 recently, I bought some Charles Schwab
21 stock because I thought it was kind of
22 oversold unnecessarily in light of the
23 whole recent banking crisis, if you could
24 call it that. So, you know, I looked at
25 that as being very oversold in the
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2 short-term, so I purchased it in, you
3 know, the hopes of just selling it off
4 shortly after I purchased it.
5 Q. What do you recall about the
6 momentum of GameStop in January of 2021?
7 A. Well, generally, it was just
8 becoming more and more of a, you know,
9 trending security, and volume was
10 accelerating.
11 Q. I guess maybe to back up, how
12 would you define momentum when you say it?
13 A. Essentially just accelerating
14 volume.
15 Q. And can you tell me more about
16 what you mean by it being a trending
17 security?
18 A. Yeah. Like, one that's, you
19 know, being talked about in the news
20 frequently, one that just many people are
21 discussing in social media -- on social
22 media and stuff.
23 Q. And so what were you seeing
24 about GameStop in January of 2021 that
25 causes you to say it was a trending
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2 security?
3 A. Just the -- you know, the
4 various news posts and articles that came
5 out about GameStop and in social media,
6 you know, just everyone discussing that
7 individual's stock.
8 Q. What was the content of those
9 news articles and social media posts that
10 you're referring to, generally?
11 A. Just, I think as I mentioned
12 earlier, like, you know, why it was so
13 volatile, you know, people's opinions on
14 it. Yeah.
15 Q. Okay. When you say why it was
16 so volatile, what were -- what was in the
17 news about why it was so volatile?
18 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
19 Asked and answered.
20 A. Basically just, like, why people
21 were buying the stock, why they thought
22 people were buying the stock for what
23 different reasons in their, you know,
24 opinion.
25 Q. What were those reasons?
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2 A. I mean, there was many reasons,
3 but, you know, some people like the
4 company. Other people, you know, were
5 buying the stock in hopes that there would
6 be a short squeeze. You know, I'm sure
7 some people were buying it, just like me,
8 for kind of like the momentum trade,
9 things like that.
10 Q. So how would you describe the
11 sentiment, then, as it relates to GameStop
12 in January of 2021?
13 A. I mean, I would say it depends
14 on, you know, the party that you're
15 asking. But, like, the general -- in the
16 general public, it was -- it had positive
17 sentiment.
18 Q. And that's something that you
19 considered when you were considering the
20 trade. Is that accurate?
21 A. Yeah.
22 Q. And for volume, what were you
23 observing with respect to the volume of
24 GameStop in January 2021?
25 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
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2 Asked and answered.
3 A. Just that, you know, it had
4 elevated volume, and that volume wasn't --
5 it was accelerating over time.
6 Q. What about volatility? What
7 were you observing with respect to
8 volatility for GameStop in January of
9 2021?
10 A. More or less just that
11 heightened volume. Yeah. I'm not really
12 sure exactly, but, you know, possibly also
13 just the general market volatility was
14 heightened at that period. I don't
15 remember exactly. But maybe looking at
16 the VIX or something.
17 Q. What's the VIX?
18 A. The volatility index.
19 Q. And what does that represent?
20 A. It's been a while, so
21 technically speaking, I don't remember
22 exactly, but it's an index that was
23 created by the CBOE, and it measures, you
24 know, just general kind of volatility in
25 the stock market.
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2 Q. And what do you recall about the
3 reasons that, as you say, general market
4 volatility was heightened at that time?
5 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
6 A. I mean, I don't remember
7 entirely, but, I mean, definitely, you
8 know, the dollar inflows into the, you
9 know, stocks like GameStop contribute to
10 it, for example.
11 Q. When you say stocks like
12 GameStop, what other stocks would you put
13 into that basket?
14 A. Stocks like AMC and all the
15 other relevant securities in this case.
16 Q. And would you classify those
17 stocks as Meme stocks?
18 A. I --
19 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
20 A. I don't -- I don't really know
21 for sure.
22 Q. What causes you to group those
23 stocks together?
24 A. Well, those were the stocks that
25 were kind of most heavily invested in that
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2 period that had significant investor
3 losses as a result of Robinhood's actions.
4 Q. Were they also stocks that had a
5 significant run-up in price in January of
6 2021? Would you agree with that?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. Have you heard the term Meme
9 stock before?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. When did you first hear that
12 term?
13 A. It was discussed, like, you
14 know, in sub-Reddits like Wallstreetbets,
15 and then also, you know, the news articles
16 at the time were discussing them.
17 Q. What is your understanding of a
18 Meme stock?
19 A. More or less where, you know,
20 the fundamentals of a company weren't
21 strong, but people, you know, invest in
22 them anyway for whatever reason.
23 Q. Is GameStop a Meme stock?
24 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
25 Asked and answered.
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2 A. It, you know, depends who you
3 ask. I don't really know.
4 Q. Okay. So I'm just asking you on
5 your thoughts, if you think GameStop is a
6 Meme stock.
7 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
8 Asked and answered.
9 A. No.
10 Q. Okay. Why do you say that?
11 A. I mean, it's -- you know, it
12 still has a legitimate underlying business
13 model. So I don't see it as, you know, a
14 Meme stock.
15 Q. Okay. What is one stock that is
16 a Meme stock?
17 A. Well, I don't -- I don't really
18 view any of the stocks as, like, Meme
19 stocks personally. But, you know, people
20 in, for example, like, Wallstreetbets
21 would have classified stocks like GameStop
22 and AMC and Blackberry as Meme stocks, for
23 example.
24 Q. Have you ever looked at any --
25 sorry. Strike that.
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2 In January 2021, did you look at
3 SEC filings by GameStop?
4 A. I don't remember exactly, but
5 probably not.
6 Q. Okay. So you didn't look at any
7 company financial statements, for example.
8 A. I don't remember exactly.
9 Q. You don't recall ever having
10 looked at one of GameStop's financial
11 statements; is that correct?
12 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
13 A. At that time, I really don't
14 remember exactly if I did or did not.
15 Q. Do you recall any company
16 announcements from GameStop in January of
17 2021?
18 A. No.
19 Q. We discussed earlier various
20 analyses and modeling that you have
21 experience doing with respect to specific
22 stocks.
23 Do you recall that?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Have you ever modeled GameStop
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2 using any of those analyses?
3 A. No.
4 Q. We talked a little bit about a
5 short squeeze in GameStop.
6 When do you recall first hearing
7 about had that short squeeze?
8 A. On -- I don't remember exactly,
9 but, you know, it was discussed on, like,
10 Reddit, like, on Wallstreetbets, for
11 example.
12 Q. Can you explain what exactly is
13 a short squeeze in your understanding?
14 A. Yeah. So more or less, you
15 know, when people take out a short
16 position on a stock, they're selling that
17 borrowed stock into the market
18 immediately, and, you know, it's
19 essentially debt that they have to
20 repurchase the stock at some point in the
21 future to close out the position, give it
22 back to the lender.
23 So if, you know, the stock price
24 runs up, they might be paying -- the
25 people with the short positions might be
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2 paying an excess kind of, like, risk
3 premium on that short position, and they
4 might not want to pay that anymore, so to
5 close it out, they have to repurchase the
6 stock at -- you know, on the open market
7 to close out their position, which would
8 further increase the price, as, you know,
9 more stock is being purchased.
10 Q. And so you mentioned that you
11 heard about that on Reddit, on
12 Wallstreetbets.
13 What specifically did you hear
14 about a potential short squeeze?
15 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
16 Asked and answered.
17 A. I mean, I think as I mentioned
18 earlier, I don't remember exactly, but,
19 you know, it was being discussed on, like,
20 Wallstreetbets that people thought there
21 could be, you know, a short squeeze.
22 Q. And I think you mentioned
23 also -- and correct me if this is wrong,
24 but that AMC was also a potential short
25 squeeze that you saw discussed? Is that
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2 correct?
3 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
4 A. I don't remember exactly. But
5 yeah. I mean, AMC was also being
6 discussed on platforms like Reddit,
7 Wallstreetbets. So, you know, it's
8 possible that that was also being targeted
9 as, like, a short squeeze stock.
10 MR. KIM: Carolyn, we're hitting
11 hour two. So maybe we could take a
12 break when you're finished with this
13 line of questioning or whenever --
14 shortly would be nice.
15 MS. YOUNG: Yes. Shortly is
16 good. I'll have just a few more
17 questions.
18 MR. KIM: Sure.
19 Q. When you say a short squeeze
20 target, what do you mean?
21 A. I mean just a particular
22 security that, you know, maybe some of the
23 people on Reddit, like Wallstreetbets,
24 were thinking could, you know -- they had
25 high shortage risks; therefore, you know,
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2 they could potential cause a squeeze.
3 Q. And -- sorry. They could
4 potentially -- oh, yeah. Sorry. Got it.
5 In terms of other stocks that
6 there were similar discussions about, what
7 about Blackberry? Do you recall any of
8 those discussions on Wallstreetbets in
9 January of 2021?
10 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
11 A. Not in particular, but it was,
12 yeah, another, you know, security that was
13 being discussed by people on that
14 sub-Reddit and other sub-Reddits.
15 Q. And what about Bed Bath &
16 Beyond?
17 A. Same thing. I don't remember in
18 particular, but it was being discussed.
19 Q. And Nokia?
20 A. Same thing.
21 Q. What about Koss?
22 A. Same.
23 Q. And Express?
24 A. Pretty much all the securities,
25 the relevant securities in this case.
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2 Q. All right. So you recall all
3 the relevant securities in this case being
4 discussed on Reddit as a potential short
5 squeeze candidate in January 2021.
6 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
7 Q. Is that correct?
8 A. I mean, I can't recall exactly,
9 but yes.
10 Q. Okay. Why don't we take a
11 break.
12 MR. KIM: Sure. Five minutes?
13 MS. YOUNG: Five minutes works.
14 MR. KIM: Great.
15 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: The time is
16 11:03. We are off the record.
17 (Recess)
18 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: The time is
19 11:14. We are on the record.
20 BY MS. YOUNG:
21 Q. Mr. Clarke, I should have asked
22 you this at the begin.
23 Do you have anything in front of
24 you right now?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. What do you have in front of
3 you?
4 A. Some case documents.
5 Q. Which case documents?
6 A. The certification and the
7 amended consolidated complaint.
8 Q. Are those the only two things
9 you have in front of you?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Okay. Do you have anything else
12 open on the device that you're taking this
13 deposition on?
14 A. No.
15 Q. Do you have your cellphone in
16 front of you?
17 A. I have my cellphone over here.
18 Q. If you can just put those -- the
19 case documents as well as your phone away
20 and not refer to them during the
21 deposition.
22 A. Sure. Okay.
23 Q. You invested in Tesla stock; is
24 that correct?
25 A. Yeah. I think I did quite a
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2 while ago.
3 Q. And so you're familiar with Elon
4 Musk?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Do you recall Elon Musk's social
7 media posts in January 2021?
8 A. Not particularly.
9 Q. Do you generally recall any of
10 his social media posts at that time?
11 A. Not exactly what he was talking
12 about, but he was posting about what
13 Robinhood did in general.
14 Q. Okay. So what about related to
15 GameStop? Do you recall any posts about
16 GameStop from Elon Musk?
17 A. I don't.
18 Q. Okay. We're going to introduce
19 what will be Exhibit 15.
20 A. Okay.
21 (Defendant's Exhibit 15, A CNBC
22 article on Gamestonk Tweet, was hereby
23 marked for identification, as of this
24 date.)
25 Q. We'll let you know when you can
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2 refresh.
3 A. Okay.
4 Q. Okay. Exhibit 15 should be
5 there for you.
6 A. Okay. I see it.
7 Q. And I want to refer you to the
8 third bullet here.
9 Can you read that out for me.
10 A. "The Tesla CEO tweeted
11 Gamestonk."
12 Q. All right. Do you recall that
13 tweet?
14 A. Not particularly.
15 Q. What do you mean when you say
16 not particularly?
17 A. I mean, I know that he was
18 tweeting a lot of different things about
19 what was happening at different points
20 throughout this entire process, this saga.
21 But, you know, that tweet in particular I
22 don't explicitly remember, nor any of
23 them.
24 Q. Were you following his social
25 media during the saga, as you say?
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2 A. I -- I don't remember, but I
3 don't believe I was using Twitter at the
4 time, so I don't think so.
5 Q. Do you recall any discussion on
6 Reddit about Elon Musk's Gamestonk tweet?
7 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
8 A. I don't remember exactly.
9 Q. What do you mean you don't
10 remember exactly?
11 A. Well, I mean, if I recall, there
12 were people talking about, you know, Elon
13 Musk on Reddit, like, on Wallstreetbets
14 for various reasons, so I don't -- but I
15 don't remember exactly, you know, what
16 they were discussing him -- the reasons
17 for discussing him.
18 Q. What were they generally
19 discussing?
20 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
21 Asked and answered.
22 A. I don't really remember.
23 Q. What do you remember about the
24 discussions about Elon Musk's tweets in
25 general?
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2 MR. KIM: Objection. Asked and
3 answered.
4 A. I don't really remember.
5 Q. So you keep saying you don't
6 really remember. I'm just wondering what
7 is it that you do remember?
8 A. I mean, I just remember
9 generally that, you know, Elon Musk was
10 tweeting things. You know, I don't -- I
11 can't give you specific examples, but he
12 was tweeting things about, you know,
13 Robinhood after it -- at some point after
14 it, you know, restricted the buying and
15 the securities, you know, and about
16 obviously, like, here, like Gamestonk, as
17 it mentions in this article.
18 Q. Okay. So you remember -- sorry.
19 I'm just looking at your testimony.
20 You remember generally that Elon
21 Musk was tweeting things about Gamestonk.
22 MR. KIM: Objection. Asked and
23 answered.
24 A. I don't remember that
25 explicitly. I just -- you know, if I
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2 recall, he was tweeting about many
3 different things, kind of just about this
4 whole thing, including as it says here,
5 obviously, Gamestonk.
6 Q. You testified earlier that you
7 purchased shares of GameStop in
8 January 2021; correct?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Was that the first time that you
11 had ever purchased shares of GameStop?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. What led you to purchase those
14 shares in January 2021?
15 A. I just -- I thought it was a
16 good trading opportunity short term.
17 Q. Why was it a good short-term
18 trading opportunity?
19 A. Because volume for the stock was
20 accelerating, and generally, it was just
21 getting more and more volatile and, you
22 know, more, you know, widely discussed in
23 the broader, you know, news and on social
24 media.
25 Q. You can put that exhibit to the
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2 side.
3 MS. YOUNG: Vineet, can you
4 introduce Tab 6.
5 So we'll introduce what will be
6 Exhibit 16. And I'll let you know
7 when you can refresh.
8 (Defendant's Exhibit 16, Clarke
9 Robinhood account statement, Bates
10 RHMDL00097777, was hereby marked for
11 identification, as of this date.)
12 Q. Okay. You should see
13 Exhibit 16. Let me know when you have it.
14 A. Okay. I see it.
15 Q. Do you recognize this document?
16 A. Mm-hmm. Yes.
17 Q. What is it?
18 A. Well, it's an account summary
19 from my Robinhood account for the month of
20 January 2021.
21 Q. If we can look at the second
22 page here ending -- on the bottom right,
23 you'll see a Bates number. So the number
24 ending in 778, which is the second page of
25 the PDF. If you could turn to that page.
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2 A. Okay.
3 Q. So this here indicates -- this
4 is the portfolio summary, securities held
5 in account.
6 The only security here listed is
7 GameStop; correct?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And so as of January 31, 2021,
10 your entire portfolio was GameStop; is
11 that correct?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And all of the -- all of your
14 purchases of these GameStop shares were
15 made in January 2021; is that correct?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. More specifically, all of your
18 purchases in GameStop were made on
19 January 27, 2021; correct?
20 A. Yes, I believe so.
21 Q. Okay. Let's turn to the next
22 page ending in 779.
23 A. Okay.
24 Q. This page starts with some
25 crypto money movement entries.
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2 Can you tell me what those are?
3 A. To be honest, I don't remember
4 exactly. It -- I think what it might have
5 been was I bought crypto, and I think
6 Robinhood uses, like, some third party to,
7 like, transact those, you know,
8 transactions for, like, crypto. And I
9 think it's called, like, Apex Clearing or
10 something like that. So it might be
11 related to that.
12 Q. After those entries, it goes on
13 to include several rows that refer to
14 various stocks, as you can see here,
15 starting with RMBS, Vale, Twitter, Apple.
16 And for these, the transaction column
17 indicates "STC."
18 What do you understand that to
19 mean?
20 A. I don't know for sure, but maybe
21 sold to close?
22 Q. And so are these transactions
23 where you're selling your options
24 contracts?
25 A. Yes, as they're credits.
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2 Q. At this time, did you sell all
3 of your options in January of 2021?
4 A. I don't know for sure, but, I
5 mean, it appears yes.
6 Q. Why did you decide to sell --
7 excuse me.
8 Looking here at the date, it
9 looks like you started to sell on
10 January 25th, and it goes through
11 January 27th.
12 Do you see that?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Okay. Why did you decide to
15 sell all of your options on January 25th
16 through 27th?
17 A. I don't recall exactly, but more
18 or less just to, you know, have capital.
19 Q. To have capital to invest in
20 GameStop? Is that correct?
21 A. At the time, I don't know for
22 sure. But possibly, yes.
23 Q. And at the bottom of that page
24 and continuing on to the following are
25 your purchases of GameStop on
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2 January 27th.
3 Do you see that?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. That was the only stock that you
6 purchased on January 27, 2021; is that
7 correct?
8 A. Yeah. It appears so.
9 Q. Were there any other stocks that
10 you were considering purchasing on that
11 day?
12 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
13 Asked and answered.
14 A. I don't remember.
15 Q. All right. You don't recall
16 considering any other investment on
17 January 27, 2021, other than GameStop.
18 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
19 Asked and answered.
20 A. Correct. I don't -- I don't
21 remember.
22 Q. Do you recall anything that
23 occurred on Robinhood's platform at this
24 time?
25 A. Which time specifically?
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2 Q. January 28th, let's say, 2021.
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. What's that?
5 A. January 28, 2021, is when
6 Robinhood initially restricted the buying
7 of the relevant securities, including
8 GameStop in this case.
9 Q. Okay. Which are the stocks that
10 you recalled being restricted on
11 January 28, 2021?
12 A. I can't recall exactly which
13 stocks were restricted on the 28th. But
14 GameStop was one.
15 Q. When did you first hear about
16 those restrictions?
17 A. I can't recall exactly, but
18 probably on the 28th.
19 Q. And how did you hear about the
20 restrictions?
21 A. I can't recall exactly, but
22 probably just through the news and on
23 Reddit.
24 Q. And on the news and on Reddit,
25 what specifically did you hear about
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2 Robinhood's restrictions on January 28th?
3 A. I can't recall exactly what I
4 read.
5 Q. Did you hear that Robinhood was
6 restricting purchases of certain
7 securities on its platform?
8 A. Again, I can't recall exactly,
9 but something to that effect.
10 MS. YOUNG: Vineet, can you
11 introduce Tab 2.
12 You can put that exhibit away.
13 We're going to introduce what will be
14 Exhibit 17.
15 Oh, I'm sorry. It's going to be
16 previously introduced Exhibit 6 from a
17 prior deposition here.
18 THE WITNESS: Okay.
19 (Defendant's Exhibit 6, A
20 Robinhood article dated
21 January 28, 2021, was previously
22 marked for identification.)
23 Q. Okay. You can refresh.
24 A. Okay. I have it open.
25 Q. Okay. Sorry. I don't. My
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2 system is being incredibly slow.
3 Okay. Do you recognize this
4 document?
5 A. Not in particular.
6 Q. Have you reviewed this document
7 before?
8 A. I am not 100 percent sure.
9 Q. Okay. What percentage sure are
10 you?
11 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
12 Calls for speculation.
13 A. Yeah. I don't want to
14 speculate.
15 Q. You don't want to speculate how
16 sure you personally are that you've seen
17 this document?
18 MR. KIM: Objection to form. I
19 think the question itself is
20 speculative.
21 Q. The question is have you seen
22 this document? You say you're not
23 100 percent sure. But you think that you
24 may have? Is that what you're trying to
25 say?
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2 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
3 A. It's possible I saw it.
4 Q. Do you believe --
5 A. I'm not sure.
6 Q. Where would you have seen this
7 document, given that you think that you
8 may have seen it?
9 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
10 A. Again, I don't -- I don't know
11 for sure. But, you know, if I -- if I
12 would have seen it, it would have either
13 been on the Robinhood website, an email I
14 received from Robinhood, probably one of
15 those two things, although I can't be sure
16 100 percent.
17 Q. On January 28th, did you visit
18 Robinhood's website?
19 A. I don't -- I don't know for
20 sure.
21 Q. Do you recall ever having
22 visited Robinhood's website to view any
23 news about the restrictions?
24 A. To view news about the
25 restrictions? Possibly. I can't be
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2 100 percent sure if it was on their
3 website or, you know, through email or if
4 it was through someone else's, you know,
5 screen shot of the content of the article
6 or what have you.
7 Q. Oh, okay. Understood.
8 So you do recall viewing
9 information from Robinhood about the
10 restrictions on January 28th, but you
11 don't recall if it was on their website,
12 in your email, or just on a screen shot or
13 through the news.
14 Is that accurate?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Okay. If you can scroll to the
17 second page of this document.
18 A. Okay.
19 Q. And the second paragraph here
20 that starts with "We continuously
21 monitor."
22 Do you see that?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. So this paragraph says, "We're
25 restricting transactions for certain
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2 securities to position closing only," and
3 then it lists certain securities.
4 A. Yes, I see it.
5 Q. Do you know what "position
6 closing only" means?
7 A. Yes. In this context, it means
8 there is a restriction on purchasing the
9 securities listed, and you can only sell
10 them, basically.
11 Q. So you recalled that on
12 January 28th, Robinhood restricted
13 purchasing of GameStop. Is that accurate?
14 A. Again, I don't know for sure,
15 but I probably did hear that on the 28th,
16 probably.
17 Q. What about after the 28th? Do
18 you recall whether any stocks were set to
19 position closing only after that day?
20 A. I can't remember for sure.
21 Q. Do you remember generally? And
22 I don't mean to keep harping on this. But
23 you say, "Not 100 percent. Not for sure."
24 I just want to -- all we're -- I
25 understand this was years ago, so all I'm
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2 asking is what you do remember.
3 A. I -- I don't remember.
4 Q. Okay. You can put that exhibit
5 away.
6 MS. YOUNG: Vineet, can you do
7 Exhibit 27. Tab 27. Excuse me.
8 So now we'll introduce what will
9 be Exhibit 17.
10 THE WITNESS: Okay.
11 (Defendant's Exhibit 17, An
12 email dated January 29, 2021, was
13 hereby marked for identification, as
14 of this date.)
15 Q. Okay. You can refresh.
16 Exhibit 17 should be there. Let me know
17 when you have it open.
18 A. Okay. I have it open.
19 Q. Do you recognize this document?
20 A. I mean, yeah. It's -- I
21 received it apparently. I don't
22 explicitly remember it, but --
23 Q. Okay. And when you say you
24 received it, so
25 , is that your
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2 email?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Okay. And you received this on
5 January 29, 2021?
6 A. Yes.
7 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
8 Q. So if you can turn to the second
9 page of this document ending in 764.
10 A. Okay.
11 Q. You see the text titled social
12 fueled stock surges mean uncharted
13 territory for the modern market?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And below that, in the second
16 full paragraph, it says, "And then,
17 yesterday happened."
18 Do you see that?
19 A. I'm sorry. Can you repeat that
20 "And then, yesterday happened"?
21 Q. Yeah. So there's a first
22 paragraph there, and then there's two
23 bullets. And then below that, there's a
24 paragraph that starts with "And then,
25 yesterday happened."
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2 Do you see that?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Okay. So this email notes that
5 brokerages, including Robinhood, E-Trade,
6 and Webull restricted trading activity in
7 certain securities.
8 Do you see that?
9 A. Yes.
10 MR. KIM: Well, that's not what
11 it says. I mean, I don't think you
12 quoted it correctly. I mean --
13 MS. YOUNG: Some brokerages --
14 MR. KIM: I mean, were you
15 trying to read it or were you
16 summarizing it? It wasn't clear. I
17 just want to have a clear record.
18 Q. Sure. Why don't I just read the
19 text. "Some brokerages, including
20 Robinhood, E-Trade, and Webull,
21 temporarily restricted certain trading
22 activity in symbols like GME."
23 Do you see that?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Okay. Did I read that
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2 accurately?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Do you remember receiving this
5 email?
6 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
7 Asked and answered.
8 A. Yeah. As I mentioned before, I
9 don't explicitly remember this email, but,
10 I mean, apparently, I received it.
11 Q. Okay. You receive these
12 Robinhood Snacks emails on a regular
13 basis; is that correct?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Okay. Okay. You can put that
16 exhibit to the side.
17 A. Okay.
18 Q. So we've largely been discussing
19 January 28th.
20 Can you describe for me what you
21 knew after that date about Robinhood's
22 restrictions on trading.
23 A. On which day?
24 Q. Any dates after January 28th.
25 So that email was from January 29th.
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2 If you could give me your
3 understanding if you recall that day and
4 then the following days as well.
5 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
6 A. What I heard about what
7 Robinhood did?
8 Q. Yes.
9 A. I -- I'm sure I -- I saw, like,
10 other, you know, news posts about what
11 they did after the 28th.
12 Q. Do you recall the contents of
13 those news posts?
14 A. No.
15 Q. Okay. So your understanding
16 today of Robinhood's restrictions is that
17 they restricted purchasing of certain
18 securities on January 28th.
19 Is there anything else that you
20 understand Robinhood did?
21 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
22 A. I don't remember exactly. But
23 they also limited the number of purchases
24 of certain securities between, you know,
25 post-January 28th. I don't have the exact
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2 days, but yeah, other things too.
3 Q. Okay. What are the other
4 things?
5 A. For example, like, they closed
6 some options positions early for GameStop
7 and possibly other stocks.
8 Q. Did you have any options
9 positions in GameStop that were closed
10 early?
11 A. No.
12 Q. And the understanding
13 post-January 28th that you just mentioned
14 to me, would you again have learned about
15 that through news articles and social
16 media, as you did for the restrictions on
17 the 28th?
18 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
19 A. I don't know for sure, but
20 probably.
21 Q. This is the time period that you
22 indicated previously that you were
23 checking Wallstreetbets, you know, at
24 least a dozen times a day; is that
25 correct?
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2 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
3 A. I -- I don't -- I think so. I
4 don't really know for sure. But I was
5 checking it frequently in this -- at this
6 time.
7 Q. Okay. So we'll turn to your
8 trading now in February of 2021.
9 (Defendant's Exhibit 18, Clarke
10 Robinhood account statement, Bates
11 RHMDL00097897, was hereby marked for
12 identification, as of this date.)
13 Q. I'm going to introduce what will
14 be Exhibit 18.
15 A. Okay.
16 Q. Okay. You can refresh, and
17 Exhibit 18 should be there. Let me know
18 when you have that.
19 A. Okay. I have it.
20 Q. Do you recognize this document?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. What is it?
23 A. A brokerage summary from the
24 month of February 2021.
25 Q. If you can turn to the page
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2 ending 899, that is the third page here.
3 A. Okay.
4 Q. Do you see the three lines that
5 say "GME" and in the -- sorry. Excuse
6 me -- say "GME" in the symbol column and
7 the in the transaction column say "sell"?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And the date of those
10 transactions is February 2, 2021; is that
11 correct?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Is it correct that you sold all
14 of your GME shares on February 2, 2021?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Okay. Why did you sell your
17 entire position in GameStop on that day?
18 A. Because I no longer had
19 confidence that the price would go up from
20 there.
21 Q. Do you recall on February 7th
22 whether Robinhood had any purchasing
23 restrictions in place for GameStop?
24 A. I don't remember explicitly.
25 Q. Okay. So sorry. Just to
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2 clarify. It's not just that you don't
3 remember the specifics, but you don't
4 recall either way if there were purchasing
5 restrictions in place; is that correct?
6 A. Yeah. I can't remember if --
7 either way. I think there were
8 restrictions up until February 4th, but as
9 for, like, the specific details, I can't
10 remember.
11 Q. So you don't recall, for
12 example, if the position limit was higher
13 than what the amount of GME shares that
14 you owned was. Is that accurate?
15 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
16 A. Yes. I don't remember, you
17 know, specific dates, what the
18 restriction -- what the limit was for
19 certain securities on X date. I don't
20 really remember any of those details.
21 Q. Do you recall knowing those
22 details at the time?
23 A. I can't remember.
24 Q. Aside from your awareness of the
25 fact of the purchasing restrictions, do
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2 you recall hearing anything about the
3 reason that Robinhood had implemented
4 purchasing restrictions at the time you
5 made these sales?
6 A. I can't remember exactly if
7 there was a reason when I sold.
8 Q. So you don't recall hearing
9 anything about the reason Robinhood
10 implemented restrictions when you made
11 those sales. Is that accurate?
12 A. Correct.
13 MR. KIM: Objection. Form.
14 Q. Okay. We can put this exhibit
15 to the side.
16 MS. YOUNG: So I'm going to
17 introduce what will be Exhibit 19.
18 (Defendant's Exhibit 19, Clarke
19 Order Data File, Bates RHMDL00097966,
20 was hereby marked for identification,
21 as of this date.)
22 Q. Okay. You can refresh. It
23 should be there.
24 A. Okay. Okay.
25 Q. So this is a chart -- and I can
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2 represent to you that this portrays the
3 same trading information that we just went
4 over in your account statements. But it
5 also shows all of your orders and not just
6 the trades that were -- that were executed
7 from your account.
8 So the first column of this
9 spreadsheet, this is your Robinhood
10 account number.
11 Do you see that?
12 A. Where exactly?
13 Q. The first column.
14 A. Oh, right. Yes.
15 Q. Okay. Okay. And in the first
16 several rows here, we see your orders to
17 buy GameStop on January 27th.
18 Do you see that?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. And then in the bottom three
21 rows, we see your sales on February 2nd.
22 Do you see that?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Okay. But we also see here --
25 and this is four rows up from the
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2 bottom -- that on February 1st, you
3 created a limit sell order for six shares
4 of GameStop.
5 Do you see that?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And that was at a price of
8 $69,420.
9 Do you see that?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Okay. Why are you smiling?
12 A. Just because that was kind of a
13 joke.
14 Q. Okay. Can you tell me about
15 that?
16 A. It was just -- it's kind of just
17 a joke number. I don't know exactly why I
18 did that.
19 Q. When you say it's a joke number,
20 was it something that you saw -- like, is
21 it a joke on Reddit that you saw? Is that
22 what you mean?
23 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
24 A. I don't remember exactly. But
25 it probably was.
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2 Q. Okay. And so can you tell me
3 what is a limit order?
4 A. Yeah. It's when you -- when you
5 set a predetermined price to either buy or
6 sell X, Y, Z security, and the order
7 automatically executes once it -- the
8 price of the security goes above or below
9 that number.
10 Q. So when you put this order in
11 place, you know, you didn't believe that
12 GameStop would reach that price. Is that
13 accurate?
14 A. I don't know.
15 Q. All right. But when you said it
16 was a joke order, you didn't put this in
17 place thinking that this order would be
18 executed. Is that accurate?
19 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
20 A. Again, I don't -- I don't know
21 exactly.
22 Q. You don't know what you were
23 thinking at the time?
24 A. Correct.
25 Q. Okay. Do you recall placing
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2 this order?
3 A. No.
4 Q. All right. So you have no
5 memory of placing this limit order
6 whatsoever on February 1st.
7 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
8 Asked and answered.
9 A. Genuinely, no.
10 Q. What led you to say that it was
11 a joke number?
12 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
13 Asked and answered. I think he
14 already talked about this.
15 A. It's just -- you know, it's --
16 it was a number that was, you know,
17 probably discussed on Reddit.
18 Q. Do you have any recollection of
19 posting this order anywhere?
20 A. Such as?
21 Q. Any social media forums?
22 A. No.
23 Q. Okay. Do you have any
24 recollection of texting anybody or
25 emailing anybody about this order?
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2 A. No.
3 Q. All right. You can put that to
4 the side.
5 (Defendant's Exhibit 20, A
6 Reddit post, was hereby marked for
7 identification, as of this date.)
8 Q. Okay. You can refresh. And
9 we'll introduce what will be Exhibit 20.
10 A. Okay. Okay.
11 Q. Okay. Do you recognize this
12 page?
13 A. Not particularly.
14 Q. Okay. If you scroll to the
15 second page, do see on the right where it
16 says "Wallstreetbets"?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Okay. So is it your
19 understanding this is sub-Reddit
20 Wallstreetbets post on that page?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Okay. And so this person is
23 posting here, "If the price per share of
24 GME hit 69,420, that's a total value" --
25 MR. KIM: I'm sorry. What page
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2 are we on? Sorry. On the first page
3 or second page?
4 MS. YOUNG: The post starts on
5 the first page. It goes to the second
6 page. So the post --
7 MR. KIM: We're on the first
8 page. Got it.
9 MS. YOUNG: The post -- so the
10 post beginning with 69,420 begins on
11 the first page there. Do you see
12 that?
13 MR. KIM: Okay. Is that the
14 "We're living in a simulation" one?
15 MS. YOUNG: Yes, correct.
16 MR. KIM: Okay. All right.
17 BY MS. YOUNG:
18 Q. And so this person says, "If the
19 price per share hits 69,420, that's a
20 total value of 3,255,103,800,000, roughly
21 all hedge funds assets as of 2019/2020."
22 And then at the bottom here, it
23 says -- on top of the second page, it says
24 "TLDR," and then there are several rocket
25 ship Emojis.
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2 Do you see that?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Okay. What do the rocket ship
5 Emojis mean?
6 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
7 A. I mean, I don't know for sure,
8 but essentially just that the stock price
9 will go up I think is what it means.
10 Q. Okay. Are you familiar with the
11 phrase "to the moon"?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Are you familiar with that
14 phrase from Wallstreetbets?
15 A. Not particularly.
16 Q. Okay. What does that mean to
17 you?
18 A. Just, like, either doing
19 something exceptionally well or I guess
20 the stock price moving very -- to a very
21 high number.
22 Q. Okay. And so this is the same
23 dollar amount that you placed your limit
24 order for; correct?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. Okay. And so do you recall
3 seeing any posts, including this one or
4 others, about placing an order for
5 GameStop at $69,420?
6 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
7 Asked and answered.
8 A. Not particularly.
9 Q. What do you mean?
10 A. I mean I don't really even
11 remember doing that, nor do I remember
12 seeing this article. So this --
13 Q. Okay. So when you said it
14 was -- when you saw it on your order data
15 and indicated it was a joke order, what is
16 the joke?
17 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
18 Asked and answered.
19 A. It's I guess just a Reddit joke.
20 I don't really know.
21 Q. So, like, what is -- what is
22 funny about placing that limit order, I
23 guess?
24 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
25 Asked and answered.
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2 A. I -- I don't really know. At
3 the time, I don't really remember why I
4 did it even.
5 Q. Okay. But when you say it's a
6 Reddit joke, you mean that people on
7 Reddit were making jokes about placing
8 orders for that amount? Is that correct?
9 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
10 That's not what he said.
11 A. I mean, I don't -- I don't know
12 for sure. Some people. I mean, it's
13 certainly a number in this Reddit post.
14 Q. Okay. You can put that exhibit
15 to the side.
16 (Defendant's Exhibit 21, A
17 Reddit post, was hereby marked for
18 identification, as of this date.)
19 Q. Okay. You can refresh, and I'm
20 going to introduce Exhibit 21.
21 A. Okay.
22 Q. Do you see that?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Okay. And is this another post
25 from Wallstreetbets?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Okay. And you see this one is
4 titled "Don't sell until 69,420"?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. There are several comments on
7 this post, if you scroll down, several
8 Harambe posts.
9 If I can direct to you the fifth
10 page here. The top comment here is
11 "Diamond hands until 69,420."
12 Do you see that?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Are you familiar with that term,
15 "diamond hands"?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. What does it mean?
18 A. To my knowledge, essentially it
19 just means holding a security for as long
20 as possible no matter what.
21 Q. Was that a term that was used
22 related to GME at this time on Reddit, do
23 you recall?
24 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
25 A. I don't know for sure, but
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2 probably.
3 Q. Why do you say probably?
4 A. Because it was a widely used
5 term on Reddit, like, Wallstreetbets, so,
6 I mean, I'm sure people were posting about
7 GameStop and about diamond hands.
8 Q. What are the contexts that you
9 saw it being widely used in?
10 A. I mean, at the time, I don't
11 really remember for sure. But, I mean,
12 essentially just that people were going to
13 keep holding the stock, some people, no
14 matter what.
15 Q. And why would people keep
16 holding the stock no matter what?
17 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
18 Calls for speculation.
19 Q. Sorry. Let me rephrase that.
20 What did you see on Reddit
21 people were indicating why they were
22 holding the stock no matter what?
23 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
24 A. I mean, I don't know for sure.
25 You know, people were holding the stock
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2 for different reasons.
3 Q. What are some of the reasons
4 that you recall seeing?
5 A. I mean, like I think I mentioned
6 earlier, some people, you know, owned the
7 stock because they liked the company.
8 Other people held the stock because they
9 were, you know, hoping for a short
10 squeeze. Yeah.
11 Q. Okay. So you testified that
12 this -- the limit order that you placed
13 for this amount, 69,420, was a joke order.
14 Have you placed any other joke
15 orders?
16 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
17 A. I don't remember.
18 Q. You don't remember having ever
19 placed another order as a joke; is that
20 correct?
21 A. Correct.
22 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
23 MS. YOUNG: All right. I think
24 it would be a good time for a break,
25 if that works. Can we do ten minutes
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2 this time?
3 MR. KIM: Yeah. Sure.
4 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: The time is
5 12:05. We are off the record.
6 (Recess)
7 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: The time is
8 12:20. We are on the record.
9 BY MS. YOUNG:
10 Q. Mr. Clarke, you explained
11 earlier in this deposition how a short
12 squeeze works.
13 Do you recall that?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Okay. What is your
16 understanding of how a short squeeze ends?
17 A. Well, in theory, once the short
18 interest is eliminated.
19 Q. Since January 2021, when you
20 purchased shares of GameStop, had you ever
21 purchased shares of GameStop again?
22 A. I don't think so, no.
23 Q. Have you ever considered an
24 investment in GameStop since January 2021?
25 A. No, I don't think so.
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2 Q. Okay. Why is that?
3 A. Because I didn't think it was a
4 good opportunity after that.
5 Q. Why is that?
6 A. Because I wasn't -- I didn't
7 purchase the stock originally because I
8 thought the fundamentals of the company
9 were sound, but rather just as a trade,
10 and I haven't found any other reason to
11 trade after -- trade that stock after I
12 sold in January 2021 or February 2021.
13 Q. What is your role in this
14 lawsuit?
15 A. To act as a potential class
16 representative and act as a fiduciary to
17 the rest of the class to try and get the
18 best settlement outcome.
19 Q. What is your understanding of a
20 class action?
21 A. So it's essentially a suit where
22 many people have been damaged in the same
23 way or very similar -- very similar way,
24 so instead of having multiple individual
25 suits, you have just one class action
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2 suit.
3 Q. So what are your
4 responsibilities in this role as a
5 potential class representative?
6 A. To essentially help ensure that
7 the case moves forward and do what's best
8 for the rest of the class.
9 Q. What is the class that you are
10 hoping to represent?
11 A. Essentially any person that held
12 shares of the relevant securities in this
13 case after but before market close on
14 January 27th and sold at any point through
15 the periods of January 28th and
16 February 4th.
17 Q. When did you first hear about
18 this lawsuit?
19 A. I don't remember exactly, but
20 shortly after all of this unfolded.
21 Q. Do you have an approximate
22 timeline? When you say "shortly after,"
23 what does that mean?
24 A. Sometime in 2021.
25 Q. Okay. Before the summer of
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2 2021, would you say?
3 A. I can't remember exactly.
4 Q. So you don't remember when it
5 was between February 2021 and
6 December 2021? Is that accurate?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. Okay. How did you hear about
9 the lawsuit?
10 A. I don't remember exactly.
11 Possibly through the news. Yeah.
12 Q. And what did you hear about the
13 lawsuit at that time?
14 A. Just that there were -- that
15 something was trying to be put together
16 to -- by the Rosen Law Firm to try and
17 claim damages for investors.
18 Q. And did you reach out to the
19 Rosen Law Firm?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Do you recall when you reached
22 out to the Rosen firm?
23 A. Not exactly.
24 Q. Was it in 2021?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. Have you ever tried to become a
3 class representative in any other actions?
4 A. No.
5 Q. Why did you want to be involved
6 in this lawsuit?
7 A. To essentially, you know, make
8 sure that Robinhood is held liable for the
9 damages that they caused a great deal of
10 individual investors and make sure that
11 they're held accountable for their choices
12 in this case.
13 Q. Are you suing any other brokers
14 for restrictions that were put in place at
15 that time?
16 A. No.
17 Q. Why not?
18 A. Because of the --
19 MR. KIM: Objection. Objection
20 to form. But you can answer the
21 question.
22 A. I wasn't using any other
23 brokerages or trading the relevant
24 securities in this case with any other
25 brokerage.
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2 Q. Other than our time together
3 today, how much time have you spent on
4 things related to this lawsuit?
5 A. I can't be 100 percent sure, but
6 between meetings, you know, searching for
7 documents, the preparation for this
8 deposition, a number of hours, probably
9 over a dozen hours perhaps.
10 Q. Have you read the complaint that
11 you previously had in front of you?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Have you read any other case
14 filings?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. What filings?
17 A. The certification, the initial
18 complaint, the amended consolidated
19 complaint, and the response to the motion
20 to dismiss the case.
21 Q. You reviewed that before it was
22 filed?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Of the approximately dozen hours
25 you've spent on this case, I think you've
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2 told me four were meetings to prepare for
3 this deposition; is that correct?
4 A. Approximately, yeah.
5 Q. Okay. Can you give me an
6 approximate breakdown of the other eight
7 hours?
8 A. Yeah. We've had updates
9 periodically on how the case is going, you
10 know, so with the team at Rosen Law and
11 the rest of the proposed class
12 representatives, and then just, you know,
13 searching for providing documents to my --
14 our legal counsel, and then -- yeah.
15 Q. Okay. And how many of the eight
16 hours were spent searching for and
17 providing documents to your counsel?
18 A. I can't say for sure. But
19 throughout the entire process, at least
20 maybe a couple of hours.
21 Q. Okay. And so you're aware that
22 the defendants in this action served a
23 request for documents from you; correct?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Have you seen those document
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2 requests?
3 A. Could you specify which
4 requests?
5 Q. Have you seen a document laying
6 out requests from Robinhood for documents
7 from you?
8 A. I can't remember.
9 Q. Okay. Well, what document have
10 you seen related to Robinhood's document
11 requests to you?
12 A. I can't remember exactly.
13 Q. Have you seen a document related
14 to Robinhood's document requests served on
15 you?
16 MR. KIM: Objection to form. He
17 said he can't remember. So --
18 Q. Yes. So the question is have
19 you seen any document laying out
20 Robinhood's document requests?
21 A. I can't remember exactly.
22 Q. You can't remember if you've
23 seen one. Not exactly. Have you -- like,
24 you have no memory of seeing document
25 requests; is that correct?
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2 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
3 A. I'm not sure. I would need more
4 details on the request.
5 Q. Do you have a memory of seeing a
6 document that has requests to you for
7 documents related to this lawsuit?
8 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
9 A. I -- I can't remember.
10 Q. Okay. You indicated you needed
11 more details. Is that because you have
12 seen some documents that relate to
13 Robinhood's document requests?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Okay. What are the documents
16 you've seen that relate to Robinhood's
17 document requests?
18 A. I can't remember exactly.
19 Q. Do you remember generally?
20 A. Requests to see, you know, like,
21 social media and brokerage statements.
22 Q. Okay. So yeah. It's totally
23 fine if you don't remember all of the
24 document requests.
25 I guess my question is a little
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2 different, which is did you receive
3 Robinhood's document requests that were
4 served on you?
5 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
6 Asked and answered.
7 A. I -- I -- I'm not -- I can't
8 remember 100 percent. But I provided
9 everything to -- that was requested to
10 Rosen Law.
11 Q. Was it requested by email?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Okay. So your counsel emailed
14 you with what documents you should send
15 them; is that correct?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Okay. When you were first
18 informed that Robinhood had served
19 document requests on you?
20 A. I can't remember.
21 Q. Approximately.
22 A. I can't remember.
23 Q. When you learned of the document
24 requests, did you search for potentially
25 relevant documents?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. When was that?
4 A. Well, it was across multiple
5 periods, if I remember correctly, and I
6 don't know exactly when.
7 Q. Okay. Approximately. Because
8 this is not, you know, years and years
9 ago.
10 So approximately when did you
11 search for documents?
12 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
13 Asked and answered.
14 A. Again, I don't -- I don't know
15 exactly, but obviously after
16 February 4, 2021.
17 Q. Did you search for documents
18 within the last year?
19 A. 2022, yes.
20 Q. Okay. Other than just that you
21 searched in 2022, you have no other
22 recollection of when you performed any
23 searches for any documents related to this
24 case. Is that accurate?
25 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Did you search in your home for
4 potentially relevant hard copy documents?
5 A. Yes. I searched everywhere that
6 I thought was relevant. And I wouldn't
7 have kept hard copy documents.
8 Q. Do you have a personal computer,
9 laptop?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Did you search for electronic
12 files stored on that computer?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. How did you run that search?
15 A. By searching at any file path
16 where I thought maybe I would have saved
17 anything on the computer.
18 Q. So you went to specific file
19 paths and looked through all the documents
20 in those file paths? Is that correct?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. You didn't use search terms; is
23 that correct?
24 A. I can't remember exactly, but
25 I -- to my knowledge, I didn't save
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2 anything on my computer.
3 Q. Okay. But you don't recall
4 running search terms is my question on
5 your laptop.
6 A. I can't recall if I did or not.
7 Q. Do you have a work laptop or
8 computer that's separate from your
9 personal?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Okay. Did you go through files
12 stored on your computer at work?
13 A. There would have been nothing
14 relevant on my work computer.
15 Q. Okay. So did you go through the
16 files stored on your work computer?
17 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
18 Asked and answered.
19 A. No, because there was nothing
20 relevant on that device.
21 Q. Do you have a personal email
22 account?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Did you search -- do you have
25 more than one personal email account?
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2 A. Yes. I've used other emails in
3 the past, but I only really have one,
4 which I may -- I don't know if I -- still
5 active or not, but I currently only use
6 one email address, and I have been using
7 that email address for a long time.
8 Q. So during the relevant time
9 period for this action, you were only
10 using one email address; is that right?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Is that the Yahoo email that we
13 reviewed earlier?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Did you search your email
16 account for documents that Robinhood
17 requested from you?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. How did you search?
20 A. By phrases, search phrases.
21 Q. What were all the search phrases
22 that you used?
23 A. I can't remember exactly.
24 Q. Do you recall any of them?
25 A. Not particularly.
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2 Q. Okay. When you say not
3 particularly, you don't recall a single
4 term that you used. Is that accurate?
5 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
6 A. That's correct.
7 Q. Okay. And so when you said
8 search phrases, you don't know if these
9 were phrases, meaning multiple words or
10 single word search terms; correct?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. How did you develop your list of
13 search phrases?
14 A. By just kind of common sense,
15 searching for anything that could be
16 relevant.
17 Q. And what do you understand could
18 be relevant?
19 A. Anything relating to what was
20 being asked of me to produce.
21 Q. Okay. And what was being asked
22 of you to produce?
23 A. Well, it depends on what was
24 being asked of me. But, you know,
25 anything relating to social media posts,
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2 for example, or any sort of statements.
3 Q. So you searched your email for
4 social media posts and account statements?
5 Is that correct?
6 MR. KIM: Objection it form.
7 A. Not -- I searched my email for
8 anything I thought was relevant to what
9 was being asked. But I can't recall
10 exactly.
11 Q. Okay. Understood.
12 And the things that you recall
13 being asked for are social media posts and
14 account statements.
15 A. Correct.
16 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
17 Q. Okay. Have you ever
18 communicated in writing with anyone
19 regarding GME securities?
20 A. No.
21 Q. You've never sent an email
22 related to your investment in GME?
23 MR. KIM: Other than counsel;
24 right? I mean --
25 Q. We're not talking about
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2 privileged materials. Correct.
3 A. No in that case.
4 Q. Okay. What about this lawsuit?
5 Other than your counsel, have you written
6 to anybody about this lawsuit?
7 A. Other than counsel, not to any
8 of the other proposed class
9 representatives or class members.
10 Q. Okay. Who have you communicated
11 with about this lawsuit outside of those
12 people that you just listed?
13 A. Just the Rosen legal team.
14 Q. Okay. So then you've only
15 spoken to the Rosen legal team about this
16 lawsuit. Is that accurate?
17 A. Correct.
18 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
19 Q. You've not spoken to any friends
20 about this lawsuit?
21 A. No.
22 Q. You have a cellphone; is that
23 correct?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Did you search your text
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2 messages for documents related to this
3 lawsuit?
4 A. I can't remember for sure.
5 Q. Okay. You do not recall
6 searching your text messages for documents
7 related to this lawsuit; is that correct?
8 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
9 A. Yes. I can't remember one way
10 or the other if I did or did not.
11 Q. Did you search other messaging
12 platforms, like WhatsApp, for documents
13 related to this lawsuit?
14 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
15 Lack of foundation.
16 A. I never used WhatsApp, so --
17 Q. Yeah. Sorry. So that was an
18 example.
19 So what messaging platforms do
20 you use other than text?
21 A. Just -- can you give me more
22 examples of potential --
23 Q. Sure. Do you use Facebook
24 Messaging?
25 A. No.
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2 Q. Okay. Do you -- I guess are
3 there any other messaging apps, for
4 example, that you have on your phone other
5 than just using text, like, where you're
6 communicating with another human being?
7 A. Through text.
8 Q. Only -- I'm sorry. Can you
9 clarify?
10 A. Where I'm communicating with
11 another human being through text.
12 Q. Oh, correct, not through voice.
13 Yes.
14 A. So, I mean, in that case,
15 iMessage, Snapchat, and Reddit. And all
16 three, no.
17 Q. Sorry. All three no -- what was
18 the "no" in response to?
19 A. I did not discuss anything with
20 anyone regarding this case.
21 Q. Okay. Did you search your
22 iMessage for anything related to this
23 case?
24 A. I can't remember exactly. But
25 there was nothing relevant that I would
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2 have sent through iMessage regardless.
3 Q. Do you recall searching your
4 text messages for messages about GameStop
5 specifically?
6 A. I can't remember for sure, but
7 there was nothing about GameStop that I
8 would have sent to anyone through text.
9 Q. Sure. So you don't recall
10 searching your text messages for GameStop;
11 is that correct?
12 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
13 Asked and answered.
14 A. I can't recall one way or the
15 other.
16 Q. Okay. So these searches were
17 done, you know -- I'll represent to you we
18 served our document requests I believe in
19 November. So this is recent history.
20 I'm just asking if you --
21 MR. KIM: This isn't a memory
22 test; right? So stop badgering the
23 witness. He's answered the questions.
24 Why don't we move on.
25 MS. YOUNG: Yeah.
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2 Unfortunately, Phil, we asked you for
3 this information, and you told us to
4 ask the witnesses. So we have to get
5 it this way or we're not going to be
6 able to get the information that we
7 need about what searches were done.
8 Q. Did you run any search terms on
9 your social media private messages for
10 documents related to GameStop -- for
11 communications related to GameStop?
12 Excuse me.
13 A. Sorry. Can you repeat that?
14 Q. Sure. Did you run any search
15 terms on your social media private
16 messages, so DMs, for communications
17 related to GameStop?
18 A. Well, the only --
19 Q. It's just a yes or no.
20 MR. KIM: Why don't you let him
21 answer the question.
22 A. The only --
23 MR. KIM: Let him answer the
24 question. Sorry. I didn't want to
25 cut you off.
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2 Q. You can answer the question.
3 A. The only place where I possibly
4 would have had information relating to
5 this case or GameStop, would have sent to
6 anyone a private message about it, would
7 have been Reddit. And I searched all of
8 my private messages on Reddit, and there
9 was nothing relating to this case.
10 Q. Okay. What terms did you use to
11 search on Reddit?
12 A. Well, I didn't have many private
13 conversations. So I just looked at every
14 one that I ever had, and there was nothing
15 relating to this case.
16 Q. You looked at every private
17 message you've ever had on Reddit? Is
18 that accurate?
19 A. Correct.
20 MS. YOUNG: I think I'm close to
21 finished. Could we just take a
22 five-minute break and then come back
23 on the record just in case I have any
24 wrap-ups?
25 MR. KIM: Sure.
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2 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: The time is
3 12:49. We are off the record.
4 (Recess)
5 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: The time is
6 12:58. We are on the record.
7 BY MS. YOUNG:
8 Q. Just have a couple of final
9 questions for you here.
10 Did you take any actions to
11 preserve documents that relate to the
12 events that you're alleging in this
13 lawsuit?
14 A. Yes. I kept all relevant
15 documents.
16 Q. What do you mean by that?
17 A. Well, I didn't delete anything
18 relevant to the case.
19 Q. Did you turn off any
20 auto-deletion that you might have, for
21 example, on your phone, in your email?
22 A. I don't -- I don't remember.
23 Q. Does your -- did you get a new
24 phone any time between December 2020 and
25 now?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Okay. Do you still have your
4 old phone?
5 A. No.
6 Q. What happened to your old phone?
7 A. I gave it back to the -- my --
8 our provider to get a discount on my new
9 phone.
10 Q. When did you get a new phone?
11 A. Maybe either October or November
12 of 2021.
13 Q. Have you gotten a new personal
14 computer since December 2020?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Do you still have your old
17 computer?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Did you search the old computer
20 for files related to this lawsuit?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. You searched your old one and
23 your current existing computer?
24 A. Well, my new computer, I
25 received it December of 2022 or
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2 January 2023.
3 Q. Okay. So you didn't look on
4 that computer for any responsive
5 documents; is that correct?
6 A. Correct. There wouldn't have
7 been anything on it.
8 Q. Did you take any other steps to
9 preserve documents, for example, taking a
10 screen shot of a post that might be
11 deleted?
12 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
13 A. I -- I saved any -- I didn't
14 delete any documents in this case. I
15 provided everything.
16 Q. Right. Sorry.
17 So did you take any other
18 preservation steps to make sure that
19 documents were not destroyed that related
20 to this lawsuit?
21 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
22 A. I preserved everything, and then
23 I didn't delete anything relevant to this
24 case.
25 Q. Okay. So you didn't take any
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2 additional steps to preserve documents; is
3 that correct?
4 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
5 Asked and answered.
6 A. Yes. I --
7 Q. Okay.
8 MS. YOUNG: Okay. I have no
9 further questions. I do just want to
10 make a note for the record. We
11 learned today that, in addition to the
12 social media handles that were
13 disclosed to us, Mr. Clarke also has a
14 Twitter account that was not disclosed
15 as well as a Discord account and a
16 Snapchat account. We also learned
17 very recently through our own research
18 and confirmed on the record today that
19 Mr. Clarke's Reddit handle was
20 incorrectly disclosed to us.
21 Accordingly, and so that we can
22 have time to review those accounts,
23 we're going to ask that this
24 deposition remain open at this time
25 and that counsel please follow up with
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2 an amended version of the
3 February 27th disclosure with the
4 social media handles.
5 MR. KIM: We'll take those
6 requests under advisement. I don't
7 have any questions.
8 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: Okay,
9 Counsel. If there are no further
10 questions, any stipulations in
11 addition that you want to put on this
12 transcript?
13 MR. KIM: The only other thing
14 I'd note that this transcript is going
15 to be marked Confidential pursuant to
16 the procedures set forth in the
17 protective order in the case. So
18 we'll follow those procedures in
19 treating these things as confidential.
20 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: Okay. Thank
21 you, Counsel.
22 Here ends Media Unit No. 3.
23 This concludes the video recorded
24 virtual remote deposition of
25 Brendan Clarke taken by the defendant
Veritext Legal Solutions
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Case 1:21-md-02989-CMA Document 567-5 Entered on FLSD Docket 06/07/2023 Page 152 of
152
Page 151
1 CLARKE - CONFIDENTIAL
2 on Friday, March 24, 2023. The time
3 is 1:03 p.m. Central Daylight Time,
4 and we are going off the record.
5 (TIME NOTED: 1:03 p.m.)
6
7 ____________________________
BRENDAN CLARKE
8
9
________________________
10 Subscribed and sworn to
before me this _________
11 day of ________________, 2023.
12 _______________________
Notary Public
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Veritext Legal Solutions
212-279-9424 www.veritext.com 212-490-3430
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