Exhibit 7: Deposition of Brian Harbison (Dkt. 568-7, S.D. Fla.)
Summary
Exhibit 7 (Document 568-7) in Case 1:21-md-02989-CMA, entered on the FLSD docket June 8, 2023, is a 200-page transcript, marked confidential, of the videotape deposition of Brian Harbison via Zoom videoconference on April 19, 2023, before Maureen Ratto of Veritext Legal Solutions. Phillip Kim and Michael Cohen of The Rosen Law Firm appear for Plaintiff and Kathleen E. Young and Robert DeNunzio of Cravath Swaine & Moore, LLP for Defendant, with Lee Bowry as legal video specialist. Ms. Young conducts the direct examination for Robinhood, and the proceedings were adjourned at 3:14 p.m.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
Cite this document
“Exhibit 7: Deposition of Brian Harbison (Dkt. 568-7).”
Original at archive.org. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2023-06-08-covid-era-misc-62de425a-1/
, SHA-256 62de425a4c925c2ca3b78be66d954b2bda5b137cf931d6908b2ab664b0490972.Full text
Case 1:21-md-02989-CMA Document 568-7 Entered on FLSD Docket 06/08/2023 Page 1 of
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Exhibit 7
Case 1:21-md-02989-CMA Document 568-7 Entered on FLSD Docket 06/08/2023 Page 2 of
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Page 1
1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
2 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
3
4 Case No. 1:21-MD-2989-CMA
5 -----------------------------x
6 In Re: JANUARY 2021 SHORT
7 SQUEEZE TRADING LITIGATION
8 -----------------------------x
9
10
11 ** CONFIDENTIAL **
12 VIDEOTAPE DEPOSITION OF
13 BRIAN HARBISON
14 VIA ZOOM VIDEOCONFERENCE
15 April 19 2023
16 10:04 a.m.
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24 Reported by:
25 Maureen Ratto, RPR, CCR
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1 * * *
2
3 Videotape deposition of Brian
4 Harbison held virtually via Zoom
5 Teleconference, hosted from Veritext
6 Legal Solutions, pursuant to notice,
7 before Maureen Ratto, Certified Court
8 Reporter, License No. XI01165,
9 Registered Professional Reporter,
10 License No. 817125, and Notary Public.
11
12 * * *
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
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Page 3
1 A P P E A R A N C E S:
2 Counsel for Plaintiff:
3 THE ROSEN LAW FIRM
4 275 Madison Avenue
5 New York, New York 10016
6 BY: PHILLIP KIM, ESQ.
7 pkim@rosenlegal.com
8 MICHAEL COHEN, ESQ.
9 mcohen@rosenlegal.com
10
11 Counsel for Defendant:
12 CRAVATH SWAINE & MOORE, LLP
13 825 Eighth Avenue
14 New York, New York 10019
15 BY: KATHLEEN E. YOUNG, ESQ.
16 keyoung@cravath.com
17 ROBERT DeNUNZIO, ESQ.
18 rdenunzio@cravath.com
19
20 ALSO PRESENT:
21 LEE BOWRY, Legal Video Specialist
22
23
24
25
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1 VIDEOGRAPHER: Good morning.
2 We are going on the record at 10:04
3 a.m. on April 19, 2023.
4 Please note that this
5 deposition is being conducted
6 remotely using virtual technology.
7 Quality of recording depends on the
8 quality of camera and internet
9 connection of participants.
10 What is seen from the witness
11 and heard on screen is what will be
12 recorded.
13 Audio and video recording will
14 continue to take place unless all
15 parties agree to go off the record.
16 This is Media Unit 1 of the
17 video-recorded deposition of Brian
18 Harbison in the matter of In Re:
19 January 2021 Short Squeeze Trading
20 Litigation, filed in the United
21 States District Court Southern
22 District of Florida, Case No.
23 1:21-MD-2989 CMA.
24 My name is Lee Bowry
25 representing Veritext New York and
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Page 5
1 I am the videographer. The court
2 reporter is Maureen Ratto, also
3 with Veritext.
4 I am not related to any party
5 in this action, nor am I
6 financially interested in the
7 outcome. If there are any
8 objections to proceeding, please
9 state them at the time of your
10 appearance.
11 Counsel attending remotely
12 will now state their appearances
13 and affiliations for the record,
14 beginning with the noticing
15 attorney.
16 MS. YOUNG: This is Kathleen
17 Young from Cravath, Swaine & Moore
18 on behalf of Defendant, and from
19 Cravath also with me is Robert
20 DeNunzio.
21 MR. KIM: This is Phil Kim
22 from the Rosen Law Firm, also on
23 line is Michael Cohen from my firm,
24 representing named Plaintiff, Brian
25 Harbison.
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1 BRIAN HARBISON - CONFIDENTIAL
2 VIDEOGRAPHER: Will the court
3 reporter please swear in the
4 witness and then counsel may
5 proceed.
6 * * *
7 B R I A N H A R B I S O N, having been
8 first duly sworn according to law by
9 the Officer, testifies as follows:
10 DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MS. YOUNG:
11 Q. Good morning, Mr. Harbison.
12 A. Good morning.
13 Q. My name is Kathleen Young, I'm
14 from Cravath, as I just mentioned, and we
15 represent Robinhood in this matter.
16 Would you mind stating your
17 full name for the record?
18 A. Brian Harbison.
19 Q. And what is your current
20 address?
21 A.
22
23 Q. And have you ever been deposed
24 before?
25 A. No.
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1 BRIAN HARBISON - CONFIDENTIAL
2 Q. Okay. So your counsel may have
3 gone over some of this with you, but
4 we'll start with some ground rules before
5 we really get started.
6 You understand that you've
7 been sworn in today and that you have to
8 testify truthfully?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. And is there any reason why
11 you cannot give complete and truthful
12 testimony today?
13 A. I'm not sure what you mean.
14 Q. Is there anything that would
15 prohibit you from telling, giving
16 complete and truthful testimony today?
17 Did you say no?
18 A. Yeah.
19 Q. So our court reporter,
20 Maureen, is going to transcribe our
21 conversations, so it's important to give,
22 you know, verbal answers rather than
23 nodding or shaking your head. Does that
24 make sense?
25 A. Yes.
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1 BRIAN HARBISON - CONFIDENTIAL
2 Q. Your counsel may object from
3 time to time. You still have to answer
4 the question with the exception of if
5 Mr. Kim gives you an instruction not to
6 answer a question specifically. Does that
7 make sense?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And if you don't understand a
10 question or need me to repeat it, just
11 let me know and I'll repeat it for you.
12 Does that make sense?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. And if you'll allow me to
15 finish questions before you respond, I'll
16 try to do the same. That will also help
17 Maureen here. Does that make sense?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. And we can -- we'll take break
20 periodically. You can let us know if you
21 need a break, that's fine, we can take
22 one at any time. The only exception to
23 that is if a question is still pending.
24 Then we'll need you to respond to the
25 question and then we can take a break.
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1 BRIAN HARBISON - CONFIDENTIAL
2 Sound good?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Okay. And what did you do to
5 prepare for today's deposition?
6 A. I went over with my attorneys
7 and had calls and discussed everything,
8 how it would go, the depositions and all.
9 Q. And those calls were just with
10 your attorneys at the Rosen firm?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And how many calls or meetings
13 did you have?
14 A. Two.
15 Q. Two, you said?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. How long were those calls or
18 meetings?
19 A. About two hours, I would say.
20 Q. Two hours each?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Was anybody else present
23 besides your attorneys from the Rosen
24 firm?
25 A. No.
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2 Q. Have you ever been involved in
3 any other civil proceeding before?
4 A. No.
5 Q. Have you ever been involved in
6 any criminal proceedings?
7 A. No.
8 Q. And what is your role in this
9 lawsuit?
10 A. Class representative.
11 Q. A representative --
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. -- is that what you said?
14 Do you mean a class
15 representative?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And what do you understand the
18 class action to be?
19 A. Pretty much we're people that
20 are suing the company for the actions
21 they did.
22 Q. What do you understand your
23 responsibilities to be in that role?
24 A. To pretty much go for the best
25 interests of the class and make sure
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2 they're repaid for Robinhood's actions.
3 Q. And who is the class in this
4 lawsuit?
5 A. The class? I'm sorry. We're
6 the class, the people that's suing
7 Robinhood.
8 Q. So who is "we", I guess is my
9 question? Who does the class consist of?
10 A. The people Robinhood took the
11 buy button from, it was the shares, the
12 AMCs, the GameStops.
13 Q. So is it people that were --
14 that wanted to trade on Robinhood, wanted
15 to trade AMC on Robinhood, is that what
16 you're saying, and GameStop?
17 A. All the stocks listed on the
18 sheet, the deposition.
19 Q. And when did those class
20 members need to trade on Robinhood or
21 need to or were trying to invest?
22 MR. KIM: Objection to form,
23 vague. You can answer the question,
24 Mr. Harbison, if you understand it.
25 A. Yeah, I'm not sure what you
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1 BRIAN HARBISON - CONFIDENTIAL
2 mean.
3 MS. YOUNG: We're having a
4 fire drill right now. Maybe we
5 should -- I don't know if that's
6 coming through on your end. I guess
7 we could keep going. You can't hear
8 anything?
9 THE WITNESS: I could hear
10 you.
11 MR. KIM: I mean, we can take
12 a ten minute break. How long do you
13 think it's going to take? Do you
14 guys have to, like, actually step
15 out of the building?
16 MS. YOUNG: I can't imagine we
17 need to, but maybe it's okay now.
18 Okay. Sorry about that.
19 MR. KIM: We don't want you
20 going up in flames.
21 MS. YOUNG: Well, it would be
22 a very short deposition if that
23 happened.
24 MR. KIM: Maybe not literally.
25 MS. YOUNG: All right. Maybe
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1 BRIAN HARBISON - CONFIDENTIAL
2 we can take a few minutes because
3 now it's getting worse.
4 MR. KIM: Why don't we come
5 back, like -- it's 10:12 -- maybe
6 10:30. Is 15 minutes enough for
7 you guys to sort it out?
8 MS. YOUNG: Yes.
9 VIDEOGRAPHER: Okay. Going off
10 the record. The time is 10:12 a.m.
11 (Recess is taken.)
12 VIDEOGRAPHER: We are back on
13 the record. The time is 10:30 a.m.
14 Q. Mr. Harbison, let's discuss
15 your educational background briefly.
16 Oh, he's back now.
17 MR. KIM: He's putting his
18 headphones on.
19 MS. YOUNG: Okay.
20 Q. Can you hear us?
21 A. Yeah. I turned the light back
22 off, it was blocking the vision.
23 Q. What degrees do you hold,
24 Mr. Harbison?
25 A. An associate's.
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1 BRIAN HARBISON - CONFIDENTIAL
2 Q. An associate's degree from
3 what school?
4 A. From Bronx Community College.
5 Q. Do you have any other
6 educational credentials like licenses or
7 certifications?
8 A. No.
9 Q. Do you have any education in
10 finance, economics or accounting?
11 A. No.
12 Q. And are you currently
13 employed?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And what's your -- what's your
16 job currently?
17 A. Technician work.
18 Q. What kind of technician work?
19 A. Field technician.
20 Q. Field technician, did you say?
21 A. A-hum, yes.
22 Q. What are your main
23 responsibilities in that position?
24 A. Depends on the job. Sometimes
25 installing printers, setting up POS
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1 BRIAN HARBISON - CONFIDENTIAL
2 systems, running cable.
3 Q. And how long have you held
4 that position?
5 A. About ten years.
6 Q. And let's go ahead and look at
7 exhibit previously marked Exhibit 2. So
8 tab 24.
9 You might have to go to
10 Exhibit Share, Mr. Harbison, although we
11 can screen share if that's easier for
12 you.
13 I think it should available
14 now. If you take a look at it you
15 sometimes have to refresh the page.
16 (Exhibit 2, letter from Rosen
17 Law Firm dated February 27, 2023,
18 having been previously marked, is
19 shown to the Deponent.)
20 Q. Do you see it?
21 A. It says I need to access
22 permission to access the folder.
23 Q. Are you in the Marked Exhibits
24 folder under your name?
25 A. There is nothing here.
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2 MR. KIM: You got to hit
3 refresh, maybe it will show up.
4 A. Yeah, I had it -- I see reset
5 files, links, tasks and workflows. I went
6 to share and it has a little rock symbol.
7 MR. KIM: What about on the
8 left, on the left you got Home,
9 Recent and Files. If you click on
10 files does something open up on the
11 right side of that?
12 THE WITNESS: Yeah.
13 MR. KIM: Is there a folder
14 called deposition of Brian
15 Harbison?
16 THE WITNESS: No. It just says
17 Bookmarks and Shared.
18 MR. KIM: If you click on
19 Share, does it open up other
20 folders?
21 THE WITNESS: No. It says
22 you're not permissioned to access
23 folder.
24 MR. KIM: You guys need --
25 MS. YOUNG: Is that an issue
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1 BRIAN HARBISON - CONFIDENTIAL
2 with the permissions?
3 MR. KIM: That's what it
4 sounds like.
5 THE WITNESS: It says, "Ask
6 administrator for help."
7 MS. YOUNG: I don't know if
8 somebody from the Veritext team
9 knows whether or not we can see it,
10 if that's something we can fix.
11 VIDEOGRAPHER: We would need
12 to contact someone on the back end.
13 We don't have control over that but
14 we can certainly do that for you.
15 MS. YOUNG: I mean, we can do
16 that and maybe in tandem but I
17 guess we can screen share until
18 then.
19 VIDEOGRAPHER: I'll contact
20 the back end while we're screen
21 sharing and see if we can get it
22 taken care of.
23 MS. YOUNG: Sounds good.
24 Q. Mr. Harbison, this is a letter
25 your counsel sent in connection with this
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1 BRIAN HARBISON - CONFIDENTIAL
2 matter on February 27 of 2023. Do you see
3 that?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. And if you scroll down to the
6 second page, I think it's the page that's
7 actually numbered two but it's the third
8 page in the pdf. Do you see your name
9 here about midway down the page?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. And is this an accurate list
12 of your social media handles?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Does this -- so this contains
15 all of your social media accounts?
16 A. This is one account.
17 Q. You don't have any other
18 social media accounts?
19 A. No.
20 Q. And so you have a StockTwits
21 account with a user name right?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. What is StockTwits?
24 A. It's pretty much like a forum
25 where you just -- an open forum just
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2 about stocks or anything pretty much but
3 it's posting for stocks.
4 Q. It's a forum where people post
5 about stocks, is that what you said?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. So is it people that are, you
8 know, potential investors in stocks?
9 A. Yes.
10 MS. YOUNG: And Robert, let's
11 go ahead and mark tab 26 and I
12 think the exhibit -- what exhibit
13 number? 148, tab 26.
14 (Exhibit 148, copy of posts on
15 StockTwits, was received and marked
16 on this date for identification.)
17 Q. How often do you view -- do
18 you call it StockTwits or StockTwist?
19 A. StockTwits.
20 MR. KIM: Twits like T-W-I-T.
21 Q. StockTwits.
22 A. About every day.
23 Q. About every day?
24 A. Yeah.
25 Q. Do you look at it multiple
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2 times a day?
3 A. I would say yes, yeah.
4 Q. And are you posting every time
5 you go on the site or sometimes are you
6 just looking at other posts?
7 A. Just looking.
8 Q. And how often did you view the
9 site in January of 2021?
10 A. I don't remember. You want an
11 exact number or --
12 Q. No. I guess, was it
13 consistent with your general practice of
14 looking at the site multiple times a day?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Any more than that?
17 A. No.
18 Q. And you post pretty often on
19 the site, right?
20 A. No.
21 MR. KIM: Objection, form.
22 Q. You don't?
23 A. No.
24 Q. Let's go ahead and look at
25 148. Mr. Harbison, is this your profile?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. And Robert, if you can zoom in
4 a little bit.
5 Do you see where it states
6 "Joined 4/2018"?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. So is this when you created
9 the account?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. And if we look down do you see
12 where it says 4,000 posts on that tab?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. So that reflects that you
15 posted on the site approximately 4,000
16 times?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And that's in let's say the
19 six years you've been on the site, five
20 years you've been on the site, right?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. So your testimony is that
23 that's not -- you still don't post often
24 on the site?
25 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
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2 Q. I'm sorry. I didn't hear your
3 answer, Mr. Harbison.
4 A. I don't. Because it's not --
5 those are conversations. In six years,
6 4,000 posts, that's not a lot when you
7 divide that.
8 Q. And you've liked more than
9 11,000 posts, right?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. And do you use the site to
12 research the stock market?
13 A. Sometimes.
14 Q. Do you use it to get
15 information about potential investment
16 strategies?
17 A. Sometimes.
18 Q. Do you have a LinkedIn
19 profile, Mr. Harbison?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Was your LinkedIn profile
22 listed on the social media accounts in
23 the letter we just looked at?
24 A. No.
25 Q. And why is that?
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2 A. I just did it for work.
3 Q. You don't consider LinkedIn
4 social media?
5 A. No.
6 Q. Do you have a Reddit account,
7 Mr. Harbison?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. What's your handle?
10 A. Umm, let me see. I thought I
11 did. I don't have one.
12 Q. You don't have one?
13 A. No. I signed in, like, my
14 email. So no, there is no, like, account
15 or nothing.
16 Q. But you have a sign-in --
17 you're able to log into the site using
18 your email but you don't have an actual
19 handle?
20 A. I don't see nothing popping up
21 on my screen for Google. I hardly -- I
22 used it -- I use Reddit for some
23 medication, to comment on something. That
24 was it.
25 Q. You use Reddit for information
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1 BRIAN HARBISON - CONFIDENTIAL
2 about medications?
3 A. It was a question to ask
4 somebody and that was it.
5 Q. Okay. So you're able to post
6 without an account, though, or without a
7 handle?
8 A. If I did, I must have deleted
9 it because nothing is coming up when I
10 type my name, my email.
11 Q. How often do you look at
12 Reddit?
13 A. I don't. That was literally
14 this summer.
15 Q. That was literally this
16 summer? By that do you mean the one post
17 that you posted on Reddit you think was
18 this past summer?
19 A. Yes. I know it was this
20 summer.
21 Q. And do you ever -- even if
22 that's the only time you posted on
23 Reddit, you don't ever go to Reddit, the
24 site, just to look at other posts?
25 A. No.
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2 Q. So you never used Reddit to
3 research potential investment strategies
4 or potential investments more generally?
5 A. No.
6 Q. Have you ever viewed
7 discussions on Wallstreetbets on Reddit?
8 A. No.
9 Q. Do you have a Facebook
10 account?
11 A. No.
12 Q. Do you have a Twitter account?
13 A. No.
14 Q. Do you have an Instagram
15 account?
16 A. No.
17 Q. Do you have a TikTok account?
18 A. No.
19 Q. Do you have any other social
20 media like YouTube or Discord?
21 A. Yeah, I have YouTube.
22 Q. Do you have an account name or
23 handle on YouTube?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. What is it?
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2 A. It's just titled B. That's it.
3 Q. That was not listed in the
4 social media, among the social media
5 accounts in the letter we looked at a few
6 moments ago, right?
7 A. No, because it's not used for
8 nothing except for work.
9 Q. You use YouTube for work?
10 A. Yeah, technician work.
11 Sometimes they'll put something to show
12 something from a different angle how to
13 get stuff done.
14 Q. So you never use YouTube to --
15 well, you never -- do you ever, yourself,
16 post on YouTube or do you just look at
17 videos from other users?
18 A. Just look at videos.
19 Q. Do you ever use YouTube to
20 look up anything about investing?
21 A. No.
22 Q. Do you currently invest in the
23 stock market?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. When did you start investing?
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2 A. 2018.
3 Q. What prompted you to start
4 investing in 2018?
5 A. Just wanted to try it out.
6 Q. And did you invest in the
7 stock market or were you still investing
8 in the stock market in January 2021?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. And you're a Robinhood
11 customer, right?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Do you know when you began
14 using Robinhood?
15 A. 2018.
16 Q. 2018? And why did you decide
17 to start using Robinhood?
18 A. Just research.
19 Q. You used the platform to
20 conduct investment research; is that what
21 you mean?
22 A. No. I use Google for, like,
23 free brokers.
24 Q. I see. You researched brokers
25 and that's how you found Robinhood?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Okay. And how frequently do
4 you trade on Robinhood?
5 MR. KIM: Objection, form. You
6 can answer.
7 A. At least once a week. A few
8 times a week, depending, it's up and
9 down.
10 Q. Okay. But, in general, you'd
11 say roughly a few times a week?
12 A. It depends because sometimes
13 it would be no times a week.
14 Q. And did you trade on Robinhood
15 with roughly the same frequency in
16 January 2021?
17 MR. KIM: Objection, vague.
18 A. I don't remember.
19 Q. You're also a customer with TD
20 Ameritrade, right?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Is it all right if I refer to
23 TD Ameritrade as TD?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. And when did you begin using
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2 TD?
3 A. I don't remember the exact
4 date.
5 Q. Do you remember why you
6 decided to start using TD?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. Why is that?
9 A. For over-the-counter stocks
10 and warrants.
11 Q. What are warrants?
12 A. It's like an option, you get
13 the chance to buy it from a SPAC, Special
14 Acquisition Shell Company. After, like,
15 five years you can buy the shares. With
16 the warrant or you could sell it like an
17 option.
18 Q. I think you said special
19 acquisition, are you talking about
20 Special Purpose Acquisition Companies?
21 A. SPACS.
22 Q. SPACS. And roughly how
23 frequently do you trade on TD?
24 A. Not frequently.
25 Q. Less frequently than on
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2 Robinhood?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Any particular reason for
5 that?
6 A. No.
7 Q. Other than Robinhood and TD,
8 have you ever used any other brokerages
9 to invest?
10 A. No.
11 Q. Has anyone ever invested on
12 your behalf?
13 A. No.
14 Q. Have you ever invested on
15 anyone else's behalf?
16 A. No.
17 Q. Have you ever hired an
18 investment or financial advisor?
19 A. No.
20 Q. How much time do you devote to
21 investing?
22 MR. KIM: Objection, vague.
23 A. What do you mean?
24 Q. So how much time do you spend,
25 you know, conducting research or looking
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2 up companies or talking with others about
3 potential investments, actually executing
4 the trades, that kind of thing?
5 A. It depends. I can't really put
6 an exact number on it.
7 Q. I understand. Can you give me
8 an approximate sense? Is it a couple
9 minutes a day? A couple of hours?
10 A. Umm, I honestly can't put a
11 number on it. It depends if I have free
12 time. Sometimes it would be an hour,
13 sometimes it's 20 minutes a day, in my
14 free time.
15 Q. How would you describe your
16 investment strategy?
17 A. Pretty much swing trading and
18 investing.
19 (Reporter clarification.)
20 MR. KIM: "Swing trading and
21 investing" is what he said.
22 Q. What do you mean by swing
23 trading?
24 A. It's like day trading but you
25 hold it past a day.
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2 Q. And how often do you typically
3 hold swing trades?
4 A. It depends.
5 Q. Any time longer than a day,
6 though, would that qualify as a swing
7 trade to you?
8 A. Yeah. Anything that's not the
9 same day you bought it.
10 Q. And what do you understand day
11 trading to be?
12 A. Buy/sell the same day.
13 Q. And is the strategy, you know,
14 for day trading that you try to profit
15 from minor price fluctuations that occur
16 just throughout the day?
17 MR. KIM: Objection, vague.
18 THE WITNESS: Do I answer
19 or --
20 MR. KIM: You can answer the
21 question if you know.
22 A. Say it one more time.
23 Q. And is it your understanding
24 that the general strategy of day trading
25 is that you try to profit from minor
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2 price fluctuations that occur throughout
3 the day?
4 MR. KIM: Same objection. You
5 can answer.
6 A. Yes. Yes.
7 Q. What's your main objective in
8 investing?
9 A. Pretty much to have it for a
10 rainy day, that's pretty much it.
11 Q. So if you decide to buy a
12 particular stock can you walk me through
13 how you make that decision?
14 A. What stock are you talking
15 about?
16 Q. Just any stock. In general, or
17 does it depends on the stock in terms of
18 your process of how you make that
19 decision?
20 A. It depends on the stock.
21 Q. Okay. Do you usually research
22 the specific company online?
23 A. This specific or any specific
24 company?
25 Q. In general, when you're
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2 considering a pension investment, do you
3 research the company?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Do you read SEC filings from
6 the company?
7 A. Umm, it depends on the
8 company.
9 Q. Do you -- would you, you know,
10 let's say for the majority of the
11 companies that you consider investing in,
12 do you look at their SEC filings?
13 MR. KIM: Objection, vague.
14 A. Depends on the company.
15 Q. Do you usually consider the
16 company's cash flow projections?
17 A. It depends on the company.
18 Q. So for some companies you do
19 consider their cash flow projections?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And do you ever research these
22 companies on social media?
23 A. No.
24 Q. And what about when you decide
25 to sell a particular stock, can you
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2 explain to me how you make that decision?
3 A. Umm, pretty much I look at the
4 trend lines and the volume, when I'm
5 about to pick a stock, the trend lines,
6 the volume, the earnings.
7 Q. And by "trend lines", do you
8 mean, like, the price, trends in the
9 price?
10 A. Like the moving averages and
11 stuff like that.
12 Q. And when you say that you look
13 at volume, are you kind of looking at --
14 when you're looking at volume and trend
15 lines, are you looking at general kind of
16 momentum in the stock?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. So do you tend to sell if you
19 see that the trendline is declining and
20 the price is dropping?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And do you often buy when you
23 see that the trendline is increasing and
24 the price is increasing?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. And there is increased
3 momentum in the stock, so maybe more
4 trading volume?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. So do you keep up-to-date on
7 news in the stock market?
8 A. Yes. I would say yes.
9 Q. And how do you get your news
10 about the stock market?
11 A. Umm, apps. It really depends
12 on the stock.
13 Q. What kind of apps do you --
14 sorry. I interrupted you. You can
15 finish.
16 A. It depends on the stock.
17 Sometimes it's research, Google research,
18 sometimes I have a tech app, they have
19 the latest technology news. So something
20 comes across my attention, I'll read it.
21 Q. And what apps do you use?
22 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
23 Are we talking about now? Then?
24 MS. YOUNG: Now.
25 Q. What apps do you use to keep
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2 up-to-date about the stock market?
3 A. TechNews, StockTwits,
4 MarketWatch, SmartNews, investing.
5 Q. What was the last one? Did
6 you just say investing?
7 A. A-hum, yes.
8 Q. And MarketWatch. And do you
9 subscribe to any newsletters about
10 investing?
11 A. No.
12 Q. Do you listen to any podcasts
13 about the stock market or investing?
14 A. No.
15 Q. Do you watch any television
16 shows about the market or investing?
17 A. No.
18 Q. Do you recall what stocks you
19 were investing in at the end of 2020?
20 A. No.
21 MS. YOUNG: Robert, let's look
22 at tab 3, it should be Exhibit 149.
23 MR. KIM: Have we gotten the
24 Exhibit Share issue resolved or --
25 VIDEOGRAPHER: I have emailed
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2 the team and they're working on it
3 currently. If I get an email saying
4 that they've taken care of it and
5 permissions are granted, I'll
6 certainly let you know but I don't
7 know that it's been taken care of
8 quite yet.
9 THE WITNESS: It's still
10 asking for permission from
11 administrator.
12 VIDEOGRAPHER: So I guess
13 they're working on it but have not
14 fixed it yet.
15 MR. KIM: Well, they need to
16 work faster.
17 (Exhibit 149, Robinhood
18 monthly statement of Brian
19 Harbison, Bates P00002046 was
20 received and marked on this date
21 for identification.)
22 Q. Okay. So Robert, if you can
23 see in a little bit.
24 Can you see this,
25 Mr. Harbison?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. And do you see your name in
4 the upper right-hand corner?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. And this is your Robinhood
7 account statement from or for December
8 2020, right?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. And as of December 31st, 2020
11 you had a closing account balance of
12 about in your portfolio, right?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. And Robert, if you can scroll
15 down to the next page?
16 This shows some of your
17 holdings as of December 31st, 2020,
18 right?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. And Robert, you might have to
21 zoom in a little bit for this.
22 If you look down the market
23 value column, do you see that your three
24 largest holdings by market value that are
25 on this page were RTS Acquisition, Cohn
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2 Robbins and Stable Road Acquisition?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. What is RTS Acquisition?
5 A. It's a SPAC.
6 Q. A SPAC?
7 A. Yeah.
8 Q. Is Cohn Robbins also a SPAC?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Is Stable Road Acquisition
11 also a SPAC?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Can you explain to me what you
14 understand a SPAC to be?
15 A. It's pretty much shell
16 companies -- not pretty much. It is shell
17 companies looking to bring private
18 companies public.
19 Q. And why did you decide to
20 invest in SPACS at this time?
21 MR. KIM: Objection to form. I
22 mean, it shows what he's holding at
23 this time. It doesn't establish
24 when he actually brought theme.
25 MS. YOUNG: I'll rephrase.
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2 Q. Can you explain to me why you
3 were holding shares in these SPACS at
4 this time?
5 A. So pretty much -- not pretty
6 much. I was holding them, hoping to see
7 they pull a big company, I researched the
8 team. And usually, you get a good
9 company, the stock shoots up, it trends,
10 more people jump in and the volume push
11 up and the volume goes higher, especially
12 if it's a good company.
13 Q. So did you expect that there
14 would be a lot of positive momentum in
15 terms of the trading after these SPACS
16 went public --
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. -- or these private companies
19 went public?
20 And that's why you thought
21 they would be potentially good investment
22 opportunities for you?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. And the market value of your
25 investments in each of these companies at
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2 the end of 2020 exceeded I think seven
3 grand for each of them, if you look at
4 that column. Does that sound about right?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. If you look at the Quantity
7 column on this page, this account
8 statement also lists a number of
9 companies for which you had purchased
10 only a single share, right? I think
11 that's about ten of the securities on
12 this page.
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Do you often only purchase a
15 single share of stocks?
16 A. Yes. Umm -- yes.
17 Q. And why?
18 A. Because I see stocks get lost
19 in the pile or the watchlist section, so
20 I just buy one share to keep it in mind
21 so I don't forget about it.
22 Q. So it's a way of kind of
23 keeping it top of mind?
24 A. Yes.
25 MS. YOUNG: Okay. Let's look at
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2 tab 4 and this will be Exhibit 150.
3 (Exhibit 150, TD Ameritrade
4 monthly statement Brian Harbison,
5 Bates P00002790 was received and
6 marked on this date for
7 identification.)
8 Q. Can you this exhibit,
9 Mr. Harbison?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. And if you could scroll down
12 to the third page, do you see your name
13 at the top of this page?
14 MR. KIM: Why don't we scroll
15 through the entire document so you
16 can put eyeballs on it?
17 MS. YOUNG: That's fine.
18 Robert, do you want to go back to
19 the third page, unless the witness
20 or Phil wants to look at any other
21 section in more detail before I ask
22 him a couple of questions?
23 Q. So this is your TD account
24 statement for the period ending December
25 31st, 2020, right?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. And this lists that your
4 account had a current value, then current
5 value of about at this time,
6 right?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And the next two pages show
9 your holdings as of December 31st, 2020?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. And if you look at the page
12 273, that's the one we're on, your
13 largest holdings by market value were in
14 Brainchip and CloudMD Software, do you
15 see those?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. What is Brainchip Holdings?
18 A. It's a chip company out of
19 Australia, deals with AI.
20 Q. Do you recall why you decided
21 to invest in this company?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Can you tell me why?
24 A. I researched it, thought it
25 was a good company and it was cheap at
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2 the time I bought it.
3 Q. Do you still hold shares in
4 Brainchip?
5 A. No.
6 Q. Do you recall when you sold?
7 A. I'm not sure. No.
8 Q. Do you recall why you decided
9 to sell your shares of Brainchip?
10 A. Yes. I had an important
11 family matter that I needed some money.
12 Q. And when you described
13 Brainchip Holdings as a good company,
14 what did you mean by that?
15 A. They're pretty much -- I'm
16 sorry. They're making artificial
17 intelligence chips to, like, advance
18 technology.
19 Q. So did you like the products
20 that they were selling?
21 A. It's not a product yet.
22 They're still working on it, last time I
23 remember. But it's a good company and
24 they have a good vision.
25 Q. So you thought the technology
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2 might be promising in the future, the
3 stuff they were developing?
4 A. Yes.
5 MR. KIM: Objection.
6 Q. And what is CloudMD software?
7 A. That is -- it's -- it's pretty
8 much -- this -- this is like a Zoom
9 version for doctors. This is, like,
10 during COVID, if I remember.
11 Q. And why did you decide to
12 invest in that company?
13 A. At the time with COVID and
14 lockdown it seemed a good idea.
15 Q. And this page also shows that
16 you held one share of Tesoro Enterprises
17 and one share of The Very Good Food
18 Company, right?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. So these are other examples of
21 you buying one share so you could kind of
22 keep the stocks in mind, even if you
23 weren't really ready to commit to a
24 bigger investment?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. Are you familiar with the
3 company called GameStop, Mr. Harbison?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. What kind of company is it?
6 A. From what I remember -- not
7 from what I remember. I'm not 100% sure.
8 I didn't really research it, so I don't
9 want to say or guess.
10 Q. So you've not ever done any
11 sort of research into GME as a potential
12 investment?
13 A. No.
14 Q. And do you recall any sort of
15 news or information about GME around
16 January 2021?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And what do you recall in that
19 period?
20 A. I just remember seeing it
21 trending online and the stock price
22 shooting up.
23 Q. Do you remember discussions
24 about GME trending online and the stock
25 price of the company increasing in
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2 January 2021?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. You can't describe anything
5 else you heard in more detail?
6 A. No.
7 Q. Do you know what short
8 positions or shorts are, Mr. Harbison, in
9 the investing context, I mean?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. And can you describe what you
12 understand shorts to be?
13 A. You borrow some shares to
14 bring the share price down.
15 Q. So if you're short a stock you
16 can profit from betting that the stock
17 price is going to go down?
18 A. Yeah, you borrow the shares
19 for a fee, if I'm understanding -- I
20 never did shorts, so it's kind of pricey
21 if you don't know what you're doing.
22 Q. Have you ever heard the term
23 short squeeze before?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. How would you define a short
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2 squeeze?
3 A. It's pretty much when -- I'm
4 sorry. It's when the volume, a lot of
5 people pile in, there's way too more
6 shorts than there has to be. So after a
7 certain while the more people that start
8 to buy that company, the volume pushed it
9 up and then shorts have to cover or sell
10 their shares back from who they bought it
11 from for a certain price and get out in
12 time before it keeps eating up their
13 profits.
14 Q. Thank you. That's helpful.
15 And around this period that
16 we've been discussing, January of 2021,
17 had you heard about a possible short
18 squeeze in GameStop?
19 A. I don't remember.
20 Q. And you're familiar with a
21 company call AMC, right?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And did you ever research AMC
24 as a potential investment?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. And what research did you
3 conduct?
4 A. There was rumors about Amazon
5 supposedly buying it and then also --
6 that was it, yeah. There is two AMC
7 stocks, so that was just it.
8 Q. And when do you recall hearing
9 about rumors that Amazon might buy AMC?
10 A. I don't remember exactly.
11 Q. Do you know anything about the
12 finances or profits of AMC?
13 A. No.
14 Q. Have you ever looked at any
15 SEC filings by AMC?
16 A. No.
17 Q. Or earnings announcements,
18 press releases, that sort of thing, put
19 out by AMC?
20 A. Press releases, yes.
21 Earnings, no.
22 Q. When do you recall looking at
23 press releases or AMC's press releases?
24 I'm sorry. I didn't hear you.
25 A. I don't remember.
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2 Q. Okay. Thank you. In January
3 2021 do you recall any company
4 announcements from AMC?
5 A. I don't recall.
6 Q. Are you aware of anything AMC
7 was doing differently as a company in
8 January of 2021?
9 A. I honestly --
10 MR. KIM: Objection, form.
11 Q. You can answer, Mr. Harbison.
12 A. I honestly don't recall.
13 Q. So you don't recall hearing
14 anything, any news about the company that
15 would make the stock price increase in
16 this time period?
17 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
18 You can answer, Mr. Harbison.
19 A. I don't recall, honestly.
20 Q. And you also don't recall any
21 new products or developments from AMC in
22 January 2021; is that right?
23 A. No, I would have heard about
24 that one, I didn't hear about that.
25 Q. And did you hear about a
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2 possible short squeeze in AMC in January
3 2021?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. And when did you first hear
6 about a possible short squeeze in AMC?
7 A. I don't remember the exact
8 date.
9 Q. Can you describe what you
10 heard around that time?
11 A. I honestly can't.
12 Q. Were you interested in
13 potentially participating in an attempted
14 short squeeze of AMC?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. And why is that?
17 A. To see profit.
18 Q. So you thought that if there
19 was a short squeeze or an attempted short
20 squeeze in AMC that you could potentially
21 invest -- see the price increase and then
22 sell your shares before the end of the
23 squeeze?
24 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
25 Q. You can answer, Mr. Harbison.
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2 A. At that time I don't recall.
3 Q. Well, how do you profit from a
4 short squeeze if you're taking a long
5 position in AMC?
6 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
7 A. Yeah. Umm, so from what I
8 recall, I remember hearing the short
9 squeeze in that year timeframe, but also
10 I remember for long-term I remember
11 buying it for Amazon as well about buying
12 AMC. Amazon purchasing AMC, that was the
13 rumor.
14 Q. Mr. Harbison, I believe a few
15 moments ago you testified that you were
16 interested in participating in a
17 potential short squeeze of AMC to
18 profit --
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. -- right?
21 So how did you think that you
22 could profit from a short squeeze in AMC?
23 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
24 A. It's a win win, because if
25 it's short squeezed, I get paid. If the
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2 rumor is true about Amazon buying AMC, I
3 get paid.
4 Q. And when you say you get paid,
5 do you mean when you sell the shares?
6 A. No, I would just hold them and
7 sell options.
8 Q. So how would you profit from a
9 short squeeze in AMC if you held the
10 shares?
11 A. I would put my stop loss, I
12 would a stop loss on it if it started to
13 go down fast. Is that what you're
14 asking?
15 Q. Not exactly. So Mr. Harbison,
16 if the -- if there's a short squeeze,
17 let's say in AMC --
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. -- when the short squeeze
20 ends, is it your understanding that the
21 price of the shares will decline?
22 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
23 speculation, lack of foundation,
24 but he can answer the question if
25 you can.
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2 A. It's a 50/50 because some
3 short squeezes they come back down on
4 pump and dump stocks, and some short
5 squeezes are good earnings and everything
6 else, like Tesla.
7 Q. You just used the phrase "pump
8 and dump." What's a pump and dump?
9 A. Umm, pretty much anybody buys
10 -- rushes to buy the stock and you have
11 to get out real quick before it falls
12 back down.
13 Q. And would you characterize
14 certain short squeezes or attempted
15 squeezes as pump and dumps in this way?
16 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
17 speculation.
18 THE WITNESS: Should I answer?
19 MR. KIM: You can answer if
20 you can. Same objection, calls for
21 speculation.
22 A. Can you repeat the question
23 one more time?
24 Q. Sure. So would you
25 characterize certain short squeezes or
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2 attempted short squeezes as pump and
3 dumps in this way?
4 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
5 speculation, vague.
6 A. Umm, No.
7 Q. Mr. Harbison, I think you
8 testified a few moments ago that you
9 would describe a pump and dump as a rush
10 to buy the stock and you have to get out
11 real quick before it falls back down,
12 right?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. So is it your understanding
15 that short squeezes or attempted short
16 squeezes can also involve a rush to
17 purchase many shares of a certain stock?
18 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
19 answered, calls for speculation.
20 MS. YOUNG: I hadn't asked
21 that question. You can answer,
22 Mr. Harbison.
23 MR. KIM: Same objection.
24 A. My understanding, no, because
25 pump and dumps could be of low volume,
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2 low amount of shares, and it's a company
3 you might never heard of. Short squeeze
4 is something like if everybody believes
5 Tesla is going to go down, they drop the
6 price down $50, and he has a new truck
7 coming out and good earnings, it will
8 pump back up and it's going to stay up
9 there.
10 Q. So in that example you would
11 not call that a pump and dump, is that
12 what you mean?
13 A. Which example?
14 Q. In the Tesla example you just
15 used.
16 A. Yeah, it's not a pump and
17 dump.
18 Q. So for a short squeeze, I just
19 want to understand again, because you
20 said you were interested in participating
21 in a potential short squeeze in AMC to
22 profit, right?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Can you explain again to me
25 how you can profit from a short squeeze?
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2 MR. KIM: Objection to form,
3 asked and answered. This is the
4 third time you are asking him the
5 same question.
6 Q. You can answer, Mr. Harbison.
7 A. So pretty much the more it
8 goes up, you profit. If the sell calls
9 or sell puts and you use the shares as
10 collateral, so it falls back down, you
11 still get paid, because the calls that
12 you sold somebody bought go in your
13 pocket plus the money they give you
14 upfront, they give you money upfront for
15 selling calls and you get more money if
16 the price falls down. So you still get to
17 keep the shares to use as collateral.
18 Q. And in this same timeframe,
19 January 2021, are you aware of attempted
20 short squeezes in any other stocks?
21 A. In 2021 or in a certain month?
22 Q. In January 2021.
23 A. I'm not sure. I can't recall
24 that.
25 Q. You don't recall, you know,
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2 any discussions about attempted short
3 squeezes in GME?
4 A. Honestly, I don't recall. I
5 remember hearing it in 2021 but not the
6 exact month.
7 Q. Okay. And 2021, let's say the
8 whole year, do you recall discussions
9 about attempted short squeezes in
10 Blackberry?
11 A. No.
12 Q. What about Bed Bath & Beyond?
13 A. No.
14 Q. Kos?
15 A. No.
16 Q. Nokia?
17 A. No.
18 Q. Express?
19 A. No.
20 Q. Tootsie Roll?
21 A. No. I don't recall any of
22 those. I didn't really check for them
23 like that either, so that's probably why.
24 Q. Do you recall any news or
25 media attention about the price of any of
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2 these stocks increasing, you know, beyond
3 what most people thought that they were
4 actually worth --
5 MR. KIM: Objection.
6 Objection, calls for speculation.
7 A. From what I remember, I just
8 seen the tickers trending online in those
9 rooms trending. I just look to see what
10 it was and...
11 Q. And was this about AMC
12 specifically?
13 A. This was all in those posts up
14 there. I remember seeing GameStop up
15 there. I remember seeing AMC. I don't
16 want to guess, so it was those two.
17 Q. Do you recall anything about
18 AMC or GME being heavily shorted by hedge
19 funds or other institutional investors
20 around this time?
21 A. Which time?
22 Q. January 2021.
23 A. I'm not sure about that month.
24 In that year, yes.
25 Q. And I think you testified a
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2 little while earlier that you recall the
3 price of GME increasing substantially
4 around this time in January 2021; is that
5 right?
6 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
7 A. Did I say that?
8 MR. KIM: You can answer.
9 A. I don't recall. That was two
10 years ago.
11 Q. Do you recall the price of AMC
12 increasing dramatically around this time
13 in January 2021?
14 MR. KIM: Objection to form,
15 vague.
16 Q. You can answer, Mr. Harbison.
17 A. Honestly, I'm not sure.
18 Q. Have you heard the term meme
19 stock before?
20 A. In what year or exact --
21 Q. Just ever.
22 A. Yeah.
23 Q. Do you recall when you first
24 heard the term meme stock, approximately?
25 A. No.
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2 Q. What do you understand a meme
3 stock to be?
4 A. I'm not 100% sure. So I'm
5 just going to say I've heard it
6 somewhere, Reddit. It's a popular stock.
7 I don't want to guess but that's --
8 MR. KIM: I mean, you
9 shouldn't guess.
10 THE WITNESS: Okay.
11 MR. KIM: It's what you know.
12 We're not here to get your
13 guessing.
14 Q. Is it your understanding that
15 memes are supposed to be funny,
16 Mr. Harbison?
17 A. I don't recall that. I'm not
18 sure.
19 Q. Do you know what memes are?
20 A. Yeah, I know memes. You're
21 talking about the stock market or are you
22 talking in general?
23 Q. Just memes.
24 A. Yeah.
25 Q. And is it your understanding
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2 that memes are supposed to be funny?
3 A. Not all of them.
4 Q. Not all of them? Some of them?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Did you believe that any of
7 the stocks we've been discussing today
8 were considered meme stocks around this
9 time in January 2021?
10 MR. KIM: Objection, vague.
11 A. I don't recall.
12 Q. Let's go back to AMC. Can you
13 describe in any more detail anything you
14 heard about AMC on social media or in the
15 news more generally in January of 2021?
16 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
17 answered.
18 A. No. I don't recall.
19 MS. YOUNG: Let's go ahead and
20 look at tab 6, I believe this will
21 be Exhibit 151.
22 (Exhibit 151, copy of posts
23 from StockTwits, was received and
24 marked on this date for
25 identification.)
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2 MS. YOUNG: I got an email
3 saying that the Exhibit Share
4 should be working, Mr. Harbison.
5 Just hit reload. I emailed them
6 myself and that's what they said.
7 So let's see if it's working.
8 THE WITNESS: It's working.
9 MR. KIM: What number are we
10 looking at?
11 MS. YOUNG: 151.
12 MR. KIM: It's not up there,
13 151.
14 THE WITNESS: Yeah, I see it.
15 MR. KIM: Okay. Here we go.
16 THE WITNESS: Okay.
17 Q. Do you recognize this
18 document, Mr. Harbison?
19 A. I know it's StockTwits.
20 Q. Do you see a couple of posts
21 on this page from your handle?
22 MR. KIM: What page are we
23 looking at?
24 MS. YOUNG: The first one.
25 A. Yeah, I see it.
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2 Q. It looks like these date from
3 January 26, 2021, right?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Thank you. In the original
6 post it looks like it's from somebody
7 with the user name Oceanavekid. Do you
8 see that?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. And he writes, "GME $200
11 tomorrow. The SEC doesn't even care about
12 pumps anymore. It's the wild west,
13 everyone for themselves." Do you see
14 that?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. And beneath that do you see
17 that there's GME's ticker and where it
18 states "Since post $152.53 and then
19 besides that", kind of over to the side
20 it states, "Thin: 174.60 and now 22.07."
21 Do you see that?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. On StockTwits does the "then"
24 price represent the stock's price at the
25 time of the original post?
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2 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. So here that would be 174.60
5 for GME, right?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And do you see where about
8 halfway down the page you then responded
9 to this post on January 26th at 4:39
10 p.m.?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. So what did you understand
13 Oceanavekid to mean when he or she wrote
14 "GME $200 tomorrow"?
15 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
16 speculation.
17 A. I can't recall. That was two
18 years ago.
19 Q. Sitting here today, what do
20 you understand that to mean?
21 MR. KIM: I mean, if he
22 doesn't -- he doesn't recall then,
23 he doesn't recall now. Objection,
24 asked and answered.
25 MS. YOUNG: I didn't ask what
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2 he recalled, Phil.
3 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
4 answered, calls for speculation.
5 Q. Mr. Harbison, sitting here
6 today, what do you understand that to
7 mean?
8 MR. KIM: Same objection,
9 asked and answered, calls for
10 speculation.
11 Q. You can answer, Mr. Harbison.
12 A. Yeah, I don't want to guess. I
13 can't really.
14 Q. I'm not asking you to guess.
15 A. I can't --
16 Q. So if the price of GME at this
17 time was about $174 a share, did you
18 believe or do you believe today that he
19 was expressing that he thought the GME
20 share price would hit $200 on January
21 27th?
22 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
23 speculation.
24 You're asking for what he
25 thinks someone else -- what's in
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2 someone else's mind. I mean, this
3 is fully speculative. Objection,
4 calls for speculation.
5 MS. YOUNG: Your repeated
6 speaking objections are noted
7 though they are improper. You may
8 answer, Mr. Harbison.
9 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
10 speculation.
11 MS. YOUNG: You already
12 objected. I don't why you need to
13 say it again and again.
14 A. I can't really -- I can't
15 guess, so I don't want to -- that's
16 pretty much it.
17 Q. So sitting here today, what do
18 you believe he meant when he wrote, "The
19 SEC doesn't care about pumps anymore?"
20 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
21 speculation.
22 A. I have no idea.
23 Q. What are pumps to you in this
24 context?
25 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
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2 speculation.
3 A. I don't want to guess, so...
4 Q. Earlier today you used the
5 phrase "pump and dump", right?
6 A. Yes. Yes.
7 Q. Do you understand pumps to be
8 an abbreviated version of pump and dump?
9 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
10 speculation.
11 A. I don't want to guess because
12 -- yeah, I don't know. I would assume he
13 means pumps and dumps.
14 Q. And by that do you understand
15 then that the stock price of GME was
16 inflated?
17 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
18 speculation.
19 A. That I'm not sure. I never
20 researched GME.
21 Q. And what do you understand is
22 the "wild west, everyone for themselves"
23 to mean?
24 MR. KIM: Again, objection,
25 calls for speculation.
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2 A. That I can't say.
3 Q. And you commented two emojis,
4 like with the laughing faces and wrote "I
5 should have jumped in", right?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Did you mean you should have
8 purchased GME?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. So in this context you were
11 saying you should have jumped in by
12 trading GME, right?
13 A. Yes, I sold options.
14 Q. And that's because the price
15 of GME was increasing, right?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And what about the post from
18 Oceanavekid made you laugh or that you
19 found comical?
20 A. The "wild wild west" part.
21 Q. And why is that?
22 A. That -- that's what I can
23 think of but at the time it just seemed
24 funny.
25 Q. It seemed funny that there are
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2 potential pump and dumps in GME, is that
3 what you mean?
4 MR. KIM: Objection,
5 argumentative. It's not what he
6 said.
7 A. No, I'm not 100%. It's the
8 "wild wild west", that's pretty much it.
9 Q. And what about GME or, you
10 know, the market at this time related to
11 the "wild wild west" comment?
12 MR. KIM: Objection, vague. Is
13 that a question or a statement?
14 MS. YOUNG: It was a question.
15 MR. KIM: Well, I don't
16 understand it. Objection, vague.
17 MS. YOUNG: You don't have to
18 understand it, Phil. You're not the
19 witness.
20 MR. KIM: I suspect others
21 don't understand it.
22 Q. What do you mean about the
23 "wild wild west" in the context of this
24 --
25 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
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2 answered. You already testified --
3 you already asked him that
4 question.
5 Q. You can answer, Mr. Harbison.
6 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
7 answered.
8 A. I'm not sure what he means by
9 it.
10 Q. That wasn't my question.
11 My question was, what did you
12 find funny about the "wild wild west"
13 comment?
14 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
15 answered.
16 A. I don't want to guess. It's
17 two years ago.
18 Q. Today do you find the post
19 funny?
20 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
21 answered.
22 MS. YOUNG: I didn't ask that.
23 A. It's a post on StockTwits,
24 it's a regular post.
25 Q. I'm not sure I follow. Today
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2 do you find the post funny?
3 A. I mean, it's regular now.
4 (Reporter clarification.)
5 Q. So you don't find the post
6 funny today?
7 A. No.
8 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
9 Q. And immediately beneath that
10 Oceanavekid responded to you writing,
11 includes your handle, "You and I both. I
12 saw it go up since '14 but didn't want to
13 jump in a shit stock. Never thought the
14 SEC would let it get to this point.
15 Never thought I'd see $200 for GameStop.
16 People say AMC might be next. It would be
17 fucking wild if that just starts pump all
18 of a sudden." Do you see that? "Starts
19 to pump all of a sudden." Excuse me. Do
20 you see that?
21 This is kind of near the
22 bottom of the page.
23 A. Yeah, I see it. Yeah, I see
24 it.
25 Q. So did you understand this to
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2 mean that Oceanavekid was expressing
3 regret that they hadn't jumped in to
4 trade GME?
5 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
6 speculation.
7 A. That's what he wrote.
8 Q. And when he wrote "but didn't
9 want to jump in a shit stock", what do
10 you understand a "shit stock" to be?
11 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
12 speculation and document speaks for
13 itself.
14 A. Yeah, I can't speak on what he
15 calls a shit stock.
16 Q. What do you think a shit stock
17 is?
18 MR. KIM: Same objection.
19 A. My definition?
20 Q. Yeah.
21 A. Or what he thinks --
22 Q. No. What you think a shit
23 stock is.
24 A. Me, personally, I call a shit
25 stock that's something that's not worth
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2 it.
3 Q. And by "not worth it" you mean
4 not worth the price?
5 A. Not worth buying, to me.
6 Q. As an investment, like, you
7 just think it's not worth -- it's not
8 worth the investment?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. So if you didn't think a stock
11 was worth the investment you wouldn't
12 expect to see the stock price increase,
13 right?
14 MR. KIM: Objection, form,
15 vague, hypothetical. You can answer
16 the question.
17 A. I'm sorry. Repeat one more
18 time.
19 Q. Sure. So if you didn't think a
20 stock was worth the investment you
21 wouldn't expect to see the stock price
22 increase, right?
23 MR. KIM: Objection to form,
24 incomplete hypothetical, vague.
25 A. Not really because there's
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2 been stocks that were considered shit
3 stocks but they turned it around. But if
4 you wasn't researching it you wouldn't
5 know, so...
6 MR. KIM: We've been going
7 about a hour. So, you know, once
8 you finish this sort of line of
9 questioning or if you think this is
10 a good time to take a break.
11 MS. YOUNG: No. Let's just
12 finish this document and then we
13 can take a break.
14 MR. KIM: That's fine.
15 Q. So when you wrote "People say
16 AMC might be next, will be fucking wild
17 if that starts to pump all of a sudden",
18 sitting here today, do you believe that
19 he was anticipating that AMC stock may
20 rise?
21 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
22 speculation, the document speaks
23 for itself.
24 Q. You can answer, Mr. Harbison.
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. Did you consider GME a shit
3 stock in January 2021?
4 A. I never fully researched it,
5 so I know -- I'm not a fan of GME,
6 GameStop, I didn't have anything to trade
7 as a kid, so I stayed away from games
8 altogether. But the actual stock, I
9 never researched it, so I can't really
10 say.
11 Q. And by "next", do you
12 understand him to be saying that AMC's
13 price would increase just as GME's had
14 around this time?
15 MR. KIM: Same objection,
16 calls for speculation.
17 A. Yeah, he said "might be next".
18 I guess he's hoping AMC goes to 200 or
19 whatever the number was at the time for
20 GameStop.
21 Q. And then you respond to
22 Oceanavekid, "I'm still trying to see why
23 it's even this high", and then there is
24 two laughing emojis and then you said, "I
25 thought about AMC too. It might get some
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2 lotto plays." Do you see that?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And when you wrote, "I'm still
5 trying to see why it's even this high",
6 were you saying that you didn't
7 understand why GME's stock price was as
8 high as it was at that time?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. And is that because you didn't
11 think that the price of GME was, like,
12 supported by from what you knew about the
13 company?
14 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
15 speculation, lack of foundation.
16 He already said he didn't look
17 into it, so it's an improper
18 question.
19 Q. You can answer.
20 A. I didn't research it so that's
21 why I didn't know why it was that high.
22 Q. And when you wrote, "I thought
23 about AMC too. It might get some lotto
24 plays", you described the purchase of AMC
25 as lotto plays, right?
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2 MR. KIM: Objection, document
3 speaks for itself.
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. What are lotto plays?
6 A. Umm, it's when you buy call
7 options or puts, put options either for
8 extremely cheap for, like, a dollar, two
9 dollars, five dollars and if it hits, you
10 own -- you get paid, the lotto.
11 Q. So there's no relationship
12 between lotto plays and gambling?
13 A. No. It's a gamble when you
14 buy something,that's that high or that
15 low, because that's why it's that cheap
16 because it's that high or that low,
17 nobody expects it to go that high or that
18 low.
19 Q. So were you expressing that
20 you believe trading AMC at this time to
21 be a gamble?
22 A. No.
23 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
24 A. No.
25 Q. But you characterized it as a
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2 lotto play, right?
3 A. Yeah.
4 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
5 A. If -- I don't remember exactly
6 how much the options were but let's
7 suppose they're for a dollar, if you
8 could spend $10 and make back 2,000,
9 that's -- why not?
10 Q. And would you ever
11 characterize purchasing shares, not
12 trading options but actually purchasing
13 the underlying security as being a lotto
14 play?
15 A. No.
16 Q. And you understood from
17 Oceanavekid's post that there were
18 discussions about AMC being the next
19 stock after GME to be pumped, right?
20 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
21 speculation.
22 A. Yeah, no because you can't
23 guess that and it didn't even go that
24 high. AMC didn't even go up to a hundred.
25 So he was wrong about it being next.
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2 Q. So you don't remember any
3 dramatic increase in the price of AMC
4 after this point in time in January -- on
5 January 26, 2021?
6 MR. KIM: Objection, vague.
7 A. I can't recall that.
8 Q. And so Oceanavekid responds to
9 you, and this is at the top of the next
10 page, if you just want to flip over or
11 scroll down, I guess. He says "It's just
12 people pumping it and shorts trying to
13 make money anticipating a drop getting
14 squeezed. Big pump going on, only reason
15 it's up." Do you see that?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And that's in response to your
18 question about "I'm still trying to see
19 why it's even this high", right?
20 A. A-hum.
21 MR. KIM: Wait. That's not a
22 question but, you know, objection,
23 mischaracterizes the document,
24 calls for speculation.
25 Q. Mr. Harbison, did you
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2 understand this post to be in response to
3 your question about still trying to see
4 why -- your statement that you're still
5 trying to see why it's even this high?
6 MR. KIM: Objection, document
7 speaks for itself.
8 A. Yes and no. That's his opinion
9 but it's not 100% accurate, so...
10 Q. I'm asking something just more
11 basic, as to whether or not his post is
12 responding to what you said about not
13 understanding why it's even this high.
14 A. Oh, is he answering me?
15 Q. Yeah, in that portion of your
16 post.
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And you understood that this
19 was providing you an explanation as to
20 why it was so high at this point in time,
21 right?
22 A. An opinion.
23 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
24 Q. I'm sorry. I didn't hear you,
25 Mr. Harbison.
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2 A. An opinion.
3 Q. Sure. And his opinion was the
4 only reason the price of GME was up was
5 because of investors pumping the stock,
6 right?
7 A. That's what he says there,
8 yeah.
9 Q. In this context you understand
10 pumping to mean an effort to increase the
11 stock price before dumping it, right?
12 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
13 A. Umm, looking back at it, it
14 doesn't really make too much sense
15 because he says shorts are trying to make
16 money -- oh, I see.
17 Honestly -- yeah, I don't want
18 to assume so -- but that's -- if that's
19 what he's written, that's what he wrote
20 down, yes.
21 Q. He also mentions shorts that
22 were getting squeezed, right? I think you
23 testified earlier today that you have a
24 general understanding of what short
25 squeezes are, right?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. So at this time you were aware
4 of some discussions of potential short
5 squeezes in AMC, right?
6 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
7 A. No. Because he said it might
8 be next. It wasn't a guarantee that that
9 it is next or it's going on right now.
10 Q. Right. I think that's why I
11 used the word "potential".
12 So at this time you're aware
13 of some discussion of potential short
14 squeezes in AMC, right?
15 A. I'd say yes.
16 Q. And you commented -- this is a
17 little further, I think one post down,
18 that you want to jump in but nervous that
19 will be the time it actually falls, and
20 then there are these, like,
21 crying/laughing emojis, right?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And that was at 4:55 p.m.?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. And were you referring -- by
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2 "I want to jump in", are you referring to
3 AMC there?
4 MR. KIM: Object to the form.
5 A. No, because he said it might
6 be next. And this says -- if I'm saying
7 it's going to fall by the time I get in,
8 it can't be AMC because it might be, it
9 means AMC didn't start yet.
10 Q. Oh, I'm sorry. What do you
11 mean by "I want to jump in"?
12 A. I'm not sure.
13 MR. KIM: Don't speculate.
14 THE WITNESS: All right.
15 Q. From this context, sitting
16 here today, what do you believe that you
17 were referring to when you said that you
18 wanted to jump in?
19 MR. KIM: I mean, again, calls
20 for speculation. Don't speculate.
21 He said he didn't know what he
22 was doing then and then now you're
23 asking him what he believed now.
24 So, again, calls for speculation,
25 asked and answered.
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2 A. I know it's not AMC by the way
3 it's written.
4 Q. GME?
5 A. I said AMC. Are you talking
6 about AMC or GME?
7 Q. I asked you earlier if you
8 thought it was AMC and you said you
9 didn't, unless I misunderstood your
10 response.
11 A. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's
12 what I said. So with this --
13 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
14 speculation.
15 A. -- it's not really detailed so
16 --
17 Q. So from this context you're
18 not sure whether or not when you wrote "I
19 want to jump in", whether that refers to
20 jumping into trade GME or AMC?
21 MR. KIM: Objection.
22 A. No.
23 MR. KIM: He's already said it
24 wasn't AMC, so you keep asking him
25 the same questions.
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2 A. Yeah, it's not AMC by the way
3 it's worded, so...
4 Q. But by "jump in" you were
5 referring to trading, right?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And you were nervous because
8 you thought the price of whatever stock
9 it is that you were referring to in this
10 response might fall, right?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And sitting here today, do you
13 have any understanding as to why you
14 would worry that the price of these -- of
15 whatever stock this was might fall?
16 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
17 speculation, asked and answered.
18 A. Worried you're going to lose
19 money. If it falls before you jump in
20 you are going to lose your money.
21 Q. And that's because there is
22 discussion of possible short squeezes at
23 least in these two stocks we've been
24 discussing with respect to this chain,
25 right?
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2 MR. KIM: Objection.
3 A. No. Because this stock goes to
4 52 week high and could fall back down
5 too, so...
6 Q. But in this chain where you
7 are going back and forth with Oceanavekid
8 you are discussing pumps and short
9 squeezes, right?
10 MR. KIM: Objection,
11 mischaracterizes the document, it
12 speaks for itself.
13 A. No. Matter of fact -- I don't
14 want to guess, I don't recall.
15 Q. And why did you want to jump
16 in?
17 MR. KIM: Objection, vague.
18 A. To make money.
19 Q. To make money from a pump and
20 dump?
21 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
22 speculation, lack of foundation.
23 A. I want to say yes, but I
24 didn't buy the stock so I guess I ain't
25 jumping in.
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2 MS. YOUNG: Now is probably a
3 good time for a break. How long do
4 you guys need?
5 MR. KIM: I think we've been
6 going for, like, 70 minutes. I'd
7 like a ten minute break at least.
8 Mr. Harbison, do you need more
9 or less time? Is ten minutes good?
10 It's up to you.
11 THE WITNESS: Like 20.
12 MR. KIM: 20.
13 VIDEOGRAPHER: All right.
14 Going off the record. The time is
15 11:48 a.m. This is the end of
16 Media Unit 1.
17 (Recess is taken.)
18 VIDEOGRAPHER: We're back on
19 the record. The time is 12:12 p.m.
20 This is the beginning of Media Unit
21 2.
22 Q. Mr. Harbison, you understand
23 that you're still sworn in and under oath
24 and have to testify truthfully, right?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. Thank you. All right. Let's go
3 ahead and mark tab 31. This will be
4 Exhibit 152. It should be available right
5 now I think if you refresh your pages.
6 (Exhibit 152, Robinhood
7 trading data re: Brian Harbison,
8 Bates RHMDL00097431.001 was
9 received and marked on this date
10 for identification.)
11 Q. Do you see it?
12 A. Tab 32.
13 Q. Or tab 31.
14 MR. KIM: It says Exhibit 152.
15 Are you seeing that?
16 THE WITNESS: All right. I'm
17 seeing it.
18 MR. KIM: It's a spreadsheet.
19 THE WITNESS: Yeah.
20 Q. And I can represent to you
21 that this exhibit contains trading data
22 that Robinhood produced in connection
23 with this matter and that the account
24 number in the left-hand column is your
25 Robinhood account number.
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2 If you want to see one of your
3 statements to confirm that for yourself
4 we can do that but --
5 MR. KIM: We'll stipulate.
6 MS. YOUNG: Thank you.
7 Q. Okay. And if you look at this
8 first row here do you see that you
9 purchased 100 shares of AMC -- this is in
10 the second row, excuse me. You purchased
11 100 shares of AMC for 6.86 a share at
12 22:10 UTC on January 26 -- 27?
13 A. Say it one more time?
14 Q. Sorry. Do you see the trade
15 for 100 shares of AMC for 6.86?
16 A. 6.86?
17 MR. KIM: Is that 7?
18 MS. YOUNG: Excuse me. I'm
19 sorry. I'm mixing up --
20 MR. KIM: That's the Robinhood
21 execution price, no?
22 MS. YOUNG: This is the first
23 row, 100 shares. The 6.86 I
24 actually think, Phil, if it's a
25 limit buy, the 6.86 is what he
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2 paid.
3 MR. KIM: Oh. Because I
4 thought in the other one it was
5 what Robinhood --
6 MS. YOUNG: I think it was
7 maybe confused with that one. I
8 think it's a limit order.
9 MR. KIM: I see. Okay. Well...
10 Q. Do you see that purchase, Mr.
11 Harbison?
12 A. Yeah. It has order price as 7,
13 it shows, yeah.
14 Q. And 22 UTC -- so that's the
15 universal time period, which is five
16 hours ahead of Eastern. So this was
17 placed at 5:10 p.m. Eastern. So this is
18 about 15 minutes after you posted the
19 last post that we looked at in the prior
20 exhibit, Exhibit 151, right?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Okay. So why did you purchase
23 these shares of AMC on January 26?
24 A. I don't want to speculate.
25 Q. Was there something in
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2 particular that prompted you to trade at
3 this time?
4 A. I don't recall. Yeah, I don't
5 want to assume, so...
6 Q. Had you heard anything, any
7 news from AMC about the company on
8 January 26, to the best of your
9 recollection?
10 A. On that exact date, no.
11 Q. But you had been reading posts
12 concerning AMC on the same day prior to
13 trading, right?
14 A. I don't recall.
15 Q. We just looked at several.
16 A. That was the same day?
17 Q. Right.
18 A. Okay.
19 Q. And you were posting about AMC
20 the same day as this trading too, right?
21 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
22 Mischaracterization of posting
23 about AMC. I think those posts you
24 showed him speak for themselves.
25 MS. YOUNG: He can also speak
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2 for himself, Mr. Kim.
3 A. Yeah, I don't remember those
4 posts about GameStop. There was nothing
5 about me saying anything about AMC.
6 Q. Let's go back to the post.
7 That was 151, tab 6. If you look at the
8 first page of Exhibit 151, do you see
9 that your post at 4:45 p.m. where you say
10 "I thought about AMC too."
11 A. Yeah, I see it.
12 Q. So you posted about AMC at
13 4:45 on January 26, 2021, prior to
14 trading at 5:10 p.m. Eastern, right,
15 trading in AMC at 5:10 p.m. Eastern?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And did any of this discussion
18 on social media that you participated in
19 concerning AMC at all influence your
20 decision to buy shares of AMC on this
21 day?
22 A. No, because it says lotto
23 plays, and I said before lotto plays is
24 options.
25 Q. Yeah. So you're saying this
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2 was fully independent of any discussion
3 of AMC at this time that you saw on
4 social media?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. But you don't have any idea
7 why you decided to trade on this date on
8 January 26, 2021?
9 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
10 answered.
11 A. At that exact time, no.
12 Q. What about just on this day,
13 do you have any understanding why you
14 decided to buy AMC on January 26, 2021?
15 A. No.
16 Q. But at this point in time you
17 were aware of discussions about a
18 potential short squeeze in AMC, right?
19 MR. KIM: Objection,
20 mischaracterizes the record.
21 A. No.
22 Q. You testified earlier, Mr.
23 Harbison, that you were interested in
24 participating in a potential short
25 squeeze of AMC around this time, do you
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2 recall that?
3 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
4 A. Where at?
5 Q. Where?
6 A. Yeah.
7 Q. You testified to that earlier
8 today.
9 MR. KIM: Objection to form. I
10 don't -- you know.
11 Q. You do not recall saying
12 anything about wanting to profit from a
13 short squeeze, a potential short squeeze
14 in AMC around this time?
15 MR. KIM: Objection. I think
16 it mischaracterizes prior
17 testimony.
18 A. Yeah, I never said the exact
19 date or any day.
20 Q. I didn't say a date in my
21 question just now. I just said around
22 this time.
23 A. "At this time" meaning?
24 MR. KIM: Objection. As I
25 recall I think he said GME, but I
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2 don't recall him saying AMC but my
3 memory is not as good as yours.
4 MS. YOUNG: Probably true.
5 MR. KIM: So objection
6 misstates his testimony.
7 Q. Now, the order type for this
8 trade, Mr. Harbison, is a limit order.
9 What is a limit order, in your
10 own words?
11 A. It's pretty much when you buy
12 at a certain price that you set the order
13 to be filled in.
14 Q. Is that in contrast to a
15 market order --
16 A. No.
17 Q. -- that you're trading? Okay.
18 A. So it's pretty much -- it's
19 not pretty much. If the stock is at, say,
20 eight dollars or nine dollars and you
21 think it's going to fall down to seven,
22 you put the limit order for seven
23 dollars.
24 Q. And it will automatically
25 purchase shares at that praise?
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2 A. If it falls to that number,
3 yes.
4 Q. So other trades -- so that's
5 in the order type column. You don't -- do
6 you know what market order types are?
7 A. Yes.
8 MR. KIM: Objection, vague.
9 Q. Can you describe what a market
10 order is?
11 A. So you just -- you buy at --
12 you put the order in and the market gives
13 you whatever they feel is the exact
14 number at that time.
15 Q. So it's a trade for the
16 current market price?
17 A. Yes, or it might fall at that
18 price.
19 Q. And did you often place orders
20 as limit orders around this time?
21 A. What do you mean exactly?
22 Q. I mean, did you frequently,
23 instead of placing market orders, did you
24 place limit orders around this time? It
25 looks like there are a fair number of
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2 these that are limit orders.
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. So I'm wondering if that's a
5 practice of yours?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And what determines whether
8 you are going to place a market order or
9 a limit order?
10 A. Umm, if I feel the stock is
11 going to go down at a certain price, if I
12 want a certain amount of shares for a
13 certain amount of money, I'll place a
14 limit order and see what I get filled.
15 Q. Is this the first time you
16 purchased shares of AMC, January 26,
17 2021?
18 A. That I don't recall. I don't
19 think so, but I don't want to guess.
20 MR. KIM: Don't guess.
21 THE WITNESS: Okay. I don't
22 recall.
23 MS. YOUNG: Can we look at tab
24 7? This will be Exhibit 153.
25 (Exhibit 153, copy of
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2 StockTwits messages, was received
3 and marked on this date for
4 identification.)
5 Q. I think it should be available
6 now.
7 A. Yeah. All right.
8 Q. And do you recognize this
9 document, Mr. Harbison?
10 A. I recognize the user I'm
11 talking to.
12 Q. OTCgod?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Who is that?
15 A. It's like a guy I'm friends
16 with on the app.
17 Q. On StockTwits?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Do you know anything about the
20 user?
21 A. Just on StockTwits.
22 Q. And these are posts from
23 January 26, beginning at 5:07, right?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Okay. And do you see in the
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2 top post he writes, "AMC added LOL", and
3 then says "bullish" next to that?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. And below that you commented,
6 so this is at 5:11 p.m., and you
7 commented with two laughing emojis and
8 wrote "Same. Did you get in on GME?
9 LOL." Do you see that?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. What do you mean by "same"?
12 A. I don't recall.
13 Q. Sitting here today, what do
14 you think you meant by "same"?
15 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
16 speculation.
17 A. Yeah, I don't recall. I can't.
18 Q. So do you believe that OTCgod
19 in the first post was expressing that
20 they had bought shares of AMC?
21 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
22 speculation, document speaks for
23 itself.
24 A. That's what he says, that's
25 what he wrote down. He said "added".
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2 Q. And does "added" mean
3 purchased AMC?
4 A. It could but I didn't -- I
5 wasn't there to actually see him buy it,
6 so he could just be saying it, playing
7 around.
8 Q. Fair. But that's what you
9 would understand that to mean, purchased
10 AMC, right?
11 A. Yes.
12 MR. KIM: Objection.
13 Q. That's three minutes before
14 you purchased your 100 shares of AMC on
15 January 26 at 5:10 p.m. Eastern, right?
16 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
17 speculation. I mean, we don't know
18 if these -- the time on these
19 things are synced, right? I mean,
20 so...
21 Q. Mr. Harbison, do you recall
22 that in the prior exhibit that we looked
23 at you purchased 100 shares of AMC at
24 5:10 p.m., right?
25 A. Okay.
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2 Q. And in your post right here
3 from January 26 at 5 -- it's at 5:11
4 p.m., right?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. It's a minute after you bought
7 100 shares of AMC, right?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Okay. So when you wrote
10 "same", do you believe that you were
11 suggesting that you had also bought
12 shares of AMC?
13 A. Yeah. Yes.
14 Q. And what does "bullish" mean
15 to you?
16 A. You're in favor of the stock.
17 Q. Were you also bullish about
18 AMC at this time?
19 A. This exact time I bought it,
20 yes, I had to be.
21 Q. And why did you want to post
22 about your trade?
23 A. I really don't. I told people
24 that I got friends with on there, like
25 him, and that's pretty much it.
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2 Q. Did you want him to know that
3 you were also invested in AMC?
4 A. That I can't recall. I'm just
5 -- just talking. I can't recall exactly
6 what I was thinking at the time, if I
7 wanted him to think it or --
8 MS. YOUNG: I think he's
9 frozen. Mr. Harbison?
10 MR. KIM: Did we lose him?
11 VIDEOGRAPHER: I think we
12 should go off the record.
13 Going off the record. The time
14 is 12:28 p.m.
15 (Recess is taken.)
16 VIDEOGRAPHER: We're back on
17 the record. The time is 12:35 p.m.
18 Q. Okay. Mr. Harbison, you
19 testified earlier that you sometimes use
20 StockTwits to research potential
21 investments, right?
22 A. I wouldn't say research, but
23 get info.
24 Q. Okay. So is it fair to say
25 that you sometimes use StockTwits to get
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2 information about potential investments?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And a little while earlier we
5 looked at a post from you on January 26th
6 that mentioned AMC, right?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And then on this day or later
9 the same day you respond to a different
10 post about AMC, right? So this is back in
11 Exhibit 153.
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And that post that you are
14 responding to is posted at 5:07, right?
15 A. Tab 7?
16 Q. Yeah.
17 A. Okay. Yeah, I see.
18 Q. And in the spreadsheet of your
19 trades that we looked at earlier, Exhibit
20 152 that we saw earlier, we saw that you
21 bought 100 shares of AMC at 5:10 p.m. on
22 January 26th, right?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. And here at 5:11 on January 26
25 you respond to the post about "AMC added"
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2 saying "same", right?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And did anything you were
5 hearing or writing about AMC on
6 StockTwits on this day on January 26
7 influence your decision to buy AMC on
8 this day?
9 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
10 answered.
11 A. I don't recall.
12 Q. And your testimony is that you
13 don't recall anything about your -- the
14 reasons why you decided to trade AMC on
15 this day?
16 A. On that particular date, no.
17 Q. Do you recall your reasons for
18 buying AMC on any other date?
19 A. Umm, the rumor about Amazon
20 purchasing AMC.
21 Q. And when was that?
22 A. I don't recall.
23 Q. And you also asked in this
24 post, "Did you get in on GME?" Right?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. And you wrote "LOL"?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Why did you write "LOL"?
5 A. Yeah, I don't know.
6 Q. Is there anything funny about
7 these posts?
8 A. I don't recall at that time.
9 Q. If you go further down OTCgod
10 says he didn't get in on GME but in
11 hindsight he should have. And then you
12 respond, "facts. LOL. You and me both,
13 especially today. LOL." Do you see that?
14 A. Yeah.
15 Q. And by -- sorry. Did you say
16 something?
17 A. I see it.
18 Q. Why did you believe that you
19 should have bought GME at this time?
20 A. Honestly, I can't recall.
21 Q. At the time you wrote this did
22 you expect GME stock price to continue to
23 increase?
24 A. I can't recall. There's
25 nothing saying what the stock price was
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2 or anything in this post.
3 Q. I think earlier today, Mr.
4 Harbison, you mentioned that you have not
5 researched GME as a potential investment,
6 right?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. So why would you regret not
9 investing in GME around this time if you
10 had never done any sort of research on
11 the company as a potential investment?
12 A. I can't recall. I don't want
13 to guess.
14 Q. Sitting here today, do you
15 have any understanding as to why you may
16 have regretted not purchasing shares of
17 GME at this time?
18 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
19 speculation.
20 A. I can't -- I don't want to
21 guess, so...
22 Q. Do you regret not investing in
23 GME in January 2021, sitting here today?
24 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
25 speculation.
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2 MS. YOUNG: It doesn't.
3 MR. KIM: It does. When he
4 says he doesn't know on both then
5 and now and now you're asking if he
6 regrets something that he didn't
7 know about, that's speculative.
8 MS. YOUNG: It's a different
9 question that I asked. You can look
10 at the realtime.
11 Q. Mr. Harbison, do you regret
12 not investing in GME in January 2021, as
13 you sit here today?
14 MR. KIM: Same objection.
15 A. I'd have to see the price, the
16 price difference, so I can't really say
17 yes or no.
18 Q. What do you mean as to the
19 price difference?
20 A. How much could I have bought
21 in at, could you have sold options, were
22 options turned off. It depends on
23 everything, so I can't really say.
24 Q. Did the fact that you didn't
25 get in on GME influence your decision to
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2 invest in AMC?
3 A. No.
4 MS. YOUNG: Let's look at tab
5 8. This will be Exhibit 154.
6 (Exhibit 154, copy of
7 StockTwits messages was received
8 and marked on this date for
9 identification.)
10 Q. Is it available?
11 A. Yes. I'm looking at it.
12 Q. Okay. Sorry. I thought it was
13 taking a while. Do you recognize this
14 document?
15 A. I know it's on StockTwits. I
16 recognize the user.
17 Q. G0ldmanSnacks?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Who is G0ldmanSnacks?
20 A. A person that I met on the
21 app.
22 Q. Do you know anything about
23 them?
24 A. Personally, no, just on the
25 app.
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2 Q. Do you communicate with
3 G0ldmanSnacks pretty regularly?
4 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
5 A. Back then, during lockdown,
6 yeah.
7 Q. And he wrote or she, don't
8 know, "SPY I just hope the GME doesn't
9 cause the SEC to put some knee jerk rule
10 in place as a band aid to prevent
11 something similar that ends up punishing
12 realtime traders (see PDT rule)." And
13 that's in parenthesis. Do you see that?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. What is the GME thing?
16 A. I can't recall. At least on
17 GameStop, that's the ticker. But that's
18 as far as I can say.
19 Q. Do you recall GME stock price
20 increasing dramatically around this time?
21 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
22 answered.
23 A. I can't recall.
24 Q. What do you understand it to
25 mean, that they hope that the GME thing
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2 doesn't cause the SEC to put a knee jerk
3 rule in place as a band aid to prevent
4 something similar?
5 A. I have no idea.
6 Q. Why would there be a concern
7 with respect to punishing retail traders?
8 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
9 speculation.
10 A. Yeah, I have no idea.
11 Q. Do you know what PDT is?
12 A. No.
13 Q. Have you ever heard the phrase
14 pattern day trader?
15 A. Okay, yes.
16 Q. What's a pattern day trader?
17 A. Umm, if you have 25,000 -- you
18 have 25,000 in your account and you day
19 trade more than I think it's three times
20 in seven days, you're given a PDT, PDT,
21 you can't trade for I think three months,
22 I think it is, the first time.
23 Q. Is that -- is that a
24 regulation that you just described, is
25 that the PDT rule?
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2 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
3 A. Is that what? One more time.
4 Q. The PDT rule?
5 MR. KIM: He said he didn't
6 know what it meant and then you
7 asked him what pattern day trading
8 meant. So I'd say you're
9 mischaracterizing his testimony.
10 A. Say it one more time.
11 Q. So I think you just described
12 that if you have less than 25,000 in your
13 account, and you trade more than a
14 certain number of times a day which I
15 think you thought was about three in
16 seven days, you can't trade for three
17 months, right?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. I was asking whether or not
20 that referred to a PDT rule?
21 MR. KIM: Objection,
22 mischaracterizes the record.
23 A. Yes. That's a PDT rule or it's
24 a punishment of doing it. I'm not 100%
25 sure about the rules of PDT. I'm 50/50
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2 with it, I'm not 100% sure because I
3 haven't done any day trading.
4 Q. And further down do you see
5 where you respond to G0ldmanSnacks?
6 A. Yeah.
7 Q. And you write, "I already seen
8 a screenshot of them crying to the SEC.
9 LOL."
10 A. Yeah.
11 Q. Who is "them"?
12 A. I have no idea.
13 Q. What screenshot are you
14 referring to?
15 A. I have no idea.
16 Q. What is the relationship or
17 what are you responding to in the prior
18 post?
19 A. What do you mean?
20 Q. How does what you wrote right
21 here at 5:16 p.m. relate to the 5:01 p.m.
22 post?
23 A. I can't recall. At that
24 moment, talking right now it's like over
25 two years ago, so I can't really recall
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2 what was going on at that time.
3 Q. Then beneath that
4 G0ldmanSnacks writes, "They're using our
5 tricks against us", frowny face with a
6 tear, right?
7 A. Yeah.
8 Q. And further down you commented
9 with two laughing emojis and said "I
10 didn't get it -- get in but it's glad to
11 see people tasting their own medicine."
12 Right?
13 A. Yeah, I see it.
14 Q. You didn't invest in GME,
15 right?
16 A. No.
17 Q. And what people are tasting
18 their own medicine?
19 A. I can't recall. At that time I
20 don't know what was being said or what I
21 was watching or reading, so I can't say.
22 I forgot about this whole conversation.
23 It's been two years.
24 Q. And seeing this doesn't at all
25 refresh your recollection or provide any
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2 context?
3 A. No.
4 Q. And GME was heavily shorted
5 around this time, right?
6 MR. KIM: Objection, assumes
7 facts.
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. So if the price of GME
10 increased, hedge funds who had short
11 positions would have to scramble to cover
12 their positions, right?
13 MR. KIM: Objection,
14 incomplete hypothetical.
15 A. With GME or on a short
16 squeeze, in general?
17 Q. On GME.
18 MR. KIM: Objection, calls for
19 speculation.
20 A. Yeah, I don't want to
21 speculate.
22 Q. Were you glad to see that any
23 institutional investors that were short a
24 stock like GME might have to taste their
25 own medicine?
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2 MR. KIM: Objection, vague.
3 A. Where do you see that at?
4 Q. You said "glad to see people
5 tasting their own medicine," right?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Why were you glad to see that?
8 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
9 answered.
10 A. I don't recall.
11 Q. You don't know who "they"
12 refers to in any of these?
13 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
14 answered. How many times do we have
15 to go over this?
16 MS. YOUNG: As many as I feel
17 like.
18 MR. KIM: Then we're going to
19 be here forever.
20 MS. YOUNG: Will you stop this
21 relentless coaching of the witness.
22 MR. KIM: I'm not coaching the
23 witness. You have asked him that
24 same question, like, three times.
25 MS. YOUNG: Okay. Thank you.
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2 A. I said I don't recall. It's
3 two years ago.
4 Q. Go to 152, that exhibit we
5 were looking at a little while earlier.
6 This is the spreadsheet with your trades
7 on it, right?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. If you look at the second row,
10 on January 27th you placed a limit sell
11 order for 100 shares or 100 shares of AMC
12 at 20.46, right?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. But if you look at the -- a
15 couple column over you see the order
16 cancelled column?
17 A. A-hum.
18 Q. And looks like this trade was
19 cancelled, right?
20 A. I don't see cancelled but...
21 Q. It has the actual date and the
22 cancel time in it. Do you see that in the
23 fourth row from the right?
24 A. Oh, okay. I see it.
25 Q. And why did you cancel this
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2 order?
3 A. I can't recall.
4 Q. Did you believe the stock
5 price might increase beyond 20.46 a
6 share?
7 A. I have no idea. I'd have been
8 looking at it at that time, so I'm not
9 sure what I was doing at that time, at
10 that moment.
11 Q. In the third row do you see,
12 this is still on January 27th, that you
13 sold your 100 shares of AMC at 19.78 a
14 share?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. And that was at 14:24 UTC or
17 9:24 a.m., right?
18 A. Yeah.
19 Q. And this is the day after you
20 purchased your shares on January 26,
21 right?
22 A. A-hum.
23 Q. So why did you decide to sell
24 your shares just a day after you bought
25 them?
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2 A. That was -- I remember I did
3 it by accident. I meant to put a stop
4 loss sell, instead I clicked on limit
5 sell. I put a stop loss on it in case it
6 fell down too fast so I can get my own
7 options filled. That's why I rebought in.
8 Q. You are referring to the trade
9 beneath that from 14:41?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Now, if we look -- but if we
12 look back at the one that you executed on
13 accident, you had purchased for 6.86 and
14 sold it for 19.78?
15 A. One more time?
16 Q. I said you had purchased those
17 shares originally on the 26th at 6.86 a
18 share and sold them for 19.78, right?
19 A. A-hum.
20 Q. So just on that day the stock
21 price of AMC had close to tripled, right?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And then about 20 minutes
24 later that's when you place your buy
25 order for 100 shares at 18.10, right, a
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2 share?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And that was at 14:41 UTC?
5 A. What time is that on the East
6 Coast? I'm not sure what UTC at that
7 time.
8 Q. I think it's in the morning.
9 Yeah, 9:41.
10 A. Okay. Thank you.
11 Q. Then it looks like it's
12 cancelled, if you look in the cancelled
13 column?
14 A. Yeah.
15 Q. Do you recall why you
16 cancelled this order?
17 A. Because I wanted to buy it for
18 cheaper and I set my limit order for 16.
19 Q. And is that why we see the
20 purchase beneath that --
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. -- for 15.70 a share?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. So you thought that 18.10 was
25 too high a price to pay when you
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2 cancelled the prior order?
3 A. It wasn't too high but most
4 likely, I don't want to speculate, but if
5 it was going -- I seen it going down I
6 might as well get it for cheaper.
7 Q. Why did you think the price
8 would decline?
9 A. My thinking is if you see it
10 going down the trend lines or if it's
11 falling down, either way, you know where
12 it's heading to.
13 Q. I'm sorry. I cut you off.
14 A. I'm pretty much done.
15 Q. So if the price of a stock is
16 declining, your view is that it will
17 continue to decline?
18 A. Yeah. And then until it gets
19 to the support level.
20 Q. What's the support level?
21 A. That's the price where it will
22 hold or has to hold or it will fall
23 further.
24 Q. And how do you know when a
25 stock has hit its support level?
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2 A. Well, you chart it.
3 Q. And how do you identify that
4 point on the chart?
5 A. Umm, just -- it's hard to
6 explain because I'm more of a hands-on
7 type of person but it's just certain
8 areas where it has to hold.
9 Q. By "hold" you mean the price
10 kind of flattens out, it's not
11 substantially increasing or decreasing?
12 A. It's not going to fall past
13 that line.
14 Q. "Past the line" being a
15 certain price?
16 A. The support level, yeah, yes.
17 Q. But if you saw the price of
18 AMC declining and your general view is
19 that if a stock price is dropping it's
20 going keep dropping, why did you want to
21 buy in again?
22 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
23 A. Because it was going towards a
24 support level. And that's what I mean by
25 it -- it filled it at that support level,
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2 a little bit below it.
3 Q. Are you saying that you
4 thought that the stock price would drop
5 further and that's why you bought?
6 A. No.
7 MR. KIM: Objection to the
8 form.
9 A. It would fall, it would stop
10 right there and slowly go back up. At
11 that time I was doing the charting, so I
12 should have waited a little longer, but
13 that's usually how it goes.
14 Q. So you regret buying at this
15 price, is that what you mean?
16 A. No, I was --
17 Q. You said "I should have waited
18 a little longer." Why did you mean by
19 that?
20 A. Umm, I probably should have --
21 I was new to charting. So I see the sell
22 order under it, so that's probably my
23 stop loss.
24 Q. And two hours later you sell
25 all but one of these shares at 16.32. Do
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2 you see that, this is for 15.97?
3 MR. KIM: You sold at 199.
4 MS. YOUNG: 199 to all but
5 one.
6 MR. KIM: I thought you meant
7 like $16 or something.
8 MS. YOUNG: I said at 15.97
9 per share.
10 A. I bought it at 15.98 a share.
11 Q. 15.08?
12 A. 98.
13 Q. Oh, yeah. I'm talking about
14 the 16.32 sale of 199 shares at 15.97, do
15 you see that, on January 27 at 6:32 UTC?
16 A. Oh, I see the execution price,
17 15.97, yeah, I see it, 199.
18 Q. Why did you decide to sell all
19 but one share?
20 A. I was getting back in and it
21 probably broke the trend lines. Like I
22 say, I was new at charting.
23 Q. You were selling at this time,
24 though, right?
25 A. No, it was a stop loss. Was it
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2 a stop loss?
3 Q. Oh, yeah, you're selling at
4 this price, right, 15.97 at 199 shares?
5 A. Yeah, for stop loss.
6 Q. So you still had one share of
7 AMC at this time, right?
8 A. Yeah, but I was going to get
9 back in.
10 Q. So you said you kept one in
11 case you wanted to get back in?
12 A. Yeah, after it finished
13 falling, when it starts to go back up.
14 Q. So in this -- sorry. I didn't
15 mean to interrupt you.
16 A. It's all right.
17 Q. So is this sort of like how
18 you used to sometimes purchase one share,
19 so that -- so that stock would be in your
20 portfolio so you would remember it and
21 think about it in case you wanted to
22 invest more?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. So it would be a way for you
25 to more easily basically track the price
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2 movement and you could remember if you
3 wanted to invest more, right?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. And do you recall why you
6 thought that the price might continue to
7 decline and you might want to invest at a
8 lower price?
9 A. I can't recall at that time.
10 Q. And you made a profit on those
11 sales, right?
12 A. I lost money.
13 Q. You sold them for 15.97,
14 right?
15 A. Yeah, and I bought in for 16.
16 Q. I think you bought them for
17 15.70?
18 A. Okay, yeah.
19 Q. And in the earlier sale you
20 had bought in at 6.86 or you had -- where
21 you sold your shares for 19.78 you had
22 bought them for 6.86, right?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. So that was a pretty
25 substantial profit on that sale, right?
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2 A. I guess, yeah.
3 Q. And then about two minutes
4 after you sold the 199 shares you bought
5 another 200. Do you see that?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And that's for 15.98 a share?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And you created that order at
10 14: 34, so that's 11:34 Eastern, right,
11 Mr. Harbison?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Okay. Sorry. I didn't hear
14 you. So why did you buy these shares of
15 AMC?
16 A. Why did I buy them?
17 Q. Yes, why did you buy them?
18 A. Oh, I see it was trending back
19 up.
20 Q. And so you thought it was a
21 good time to buy?
22 A. Yes, it had stopped falling.
23 Q. And was there anything else
24 that impacted your decision to buy the
25 shares, aside from seeing the stock price
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2 tick upwards?
3 A. What do you mean exactly?
4 Q. Was there any other factor
5 that impacted your decision about whether
6 or not to buy shares of AMC at this time,
7 aside from watching the price chart?
8 MR. KIM: Objection, vague.
9 A. Yeah, I'm not 100% sure at
10 that moment what I was doing.
11 Q. In general, is there other
12 factors besides the price trends that
13 influence your trading decisions?
14 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
15 answered.
16 A. Yeah, the volume and the
17 Amazon rumor.
18 Q. Is it typical for you to trade
19 the same security numerous times
20 throughout a single trading day?
21 MR. KIM: Objection, form.
22 A. It's not normal but it's
23 happened before.
24 Q. And do you recall anything
25 about the circumstances of January 27th
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2 that contributed to why you traded AMC
3 multiple times?
4 A. No, I can't remember at the
5 time, at the moment.
6 MS. YOUNG: Let's look now at
7 tab 9, which I think is going to be
8 Exhibit 155.
9 (Exhibit 155, copy of
10 StockTwits message was received and
11 marked on this date for
12 identification.)
13 Q. Do you see this document?
14 A. I see it now.
15 Q. Do you recognize it?
16 A. I know it's StockTwits.
17 Q. And do you see that there is a
18 post from somebody with the user name
19 HollywoodWolf777 and he writes, "GME no
20 shit, margin call 2 p.m. start today for
21 bulls." Do you see that?
22 A. Yeah.
23 Q. And then beneath that he lists
24 several securities including AMC and
25 Express, right?
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2 A. Oh, okay. I see, yeah.
3 Q. And then there is a -- I don't
4 know if it's a tag or something but says
5 "bearish".
6 A. Yeah.
7 Q. And the post also included a
8 picture of a bear made of fire?
9 A. Yeah.
10 MR. KIM: Very creative.
11 Q. What does bearish mean to you?
12 A. It means the stock is going to
13 go down.
14 Q. And so do you understand this
15 to be saying that you expect AMC and GME
16 and Express, those stock prices to
17 decline?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. And do you know what this
20 reference to margin call means?
21 A. Yeah.
22 Q. Can you explain?
23 A. That's when you borrow money
24 to buy more shares of something and the
25 price goes down past the margin limit
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2 they set for you, you have to either sell
3 something to get the money back to give
4 it to the broker or pay out of your
5 pocket.
6 Q. Do you have to put up more to
7 hold onto those shares?
8 A. Yeah.
9 Q. And below that you say, you
10 tag HollywoodWolf and say, "You can't
11 margin on high volatility stocks."
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. What did you mean by that?
14 A. Because it's high volatility,
15 a lot of brokers -- I know on Robinhood
16 they tell you you can't use no margin.
17 It's strictly all cash.
18 Q. And so you observed some high
19 volatility around this time in the
20 market?
21 A. Yeah, the volume.
22 Q. By "volume" you mean many
23 shares or maybe an unusually high number
24 of shares being traded?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. Are these specific stocks?
3 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
4 A. What do you mean? I'm talking
5 for -- which one?
6 Q. I guess I'm asking if this
7 high volatility, in terms of volume that
8 you described, whether or not that was
9 the market generally or specific stocks?
10 A. I'm not sure what's your
11 question. What are you asking? I'm not
12 really understanding.
13 Q. So when I asked if you
14 observed high volatility, because that
15 was a term you used in this post around
16 that time, you said yeah, the volume.
17 A. Yeah.
18 Q. And so I asked if by that you
19 meant that was an unusually high number
20 of shares being traded and you said yes.
21 So I was asking, with respect to these
22 particular stocks or the market broadly?
23 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
24 A. Yeah, I'm not really sure what
25 you mean.
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2 High volatility, they tell you
3 on Robinhood apps this stock has a high
4 volatility and you will see at the bottom
5 you can't use your margin for it.
6 Q. So does the high volatility
7 that you recall observing in around this
8 time relate to any specific stocks you
9 can name for me?
10 A. GameStop, AMC, and that's
11 about it that I can remember.
12 Q. And you also mentioned
13 Robinhood. You were discussing certain
14 restrictions that brokers implemented in
15 January 2021?
16 MR. KIM: Objection.
17 A. I'm sorry. Say that one more
18 time, the last part.
19 Q. I think you mentioned
20 something about Robinhood.
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And saying you couldn't use
23 margin for certain securities --
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. -- right?
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2 So are you here in this post
3 referencing some restrictions that
4 certain brokers implemented around this
5 time?
6 MR. KIM: Objection, document
7 speaks for itself.
8 A. Yeah, this on high volatility
9 stocks, period, on any stocks they
10 believe have high volatility, you can't
11 use margin on.
12 Q. So the margin call at two p.m.
13 that's mentioned above that, is it your
14 understanding that refers to a certain
15 margin call around this time on January
16 27th?
17 A. That I'm not sure what -- I
18 think that's, like, different brokers
19 they call your phone and tell you it's a
20 margin call, from what I heard.
21 Q. And when you wrote "can't use
22 margin on high volatility stocks" --
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. -- you weren't especially
25 surprised that these changes were
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2 implemented on trading high volatility
3 stocks at this time, right?
4 MR. KIM: Objection to form,
5 vague.
6 A. Yeah, I can't really say. I
7 can't really say for that.
8 Q. You knew prior to this point
9 in time, though, that you can't use
10 margin on high volatility stocks, right?
11 A. Yeah, because the app said it
12 was a high volatility stock.
13 Q. And you testified earlier that
14 you observed high volatility for certain
15 stocks around this time, right?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And so it wouldn't be a
18 surprise to you that there would be
19 margin calls?
20 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
21 A. I wouldn't be surprised or he
22 wouldn't be surprised?
23 Q. That you wouldn't be.
24 A. No, I'm not -- margin -- no. I
25 didn't say nothing about a margin call. I
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2 was responding to him, because it's high
3 volatility.
4 Q. So you were expecting you
5 wouldn't be able to use margin to hold
6 onto high volatility stocks at this time,
7 right?
8 MR. KIM: Objection.
9 A. Yes. You can't use margin for
10 any high volatility stock.
11 Q. Right. So your expectation was
12 you couldn't trade those securities on
13 margin at this time?
14 MR. KIM: Objection, form,
15 vague.
16 A. No. If I remember they tell
17 you, you don't have to guess, like, on
18 the app it tells you high volatility and
19 they take the margin away automatically
20 so you can't use it.
21 If you have the stock, the
22 ticker, by pump it to high volatility on
23 the app -- not pump it but if you have
24 it, like, they stamp "high volatility" on
25 that ticker, then whatever margin you was
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2 using at that time, they take it away and
3 you have to put funds in to keep those
4 shares or sell them.
5 Q. And you considered GME a high
6 volatility stock at this time?
7 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
8 A. I can't recall. The only thing
9 I remember is the Robinhood app said it's
10 a high volatility stock.
11 MS. YOUNG: Let's look at tab
12 10.
13 (Exhibit 156, copy of
14 StockTwits messages was received
15 and marked on this date for
16 identification.)
17 Q. Do you see the document, Mr.
18 Harbison?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Do you recognize it?
21 A. StockTwits, that's about it.
22 Q. It's from January 27, 2021?
23 A. I see it.
24 Q. And this was a post with
25 somebody by the user name FredericLamar,
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2 right and he writes "AMC, GME, WSB
3 playing the Guy Gentile game with these
4 issues. Trade safe, peeps..." Do you see
5 that?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And what did you understand
8 FredericLamar to be referring to by the
9 term WSB?
10 A. I don't know. I asked him what
11 he means.
12 Q. And what does he say back? You
13 can read it.
14 A. Yeah.
15 Q. He writes, "Lock down the
16 float, pump it AH and of course,
17 eventually dump it." Right?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. And you wrote, "Okay, thanks."
20 A. Yeah.
21 Q. Do you know who Guy Gentile
22 is?
23 A. Oh, yeah. I don't know what
24 that is either. That's why I was lost.
25 That's why I asked him what he meant.
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2 Q. What does AH mean?
3 A. After hours.
4 Q. And so that would read, "Lock
5 down the float, pump it after hours and
6 of course eventually dump it", right?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And this is with respect to
9 AMC and GME?
10 A. From what he's saying?
11 Q. Right.
12 A. Yes. That's what he typed,
13 yeah.
14 Q. Do you know if WSB is
15 Wallstreetbets?
16 A. Yeah, I found out later.
17 Q. And so pump it after hours
18 would mean buy more of these stocks after
19 hours; is that right?
20 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
21 A. Yes. I'm assuming that's what
22 he means.
23 Q. And would "dump it" mean sell
24 those shares of AMC and GME?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. The goal being that by pumping
3 it after hours it will increase the price
4 and then you can sell at a higher price
5 when you dump it, right?
6 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
7 A. I'm assuming that's what he
8 means.
9 Q. And in the original post what
10 does "trade safe peeps" mean to you?
11 A. I guess he means trade safely.
12 Q. Is there something unsafe or
13 risky about selling AMC or GME at that
14 time?
15 A. I don't recall. Yeah, I don't
16 recall at all. I don't know who Guy
17 Gentle or Gentile is.
18 Q. If a stock price is pumped up,
19 do you think that means that the stock
20 price is inflated?
21 MR. KIM: Objection, asked and
22 answered.
23 A. I can't say for sure for that
24 one, on what he means by that. Everybody
25 has different terms, so I'm not really
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2 sure.
3 MR. KIM: Are we done -- I
4 think we've been going for like
5 another 70 minutes, if my
6 calculations are right. Maybe it's
7 time to take a break, when you're
8 done with this thing.
9 MS. YOUNG: Time flies when
10 you're having fun.
11 MR. KIM: I'm glad.
12 MS. YOUNG: How long do you
13 guys want, like, a few minutes?
14 MR. KIM: Yeah. Mr. Harbison,
15 is that sufficient time for you? 15
16 minutes works for me.
17 THE WITNESS: Yes. That's
18 good.
19 VIDEOGRAPHER: Going off the
20 record. The time is 1:22 p.m. This
21 is the end of Media Unit 2.
22 (Recess is taken.)
23 VIDEOGRAPHER: We're back on
24 the record. The time is 1:44 p.m.
25 This is the beginning of Media Unit
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2 3.
3 Q. Okay. Let's go back to Exhibit
4 152, that's the trading spreadsheet.
5 So, Mr. Harbison, just to sum
6 up some of these trades that we've been
7 discussing, on the first row in the
8 spreadsheet you buy 100 shares of AMC on
9 January 26th at 6.86 a share, right?
10 A. Yeah.
11 Q. And then you sell those shares
12 of AMC at a profit on January 27th at
13 19.78 a share, right?
14 A. Yeah.
15 Q. And then you buy 200 shares of
16 AMC on January 27th at 15.70 per share,
17 right?
18 A. Yeah.
19 Q. And then you sell all but one
20 of those shares of AMC at a profit for
21 15.97 a share, right?
22 A. I wouldn't really call it a
23 profit, yeah.
24 Q. You wouldn't call it a profit
25 or you don't recall a profit?
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2 A. I wouldn't call it a profit
3 but yeah.
4 Q. Did you sell them for a higher
5 price than you paid for them?
6 A. I'm not sure what I did at
7 that time but yeah.
8 Q. You bought them for 15.70 a
9 share, right, and then you sold them for
10 15.97 a share?
11 A. Yeah.
12 Q. So you sold them for a profit,
13 right?
14 A. Yeah.
15 Q. And then you buy 200 shares of
16 AMC on January 27th at 11:34 Eastern at
17 15.98 a share, right?
18 A. Yeah.
19 Q. And then after that you see a
20 post at 4:04 p.m. Eastern on the 27th
21 about pumping AMC after hours and
22 dumping, right?
23 A. Yeah.
24 Q. And then the next morning on
25 January 28th, so this is in three rows
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2 from the bottom, you sell your 200
3 hundred shares of AMC for 13.02 at 9:17
4 a.m. Eastern, right?
5 A. Yeah.
6 Q. And why did you sell your
7 shares of AMC at this time?
8 A. I'm assuming that's when they
9 took the buy button away and the price is
10 plummeting.
11 Q. So you're saying that prior to
12 making this sale of AMC you became aware
13 of certain restrictions on Robinhood's
14 platform; is that right?
15 A. They removed the buy button
16 yes.
17 Q. By "buy button" you couldn't
18 buy more shares of AMC?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. And that's why you chose to
21 sell your shares of AMC?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Were there any other
24 contributing factors?
25 A. The price was falling.
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2 Q. Were you influenced at all by
3 users on social media that were telling
4 you to dump the shares of AMC?
5 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
6 A. No.
7 Q. So you don't recall why you
8 bought or sold any of your shares of AMC
9 on the 26th or the 27th, but you know
10 that the reason you sold your shares on
11 the 28th was because of Robinhood's
12 restrictions, right?
13 A. Yeah.
14 Q. And you don't recall why you
15 made any of those purchases or sales of
16 AMC on the 26th or the 27th but you're
17 certain that none of these discussions
18 about AMC that you were participating in
19 on social media on those same days had
20 any influence over your trading
21 decisions, right?
22 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
23 A. No. I said earlier, the rumor
24 about Amazon purchasing AMC.
25 Q. That was on January 26th and
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2 27th of 2021?
3 A. It was in 2021. That's the
4 only time I bought AMC.
5 Q. So the only time you bought
6 AMC around this time you're claiming is
7 when there were rumors about Amazon
8 buying AMC?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Did he end the post concerning
11 buying AMC at this time that you
12 participated in that we've looked at
13 today, did any of them reference any
14 rumors about Amazon buying AMC?
15 A. No.
16 Q. Did any of them reference
17 potential short squeezes in AMC?
18 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
19 A. I have to see it again. But
20 if I remember, I seen GameStop mission
21 for short squeeze. I don't remember
22 seeing AMC being short squeezed.
23 Q. I believe you testified
24 earlier today that you recall discussions
25 of a potential short squeeze in AMC
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2 around this time and that you wanted to
3 profit from it. Do you remember that?
4 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
5 A. No, I didn't. I'm talking
6 about GameStop.
7 Q. Do you recall posts that we've
8 looked at today from prior to your sale
9 that talk about pumping and dumping AMC?
10 MR. KIM: Objection to the
11 form, asked and answered.
12 A. No, I don't.
13 Q. If we go back to the exhibits,
14 what was the last one? 156, which tab?
15 A. Which tab?
16 Q. 10, so it's Exhibit 156.
17 A. Okay.
18 Q. Do you remember looking at
19 this document a little while earlier?
20 A. Yeah.
21 Q. And in this post you are
22 responding to this user on StockTwits
23 that's talking about AMC and GME, right?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. And you ask him what he means
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2 and he says "lock down the float, pump it
3 after hours and of course eventually dump
4 it", right?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Does this refresh your
7 recollection that you were participating
8 in discussions about pumping and dumping
9 AMC on January 27th, 2021?
10 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
11 A. No, it doesn't. I asked him
12 what he meant. He told me what he meant.
13 I said thanks. That was it.
14 Q. Right. So you responded to his
15 response to you about pumping and
16 dumping, right? So you saw it?
17 A. I don't see nobody, him or me,
18 saying to pump anything.
19 Q. "Pump it after hours and of
20 course eventually dump it", January 27,
21 4:14 p.m. Do you see that?
22 A. Yeah, I see that but it's not
23 saying him or me doing it.
24 Q. I didn't suggest that you did
25 say that.
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2 A. You didn't say that.
3 Q. I'm saying you were aware of
4 discussions about pumping and dumping AMC
5 on January 27th, 2021.
6 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
7 A. I see the words pump and dump
8 it and that's his definition, his own
9 opinion.
10 MR. KIM: How many times do we
11 have to go over this? I mean, we
12 went over this document for a half
13 hour and now we're doing it again.
14 Come on. You got what you want.
15 Let's go. Come on.
16 MS. YOUNG: Maybe we should
17 spend another half hour on it.
18 MR. KIM: I mean, we could
19 but, like, this is not the time for
20 you to argue with the witness.
21 MS. YOUNG: The only way we can
22 continue with this deposition if
23 you stop this back-and-forth.
24 MR. KIM: It's not stopping,
25 it's just, like -- like -
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2 MS. YOUNG: It's my time, it's
3 my time, Phil.
4 MR. KIM: This is not -- this
5 is not -- I mean, you know, this is
6 -- you're not Matlock, right? You
7 are here to gather facts. So
8 gather them. Stop going back to the
9 documents to try to show whatever
10 you are trying to show, which is
11 showing nothing.
12 MS. YOUNG: It's really hard
13 to gather facts when you are so
14 busy taking up time on the record.
15 MR. KIM: Sure. You want to go
16 back to the other exhibits too.
17 MS. YOUNG: I might have to.
18 MR. KIM: Yeah, well, I mean
19 that's par for the course for you.
20 MS. YOUNG: The posts that he
21 participated in that discussed this
22 stuff.
23 MR. KIM: Just stop arguing
24 with him.. you just don't like his
25 answers but it is what it is.
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2 Q. Mr. Harbison, you were
3 mentioning the buy button, right?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. And you became aware of those
6 restrictions on Robinhood's platform on
7 January 28th, right?
8 A. I don't recall the exact date.
9 Q. I believe you said that you
10 sold your shares on the morning of
11 January 28th because of the suspension of
12 the buy button, right?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. So it's fair to say that you
15 knew about those restrictions as of the
16 morning of January 28th, right?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And can you describe the
19 restrictions?
20 A. They removed the buy button.
21 Q. Are there any other
22 restrictions that you're aware of?
23 A. It was halted and -- yeah, it
24 was halted.
25 Q. Do you recall hearing about
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2 brokers besides Robinhood imposing
3 restrictions on their platforms around
4 that time?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Do you recall which brokers?
7 A. TD Ameritrade and I'm not 100%
8 sure of the other ones. I don't want to
9 guess.
10 Q. Do you recall what
11 restrictions TD Ameritrade implemented?
12 A. Not exactly.
13 Q. When you first learned about
14 the trading restrictions Robinhood
15 imposed, do you recall hearing anything
16 about the reason that Robinhood
17 implemented those restrictions?
18 A. No.
19 Q. And when you decided to sell
20 on January 28th, sell your shares of AMC
21 on January 28th, I mean, had you learned
22 anything new about AMC as a company since
23 purchasing the shares on the 27th that
24 led you to believe that it was now
25 overvalued?
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2 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
3 A. I didn't say it was overvalued
4 at all. Once you remove the buy button
5 and everybody starts selling, panicking
6 because that's what happened before, I
7 might as well get out too before I lose
8 all my money.
9 Q. So why didn't you hold onto
10 your shares?
11 A. If it's dropping, why would
12 you?
13 Q. So you always sell when the
14 price is declining for any of your
15 investments?
16 A. When the buy button is taken
17 away, yes.
18 Q. Did you ever purchase AMC
19 again after January 27 -- yeah, after
20 January 27, 2021?
21 MR. KIM: You mean 28th?
22 MS. YOUNG: I thought I said
23 purchase, right? You sold on the
24 28th.
25 A. Yeah, I don't recall.
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2 Q. You don't recall ever holding
3 AMC after this time?
4 A. I don't recall. It's two years
5 ago.
6 Q. So since then you don't recall
7 ever trading AMC?
8 A. No.
9 MS. YOUNG: So let's look at
10 tab 12. This will be 157.
11 (Exhibit 157, copy of
12 StockTwits messages was received
13 and marked on this date for
14 identification.)
15 MR. KIM: Did the Exhibit
16 Share go down? It says it's
17 temporarily unavailable to me. Is
18 yours working, Mr. Harbison?
19 THE WITNESS: It's working.
20 MR. KIM: Let's see what's
21 going on. Here we go.
22 Q. Do you recognize this
23 document, Mr. Harbison?
24 A. This is crypto.
25 Q. I just asked if you recognize
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2 the document?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And what is it?
5 A. Cryptocurrency.
6 Q. Are you talking about DOGE.X?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. This is a -- this is a post
9 from you from January 29, 2021, right?
10 A. Oh, yeah, I see it. Yeah.
11 Q. And you wrote, "DOGE.X how
12 many people are actually buying the dip
13 here?" I think that's a teary face but
14 I'm not positive. And then "because this
15 is falling way too much for all these dip
16 buy posts. Reminds me of AMC."
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. What did this mean?
19 A. It was falling, like, AMC was
20 falling and Robinhood turned the buy
21 button off.
22 Q. And what do you mean by
23 "buying the dip"?
24 A. They keep buying when it's
25 falling.
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2 Q. You're saying for DOGE.X or --
3 A. Yeah.
4 Q. And what is buying the dip? I
5 mean, is it a strategy?
6 A. Some people use it as a
7 strategy to keep buying. If it goes low
8 they keep buying.
9 Q. And so if enough people buy
10 the dip, does that make the stop price
11 increase?
12 A. No.
13 Q. So then how is it an effective
14 strategy?
15 A. I think they average down or
16 they buy more for cheap or cheaply
17 figuring it's going to go back up
18 eventually and so they keep buying more
19 and more.
20 Q. And you say, "For all of these
21 dip buy posts reminds me of AMC", does
22 that mean there are lots of, you know,
23 posts about people buying the dip of AMC
24 around this time?
25 A. No, I don't recall exactly, so
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2 I can't really -- I don't want to
3 speculate.
4 Q. So you said that -- well, let
5 me rephrase.
6 If enough people buy the dip
7 such that you would expect -- well, if a
8 sufficient number of people were buying
9 the dip would you expect the price to
10 fall?
11 A. Yes, if there's more sellers
12 than buyers.
13 Q. Then why are you asking here
14 how many people are actually buying the
15 dip because this is falling way too much
16 for all of these dip buy posts?
17 A. Because by people post it
18 buying the dip but you are losing more
19 money because it's still falling.
20 Q. Right. So you're querying --
21 aren't you asking, I would expect the
22 price to increase if all these people
23 were actually buying the dip right now?
24 MR. KIM: Objection to form,
25 document speaks for itself.
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2 A. No. Because cryptocurrency is
3 different stock to begin with, and either
4 way the amount of people buy if there's
5 more people selling it's still going to
6 go down.
7 Q. So why were you asking about
8 people buying the dip here for this
9 cryptocurrency?
10 A. Because the post says it.
11 People are posting about buying the dip.
12 Q. You weren't seeing that
13 reflected in the stock price because you
14 noticed that it's falling way too much,
15 right?
16 MR. KIM: And DOGE -- are you
17 talking about DOGE?
18 MS. YOUNG: Yeah, of the
19 cryptocurrency.
20 A. Say it one more time.
21 Q. And you weren't seeing people
22 buying the dip reflected in the price of
23 DOGE, right, because you noticed it was
24 falling and you called it way too much?
25 A. DOGE is different because you
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2 can't really buy the dip because there's
3 so many coins. This is pretty much
4 different from stocks altogether,
5 cryptocurrency. It's a lot to explain,
6 like, just different.
7 Q. Well, then why did you speak
8 about buying the dip if it's not
9 applicable to cryptocurrency?
10 A. You said what?
11 Q. Why did you post about buying
12 the dip for DOGE if it's not really
13 applicable to a cryptocurrency?
14 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
15 A. Why did I post buying the dip?
16 Q. Why did you post about buying
17 the dip for DOGE if buying the dip isn't
18 really applicable to crypto currencies?
19 A. To that cryptocurrency.
20 Q. Right. So why did you post
21 this?
22 A. Because people were posting
23 about buying the dip.
24 Q. Let's go to tab 20, it's
25 Exhibit 158.
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2 (Exhibit 158, copy of
3 StockTwits messages was received
4 and marked on this date for
5 identification.)
6 Q. Do you see the document, Mr.
7 Harbison?
8 A. Yes, I see it.
9 Q. Can you identify it?
10 A. Yes. I see it's StockTwits.
11 Q. And this is from October 2021,
12 right?
13 A. Yeah.
14 Q. And then do you see in the top
15 post it's from somebody OccupyInvesting,
16 "BGRY we see the stop raid and we're
17 sending shorts packing."
18 A. Yeah.
19 Q. Do you see that? What is
20 BGRY?
21 A. It's a ticker, Berkshire Grey.
22 Q. Do you know what kind of
23 company that is?
24 A. Robotics.
25 Q. Do you own shares of BGRY or
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2 did you around this time?
3 A. Yeah.
4 Q. Why did you want to invest in
5 BGRY?
6 A. It's a robotics for warehouses
7 and stuff, so it's robotics. I'm a big
8 fan of technology.
9 Q. Does the term OccupyInvesting
10 have any significance to you, other than
11 this user name?
12 A. No.
13 Q. Have you ever heard of Occupy
14 Wall Street?
15 A. Yeah.
16 Q. Do you understand that
17 OccupyInvesting to be in any way related
18 to the Occupy Wall Street movement?
19 A. I can't -- I don't know. I was
20 in that group, that board, rather, for
21 that ticker.
22 Q. What do you understand "we are
23 sending shorts packing" to mean?
24 A. No idea.
25 Q. Do you recall whether there
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2 was -- whether BGRY was heavily shorted
3 around this time?
4 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
5 A. Yeah, I'm not sure.
6 Q. And you respond with, I think
7 it's, like, the emoji and says "let us
8 load first" and then two crying emojis,
9 right?
10 A. Yeah.
11 Q. What does "let us load" mean?
12 A. That means buy first.
13 Q. Who is "us" in this context?
14 A. Really me, personally.
15 Q. Then why did you say "us"?
16 A. I can't recall at that time.
17 Q. Does it refer to investors in
18 StockTwits, the community, more
19 generally?
20 A. Most likely.
21 Q. And you wanted to buy more
22 shares before the stock price of -- what
23 is this company called, Berkshire Grey?
24 -- increased further?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. And why did you think the
3 stock price would increase?
4 A. Because it's robotics and it's
5 AI.
6 Q. So you want there to be more
7 time for investors in this community to
8 kind of build up their positions before
9 -- before the stock price was driven up
10 further?
11 MR. KIM: Objection to the
12 form.
13 A. Yeah.
14 Q. There is also something funny
15 about this. I'm wondering what the
16 emojis are for?
17 A. At the time I don't remember.
18 Q. And then OccupyInvesting, "The
19 time is now. Let's run it and trim on
20 the peak. Reload and repeat." Do you see
21 that?
22 A. Yeah.
23 Q. And "run" refers to driving up
24 the stock price?
25 A. I have no idea.
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2 Q. You don't have any idea what
3 this means?
4 A. No.
5 Q. So you respond "I don't know,
6 I'd rather wait and get more shares. I
7 want to see how low it can go and get a
8 bigger position, then just sit back and
9 chill."
10 A. Yeah, I see it.
11 Q. So if you would rather wait,
12 you want to see how low it goes, does
13 that refer to how low the stock price can
14 go?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Okay. And you then want to buy
17 when the price is low so you can get a
18 bigger position, right?
19 A. Yeah.
20 Q. So you are saying that you
21 would prefer that the price not increase
22 right now?
23 A. That hash means I want to get
24 some more.
25 Q. Some more, right?
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2 A. And bring my average down.
3 Q. Did you also want to send
4 shorts packing?
5 A. I didn't post none of that.
6 MR. KIM: Objection.
7 Q. You responded to it, though,
8 right?
9 A. Umm.
10 Q. You went back and forth with
11 OccupyInvesting several times, right?
12 A. Yeah, I see that.
13 Q. You have no idea what "sending
14 shorts packing" means?
15 A. No. I -- I can't recall it.
16 Oh, I see what it is.
17 Q. Sorry?
18 A. The news was putting out
19 there. So I guess before anybody else
20 started to see it he probably started to
21 buy more shares, if you start posting
22 more and more news about that company. I
23 read about it.
24 Q. So when you wrote "I don't
25 know. I'd rather wait" was a direct
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2 response to "sending shorts packing"
3 though, right?
4 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
5 A. "The time is now, let's run
6 it", that was my response to him.
7 Q. And why would you rather wait?
8 A. And get more shares. I want to
9 see how low it can go, get a bigger
10 position.
11 Q. And then when OccupyInvesting
12 tags you and says "Don't whine if you
13 spend more tomorrow" you say "eh, it's a
14 win win either way", how is it a win win?
15 A. Because I already have shares.
16 Q. Is it not also a win if the
17 price increases because you wanted to
18 send shorts packing?
19 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
20 A. There's -- there's no shorts
21 on that stock.
22 Q. There are no shorts on that
23 stock?
24 A. I mean, there probably was
25 people shorting it, but it was not a meme
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2 stock or nothing. This is a robotic
3 stock, this is about jobs not being
4 filled in warehouses.
5 Q. So you think meme stocks are
6 heavily shorted stocks?
7 A. Umm, I don't know too much
8 about it like that to answer that
9 question.
10 Q. Well, I'm just curious because
11 we were just talking about shorts here
12 you said there are no shorts on the
13 stock. It wasn't a meme stock.
14 A. A meme?
15 Q. A meme stock, isn't that what
16 you said?
17 A. Yeah, it's not a stock that,
18 like, anybody is going to run to like
19 GameStop.
20 Q. And what do you mean by "run
21 to"?
22 A. Run to buy more shares and
23 short squeeze. This is -- I know this
24 company, like, they're robotics.
25 Q. But you considered GME a meme
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2 stock?
3 A. That's what I consider it now.
4 Q. Do you consider AMC a meme
5 stock?
6 MR. KIM: Objection to the
7 form, asked and answered.
8 A. I only heard GameStop used on
9 the news.
10 MS. YOUNG: Let's go tab 21.
11 This will be 159.
12 (Exhibit 159, copy of
13 StockTwits messages was received
14 and marked on this date for
15 identification.)
16 Q. Do you recognize this
17 document, Mr. Harbison?
18 A. Yeah.
19 Q. Is it a post from you from
20 April 6, 2022?
21 A. I remember this.
22 Q. And in the first post you say
23 "GGR I wish people would stop coming
24 around with AMC, GME and other squeeze
25 play pump nonsense", right?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. And when you wrote this did
4 you mean that there were discussions
5 about pumping the price of GGR to create
6 a short squeeze?
7 A. There was people coming into
8 the board, that room, and they'd tag
9 other tickers and talk about a short
10 squeeze, but there was no short squeeze.
11 Q. Oh, so you were frustrated
12 that they were talking about short
13 squeezes of AMC and GME in the page about
14 GGR?
15 A. No. They kept on tagging --
16 they was trying to say let's make another
17 GME meme stock, whatever, with GGR. And
18 they kept tagging, so you can't really
19 see if the actual news people are talking
20 about in the comments because --
21 Q. Were they also discussing meme
22 stock or short squeeze events with AMC?
23 A. I don't know if this was real
24 people. A lot of them were bots. So I'm
25 not sure if there was even a real person
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2 doing it.
3 Q. Why did you mention AMC in
4 this post?
5 A. Because Mike kept tagging it.
6 Q. Tagging AMC with respect to
7 squeeze play pump nonsense?
8 A. Yeah. I won't say squeeze pump
9 nonsense, but they kept on definitely
10 tagging, like, make it another AMC or GME
11 or something around that area.
12 Q. But you did say "AMC squeeze
13 play pump nonsense", right?
14 A. Yeah.
15 Q. That's what you wrote?
16 And why did you want people to
17 stop coming around with this squeeze play
18 pump nonsense regarding AMC and GME?
19 A. Because I said before, when a
20 bunch of people flood the room it's hard
21 to see the actual news and people who
22 actually care about the company because
23 you keep seeing a bunch of bots posting
24 the same -- the comment over and over.
25 Q. So you actually cared about
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2 the fundamentals of this company GGR?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And you felt that it was
5 harder to see that actual information
6 about the company because it was, you
7 know, obscured from these discussions
8 about short squeezes?
9 A. Yeah.
10 Q. So discussions of short
11 squeezes, you don't consider that
12 relevant news to an investment you're in,
13 right?
14 A. No.
15 Q. That's because you don't
16 consider short squeezes to reflect the
17 actual value of a company that you're
18 interested in, right?
19 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
20 A. No, I don't --
21 (Reporter clarification.)
22 A. I don't look at that for the
23 company I'm invested in.
24 Q. And somebody else comments and
25 says, "True. That ruins all good momentum
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2 of goof stocks." Right and then you
3 respond to that and say, "100%"?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. And then after that you follow
6 back up and say, laughing crying emoji,
7 "I see your point."
8 A. Yeah, I don't know what was
9 said but there's nothing here. Something
10 is missing.
11 Q. Oh.
12 A. So maybe the person deleted
13 his account or it got deleted.
14 Q. So this wasn't like a double
15 response to the, "True that ruins all
16 good momentum of goof stocks?"
17 A. No. NavitheSTfactchecker made
18 a comment but it's not up there.
19 Q. I see. So you just responded
20 to the prior post with exactly the 100%
21 emoji?
22 A. Yeah.
23 Q. Okay. Why did you agree with
24 what was said in the prior post?
25 A. Because he's saying it's going
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2 to ruin the company, like, the stock.
3 Q. You mean discussions of short
4 squeezes that are in this -- I don't know
5 if you describe it as a page or a chain
6 or something?
7 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
8 A. Yeah, it's just a message
9 board, pretty much, with different
10 tickers have separate rooms.
11 Q. How does that discussion ruin
12 good momentum?
13 A. I'm not sure exactly what he
14 meant, when looking at it.
15 Q. But you agreed with it, right?
16 A. Yeah.
17 Q. So what did you understand him
18 to mean that you were agreeing with?
19 A. Unless that's one of his
20 comments got taken out too.
21 Q. Why do you --
22 A. Oh, I see. So good momentum is
23 it goes up regularly and doesn't shoot
24 up.
25 Q. What's a goof stock to you?
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2 A. I have no idea about that
3 part.
4 MR. KIM: If I had to guess
5 it's probably a typo.
6 THE WITNESS: Oh, yeah, "good
7 stocks". Yeah.
8 Q. So then if you agreed that
9 short squeezes ruin good momentum of good
10 stocks, then are you saying that you
11 don't think AMC is a good stock?
12 A. No. I'm just saying I don't
13 want -- they'd probably take the button
14 off again when I'm trying to invest in
15 that company.
16 Q. Sorry?
17 A. I don't want Robinhood to take
18 off the buy button again while I'm
19 investing in that company, it's not a
20 meme stock.
21 Q. You are saying AMC is not a
22 meme stock?
23 MR. KIM: Objection, form.
24 A. GameStop.
25 Q. Yeah. What about it? Are you
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2 saying you think that GameStop is a meme
3 stock?
4 A. Pretty much I don't want to --
5 we don't want the buy button to be taken
6 off because it's a whatever type of
7 stock, a meme stock or a GameStop stock
8 or whatever the case may be.
9 Q. Is there any discussion of the
10 buy button here or Robinhood?
11 A. On this particular post?
12 Q. Sorry?
13 A. On this particular post?
14 Q. Right. I'm not sure what the
15 connection is to what you were
16 explaining.
17 MR. KIM: You asked him a
18 question and he answered it, so --
19 MS. YOUNG: And I'm trying to
20 understand his answer, Phil.
21 That's why I'm asking him the
22 question.
23 MR. KIM: You don't have to
24 argue with him.
25 MS. YOUNG: I'm not arguing.
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2 A. There is no buy button there.
3 Q. I'm wondering why you
4 mentioned the buy button in this context?
5 A. Because it ruins all good
6 stocks.
7 Q. The short squeeze ruins all
8 good stocks?
9 A. I'm assuming that's what he
10 means.
11 Q. And you consider short squeeze
12 play pump to be nonsense?
13 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
14 A. That's what I wrote at the
15 time. So I'm not really sure what I was
16 --
17 Q. I think earlier you testified
18 that you were interested in participating
19 in a short squeeze to profit from it.
20 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
21 Q. Is there a reason why you also
22 think that short squeeze play pump is
23 nonsense?
24 MR. KIM: Objection, form.
25 A. I mean, after that buy button
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2 it is nonsense because a lot of people
3 lost money. So, you know, you can't
4 really gain nothing from it.
5 Q. So you were worried that a
6 short squeeze or pump play nonsense could
7 lead brokers to restrict purchasing?
8 A. Robinhood.
9 Q. Or TD Ameritrade, for
10 instance, any broker?
11 A. Umm, I'm going to say
12 Robinhood, because that's who took the
13 buy button off and not other brokers, so
14 I can't really say.
15 Q. So you were -- are you saying
16 that "short squeeze play pump nonsense"
17 is why or led to brokers restricting
18 purchasing?
19 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
20 A. I can't speak for other
21 brokers.
22 Q. Let's just say Robinhood.
23 A. Yeah.
24 Q. You are saying that the short
25 squeeze or play pump nonsense could lead
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2 Robinhood to restrict purchasing?
3 A. Yes.
4 MR. KIM: Object to form.
5 Q. And that's what happened with
6 AMC?
7 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And you didn't want all of
10 that -- all that squeeze play pump
11 nonsense, like what happened with AMC or
12 GME, to interfere with GGR, right?
13 MR. KIM: Objection, form.
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And is that what you meant by
16 "I see your point"? Oh, you think that's
17 for a deleted post.
18 A. Yeah.
19 Q. That's just why you said
20 "exactly 100%"?
21 A. Yeah.
22 MS. YOUNG: Let's go to tab
23 25. This will be Exhibit 160.
24 (Exhibit 160, copy of
25 StockTwits messages was received
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2 and marked on this date for
3 identification.)
4 Q. Do you see the document?
5 A. Yeah.
6 Q. Do you recognize this?
7 A. Yeah.
8 Q. And this is a post from March
9 30th, 2023, right?
10 A. Yeah.
11 Q. This is pretty recent?
12 A. A-hum.
13 Q. And the first post is from
14 SevenSXtheGOAT and they wrote "FFIE
15 almost 150 million shares short sheesh."
16 Right?
17 A. Yeah.
18 Q. What is FFIE?
19 A. It's a ticker for Faraday
20 Future Automation Company.
21 Q. Are you invested in that
22 company?
23 A. I was.
24 Q. So then are you understanding
25 this to mean that some investors had a
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2 significant short interest in FFIE?
3 A. Yeah, 150 million shares.
4 Q. And then you write -- you tag
5 him and say, "I think we see a squeeze."
6 What kind of emoji is after that?
7 A. Is it like a --
8 Q. Is it like one of those -- I
9 don't know how to say it, monster faces?
10 A. You tilt your head to the
11 side, are you unsure?
12 Q. Okay. And then, "I've been
13 here for a while. LOL."
14 A. Yeah.
15 Q. Were you saying that you
16 wanted to see a squeeze?
17 A. I wanted the price to go back
18 up to my -- to the money I lost.
19 Q. So since you invested in the
20 company the price had declined?
21 A. Yeah.
22 Q. And there's a lot of short
23 interest around this time?
24 A. Yeah.
25 Q. And you were hoping for there
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2 to be a squeeze so that the price of your
3 shares would increase?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. And had you heard about a
6 short squeeze prior to this time?
7 A. In this company?
8 Q. Yeah.
9 A. No.
10 Q. And then he says "average" and
11 then you say something like ".56 I think,
12 started off a little higher. Hopefully a
13 buck or two comes out of this. I believe
14 in the company just not the economy for
15 it." Right?
16 A. Yeah.
17 Q. What do you mean by that?
18 A. Which part?
19 Q. I guess all of it.
20 A. I got in at a low to high of
21 56 cent, hoping for at least a dollar or
22 two, and I believe in the company but
23 seeing the way things is going in America
24 and around the world and interest rates
25 going up, inflation, it's not a good time
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2 for luxury vehicles.
3 Q. So you are saying that you
4 just -- you hope the price would increase
5 enough that you could sell it and not
6 necessarily hold it longer because the
7 economy didn't look great for it right
8 now, even though you believed in the
9 company?
10 A. Yeah. After the drone power
11 meets and everything.
12 Q. But you thought that with a
13 squeeze you could hopefully get, you
14 know, a buck or two out of it?
15 A. Yeah, make my money back.
16 Q. So you were hoping that in
17 some way you could profit from a squeeze,
18 the potential squeeze in this company?
19 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Is that part of your -- you
22 know, an investment strategy for any of
23 your investments to invest in companies
24 where you think there might be
25 significant short interest and
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2 potentially short squeezes?
3 A. No. That's a term that
4 everybody throws around StockTwits now
5 ever since GameStop came around. It's
6 either short squeezes or little rocket
7 emojis.
8 Q. But that --
9 MS. YOUNG: What did you say,
10 Phil?
11 MR. KIM: I'm surprised we
12 haven't seen any rockets.
13 MS. YOUNG: Right. I'm
14 disappointed.
15 MR. KIM: They're coming up.
16 MS. YOUNG: I don't think so,
17 actually.
18 Q. So do you often invest in
19 companies, you know, when you see a lot
20 of discussion about short squeezes around
21 it, around them?
22 A. No.
23 MR. KIM: Objection to form.
24 I think we're hitting an hour soon,
25 so whenever you want to wrap up
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2 your sort of whatever you're doing.
3 MS. YOUNG: I'm kind of at a
4 good point now actually. So maybe,
5 I'm going to say 15 minutes or so.
6 MR. KIM: Is that too long or
7 too short for you, Mr. Harbison?
8 THE WITNESS: 1:20.
9 VIDEOGRAPHER: All right.
10 Going off the record. The time is
11 2:33 p.m. This is the end of Media
12 Unit 3.
13 (Recess is taken.)
14 VIDEOGRAPHER: We are back on
15 the record. The time is 2:57 p.m.
16 This is the beginning of Media Unit
17 4.
18 Q. Mr. Harbison, did you ever
19 trade AMC options?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Do you remember when?
22 A. Around that same time period.
23 Q. Do you recall whether or not
24 you exercised them?
25 A. No, I couldn't.
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2 Q. You couldn't?
3 A. Yeah.
4 Q. And why is that?
5 A. It wasn't worth it because
6 they halted the stock and brought it back
7 down, so there would be no point in
8 buying them.
9 Q. So you are saying this was in
10 January 2021?
11 A. Around that time, yeah.
12 Q. Is it correct that in January
13 or February 2021 you didn't buy or sell
14 any of the other shares at issue in this
15 litigation?
16 A. What do you mean? What are you
17 talking about?
18 Q. So, for instance, am I right
19 in thinking that in January or February
20 2021 you didn't buy or sell any shares of
21 Bed Bath & Beyond?
22 A. No.
23 Q. Or Blackberry?
24 A. Not that I'm aware of.
25 Q. Or Express?
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2 A. No, definitely not Express.
3 Q. Or GameStop?
4 A. No.
5 Q. Or Kos?
6 A. Not that I'm aware of.
7 Q. Tootsie Roll?
8 A. No.
9 Q. Nokia?
10 A. Not that I'm aware of with
11 that either.
12 Q. Or Travago?
13 A. No.
14 Q. Have you ever purchased
15 options for any of those stocks?
16 A. I can't recall.
17 Q. Did you consider buying any of
18 those stocks in January, 2021?
19 MR. KIM: Objection to form,
20 asked and answered.
21 A. I can't recall.
22 Q. Do you hold any of those
23 stocks today?
24 A. No.
25 Q. Do you still use Robinhood?
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2 A. Yeah.
3 MS. YOUNG: Now, let's go to
4 tab 23. This will be Exhibit 160 --
5 161.
6 (Exhibit 161, Certification of
7 Brian Harbison was received and
8 marked on this date for
9 identification.)
10 A. You said tab 3.
11 Q. It's tab 23 and I think it
12 should be Exhibit 161.
13 Do you recognize this
14 document, Mr. Harbison?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. And is this the certification
17 that you signed authorizing the Rosen Law
18 Firm to file this action on your behalf?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. And do you see that if you
21 look at the first page paragraph 4 it
22 says, "The following is a list of all the
23 transactions Plaintiff has made in the
24 respective stocks during the class period
25 set forth in the Consolidated Complaint:
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. And then if you flip to the
4 next page, you see AMC minimum opening
5 position 201 shares?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And there are other trades
8 that you made in AMC besides these 201
9 shares in January 2021, right?
10 A. I'm not sure. I can't recall.
11 Q. Well, earlier today I think we
12 saw that you bought and sold like 100
13 shares of AMC between the 26th and 27th
14 and bought and sold 200 shares of AMC on
15 the 27th and then bought --
16 A. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought
17 you were talking about after the 28th.
18 Q. Right. But you're only suing
19 on the latter 201 shares of AMC that you
20 traded in January 2021, right?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And why is it that this --
23 you're not suing on the earlier set of
24 AMC shares that you bought?
25 MR. KIM: Objection. I'm going
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2 to direct the -- Mr. Harbison not
3 to answer the question to the
4 extent that he's going to reveal
5 legal strategy or advice that we've
6 given him on this point.
7 So if you have facts, other
8 than what we told you about that,
9 you can tell them. If you don't,
10 then you don't.
11 So with that instruction, you
12 can answer the question.
13 Q. Did you earn a profit on your
14 -- the first 100 shares of AMC that you
15 bought in January 2021?
16 A. Umm, January '21?
17 Q. You can go back to that
18 exhibit if you want. I think it's 152. I
19 think we looked at it earlier and you
20 agreed that you did earn a profit on
21 those trades.
22 A. January 27th or 21.
23 Q. I mean January of 2021 in the
24 first 100 shares of AMC that you bought?
25 A. Yeah.
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2 Q. Did you earn a profit on
3 those?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. And in the second batch that
6 you bought, you earned a profit on those
7 as well, right?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Thank you. And now, when did
10 you first hear about this lawsuit, Mr.
11 Harbison?
12 A. In 2021.
13 Q. How did you hear about it?
14 A. Google.
15 Q. What were you looking for on
16 Google?
17 A. Class action lawsuit. Matter
18 of fact, it was class action lawsuits
19 against Robinhood or lawsuits around
20 Robinhood, rather.
21 Q. And you saw something about
22 the Rosen firm?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. So did you contact the Rosen
25 firm rather than vice versa?
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2 A. I don't recall.
3 Q. You don't recall whether or
4 not you contacted the Rosen firm or
5 whether or not the Rosen firm contacted
6 you first?
7 A. No, I contacted them first.
8 Yeah. I left a note, yeah.
9 Q. And why did you want to be
10 involved in this lawsuit?
11 A. Recoup the money I lost
12 because of Robinhood.
13 Q. How frequently do you
14 communicate with the Rosen firm?
15 A. Umm, often, leading up to the
16 deposition.
17 Q. And have you read the
18 Complaint in this case?
19 A. The retainer, yes.
20 Q. No. I'm sorry. I said the
21 Complaint in this case.
22 A. Yeah, I read that too.
23 Q. How much time have you
24 dedicated to this case outside of
25 preparing for your deposition?
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2 A. I couldn't give an exact
3 number.
4 Q. Can you give an approximate
5 sense?
6 A. I really can't.
7 Q. And do you ever delete your
8 StockTwits posts?
9 A. You can't.
10 Q. You can't?
11 A. No.
12 Q. Like, it's not a feature
13 that's --
14 A. Yeah. They keep it up there.
15 Q. I thought that in one of the
16 prior exhibits that we looked at you
17 thought that something that you had
18 posted would have been in response to
19 somebody else but that that post was now
20 unavailable.
21 How do posts disappear on the
22 site?
23 A. Because if they ban you or you
24 delete your whole profile, it will still
25 show up.
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2 Q. I see. So you have to actually
3 delete your account or be banned,
4 otherwise, you can't selectively delete
5 your posts?
6 A. No.
7 Q. Are you aware a request for
8 production of documents was served on you
9 through your counsel?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. And have you seen those
12 requests?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. What steps did you take to
15 preserve documents after you were
16 informed of the requests?
17 A. I gave my statements, anything
18 they asked me, they needed social media
19 handles, and so on.
20 Q. And did you search things like
21 text messages for any responsive
22 materials?
23 A. No.
24 Q. Why is that?
25 A. I didn't use it for stocks.
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2 Q. You never would have discussed
3 Robinhood or AMC in any text messages
4 with anyone ever?
5 A. No.
6 Q. And what about your email?
7 A. Same.
8 Q. You would have never discussed
9 Robinhood with anybody by email ever?
10 A. No. Only -- only people I know
11 personally trades stocks, except for me.
12 Q. So you're saying the only
13 communication you had with people about
14 investing or stocks would be on one of
15 these platforms like StockTwits?
16 A. Yes.
17 MS. YOUNG: Let's look at tab
18 33, and this will be Exhibit 162.
19 VIDEOGRAPHER: Okay. We need
20 to go off the record. We've lost
21 the court reporter.
22 MS. YOUNG: Okay.
23 VIDEOGRAPHER: She's had some
24 issue, I guess. Going off the
25 record. The time is 3:08 p.m.
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2 (Off the record.)
3 VIDEOGRAPHER: We're back on
4 the record. The time is 3:11 p.m.
5 Q. And Mr. Harbison, can you send
6 private messages on StockTwits or no?
7 A. Yeah.
8 Q. Did you search those messages
9 in looking for responsive material?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. And did you have any
12 responsive messages to produce?
13 A. No.
14 Q. Okay. Now we're going to look
15 at Exhibit 62, which I think should be
16 available now, 162. Excuse me.
17 (Exhibit 162, copy of
18 StockTwits messages, Bates
19 P00001316 was received and marked
20 on this date for identification.)
21 Q. Do you see this document, Mr.
22 Harbison?
23 A. I'm looking at it, yes.
24 Q. And do you recognize this?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. And this is a document that
3 was produced by your counsel that
4 includes some posts or comments that you
5 made, right?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Did you compile this document
8 at the request of your counsel?
9 A. Did I make this document?
10 Q. Or did you identify the posts
11 to be included in this document?
12 A. What do you mean?
13 Q. Were you involved in
14 identifying any of these posts or
15 messages that needed to be produced?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And how did you go about doing
18 that?
19 A. I just told them my own user
20 name for StockTwits and they did the
21 rest.
22 Q. I see. So you didn't say,
23 okay, here are the specific posts or
24 messages from my 4,000 on StockTwits that
25 are relevant here, you just provided your
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2 handle?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And Mr. Harbison, I think most
5 of these or some of these we've seen
6 before. I'm not sure that we've seen this
7 last one.
8 Do you know whether or not
9 this last post is still available on
10 StockTwits?
11 A. It should be. I didn't delete
12 nothing. You can't delete nothing.
13 Q. Are these all from different
14 chains?
15 A. Different chains?
16 Q. Or different -- I don't know
17 how it works on StockTwits in terms of
18 pages or --
19 A. Oh, possibly. I would need to
20 see the ticker or what room it was in.
21 Q. And this doesn't include a
22 number of the posts that we've reviewed
23 today, right?
24 A. Yeah.
25 MS. YOUNG: Okay. I don't
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1 BRIAN HARBISON - CONFIDENTIAL
2 think I have any further questions,
3 Mr. Harbison. Thank you very much
4 for your time today.
5 MR. KIM: I didn't see a
6 rocket emoji on there either. Thank
7 you.
8 VIDEOGRAPHER: We are off the
9 record at 3:14 p.m. And this
10 concludes today's testimony given
11 by Brian Harbison. The total number
12 of Media Units used was four and
13 will be retained by Veritext.
14 (The proceedings were
15 adjourned at 3:14 p.m.)
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212-279-9424 www.veritext.com 212-490-3430
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