Exhibit 14 (Document 568-14): Virtual Videotaped Deposition, Cecilia Rivas, April 3, 2023 — Case No. 1:21-MD-2989-CMA
Summary
The transcript of the virtual videotaped deposition of Cecilia Rivas, taken by Defendant on April 3, 2023 in In re January 2021 Short Squeeze Trading Litigation, Case No. 1:21-MD-2989-CMA, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, filed as Exhibit 14 (Document 568-14, entered June 8, 2023). Kathleen E. Young of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP questions the witness for Robinhood; Laurence M. Rosen and Phillip Kim of The Rosen Law Firm appear for plaintiffs. Early questions cover how she prepared, including meetings with counsel and a review of her social media posts, and her résumé is marked as Defendant's Exhibit 68. The deposition ends at 2:30 p.m., and Mr. Rosen designates the transcript Confidential under the protective order. The exhibit is 188 pages.
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
- Date
- 2023-06-08
Cite this document
“Exhibit 14 (Document 568-14): Virtual Videotaped Deposition, Cecilia Rivas, April 3, 2023 — Case No. 1:21-MD-2989-CMA.”
Original at archive.org, dated 2023-06-08. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2023-06-08-covid-era-misc-e6587bd0-1/
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Case 1:21-md-02989-CMA Document 568-14 Entered on FLSD Docket 06/08/2023 Page 1 of
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Exhibit 14
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1
2 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
3 Case No. 1:21-MD-2989-CMA
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x
4 IN RE JANUARY 2021 SHORT SQUEEZE
5 TRADING LITIGATION
6 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x
7 April 3, 2023
10:15 a.m.
8
9 ***** CONFIDENTIAL *****
10
11 Virtual Videotaped Deposition of
12 CECILIA RIVAS, taken by Defendant, pursuant
13 to Notice, held remotely, before Sharon
14 Pearce, RDR, CRR, CRC, NYRCR, a Registered
15 Diplomate Reporter, Certified Realtime
16 Reporter, and Notary Public of the State
17 of New York.
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
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2 A P P E A R A N C E S:
3
4 THE ROSEN LAW FIRM
Attorneys for Plaintiffs
5 275 Madison Avenue
40th Floor
6 New York, New York 10016
7 BY: LAURENCE M. ROSEN, ESQ.
PHILLIP KIM, ESQ.
8
9
10 CRAVATH, SWAINE & MOORE LLP
Attorneys for Defendants
11 825 Eighth Avenue
Suite 4043B
12 New York, New York 10019
13 BY: KATHLEEN E. YOUNG, ESQ.
SHUYU SUN, ESQ.
14
15
16
17
18 ALSO PRESENT:
19 ZEF COTA, Videographer
20
* * *
21
22
23
24
25
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2 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: Good morning.
3 We are going on the record at
4 10:15 a.m. on April 3, 2023. Please
5 note that the microphones are
6 sensitive and may pick up whispering
7 and private conversations. Please
8 mute your phones at this time. Audio
9 and video recording will continue to
10 take place unless all parties agree to
11 go off the record.
12 This is Media Unit 1 of the
13 video recorded deposition of
14 Cecilia Rivas taken by counsel in the
15 matter of In Re January 2021 Short
16 Squeeze filed in the United States
17 District Court for the Southern
18 District of Florida, Case No.
19 1:21-MD-2989-CMA. The location of
20 this deposition is 825 Eighth Avenue,
21 New York, New York.
22 My name is Zef Cota representing
23 Veritext, and I am the videographer.
24 The court reporter is Sharon Pearce
25 from the firm Veritext. I am not
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2 authorized to administer an oath. I
3 am not related to any party in this
4 action, nor am I financially
5 interested in the outcome.
6 Counsel and all present,
7 including remotely, will state their
8 appearances for the record, beginning
9 with the noticing attorney.
10 MS. YOUNG: Kathleen Young from
11 Cravath, Swaine & Moore on behalf of
12 Robinhood. I'm also here with my
13 colleague, Shuyu Sun.
14 MR. ROSEN: Laurence Rosen from
15 the Rosen Law Firm on behalf of
16 Ms. Rivas.
17 THE WITNESS: Cecilia Rivas.
18 MR. ROSEN: And Phil Kim is
19 listening in on Zoom.
20 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: Will the
21 court reporter please swear in the
22 witness and then counsel may proceed.
23
24
25
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2 C E C I L I A R I V A S,
3 having first been duly sworn by
4 Sharon Pearce, the Notary Public,
5 was examined and testified as
6 follows:
7 EXAMINATION
8 BY MS. YOUNG:
9 Q. Thank you.
10 Good morning, Ms. Rivas. As I
11 mentioned, my name is Kathleen Young. I'm
12 an attorney from Cravath, and we're here
13 representing defendants in this matter.
14 Can you please state your full
15 name for the record.
16 A. Cecilia Rivas.
17 Q. And what's your current address?
18 A.
19 .
20 Q. And have you ever been deposed
21 before?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. On how many occasions?
24 A. Once.
25 Q. What kind of matter was that?
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2 A. It was a civil suit related to a
3 child welfare case.
4 Q. And were you a party or a
5 witness?
6 A. A witness.
7 Q. Witness?
8 CERTIFIED STENOGRAPHER: I'm
9 sorry. What case was that?
10 THE WITNESS: It was a civil
11 suit related to a child welfare case.
12 Q. So you are probably familiar
13 with the rules of the road, but I'll go
14 over some basics before we begin just as a
15 refresher.
16 You understand that you've been
17 sworn in and the testimony you'll give
18 today is under oath; right?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. And is there any reason why you
21 can't give complete and truthful testimony
22 today?
23 A. No.
24 Q. You don't have any condition
25 that would prohibit or prevent you from
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2 providing true and complete testimony?
3 A. No.
4 Q. And the court reporter is taking
5 down everything we say, so it's important
6 that you provide an actual verbal
7 response, so, you know, rather than
8 shaking your head or nodding, that sort of
9 thing, since that won't be picked up on
10 record.
11 A. Okay.
12 Q. During the course of the
13 deposition, Mr. Rosen may object to the
14 form of the question that's asked. That
15 objection is just for the record. You
16 should still answer the question unless he
17 specifically instructs you not to answer
18 on the basis of privilege.
19 Does that all make sense?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. If you don't understand a
22 question I ask, just let me know, and I'll
23 try to clarify it. And if you don't hear
24 a question fully, just ask me to repeat
25 it.
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2 A. Okay.
3 Q. And if you allow me to just
4 finish each question before answering, you
5 know, I'll try to do the same and let you
6 finish your answers before posing another
7 question. And if you need to take a break
8 at any point during the deposition, that's
9 completely fine. It just can't be while
10 an actual question is pending.
11 A. Okay.
12 Q. So what steps did you take, if
13 any, to prepare for your deposition today?
14 A. I reviewed documents and met
15 with my attorneys.
16 Q. How many -- on how many
17 occasions did you meet with counsel?
18 A. To prepare for this deposition
19 specifically?
20 Q. Yes.
21 A. Twice.
22 Q. Twice?
23 And was that with Mr. Rosen?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Only Mr. Rosen, or was anybody
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2 else present?
3 A. Others were present.
4 Q. Do you recall who was there?
5 A. Yes. Michael Cohen, and on one
6 of the occasions, Phillip Kim, and on the
7 other, Robin Howard.
8 CERTIFIED STENOGRAPHER: I'm
9 sorry. Who?
10 THE WITNESS: Robin Howard.
11 MR. ROSEN: It's actually
12 Howell.
13 THE WITNESS: Howell. Thank
14 you.
15 Q. I was impressed that you got so
16 many, actually.
17 How long were those meetings?
18 A. One was an hour and a half and
19 one was about three hours.
20 Q. And did you speak with anybody
21 else in preparation for this deposition?
22 A. No.
23 Q. And you said that you reviewed
24 some documents in preparation for the
25 deposition.
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2 Did any of those documents help
3 refresh your recollection about past
4 events?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. What kind of -- or do you recall
7 those documents specifically that
8 refreshed your recollection?
9 A. Social media posts.
10 Q. Anything specific?
11 A. I don't -- off the top of my
12 head, I can't say what --
13 Q. Okay.
14 A. I remembered honestly nothing
15 about what I had posted on social until I
16 reviewed them.
17 Q. Understood.
18 Did you take any other
19 preparatory steps for the deposition that
20 we haven't already discussed?
21 A. No.
22 Q. And have you discussed this
23 lawsuit with anybody other than your
24 lawyers?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. And with whom have you spoken
3 about this lawsuit?
4 A. My husband.
5 Q. Anything specific or just that,
6 you know, you're coming to New York for
7 this deposition?
8 MR. ROSEN: Objection. So
9 there's a spousal privilege. So the
10 specifics of your conversation are
11 privileged.
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. But you have spoken to him about
14 your participation in this lawsuit.
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Have you ever been a plaintiff
17 in a lawsuit before?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. And what kind of lawsuit?
20 A. It was a dispute over a medical
21 bill.
22 Q. Was that the only time you've
23 ever been a plaintiff in a lawsuit?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Okay. Who were you suing?
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2 A. It was a hospital.
3 Q. And what were the actual claims,
4 if you recall?
5 A. That they basically were
6 fraudulent, like, that they had me write
7 my father's name and then claimed that it
8 was his signature.
9 Q. I see.
10 Have you ever been sued before?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. How many occasions?
13 A. Once.
14 Q. What kind of action?
15 A. It was the same case.
16 Q. Oh.
17 A. So it was the hospital suing me,
18 yes, and me suing back.
19 Q. I see. So it was a cross -- you
20 sued them in response to their suit
21 against you?
22 A. Correct.
23 Q. Understood.
24 Have you ever been a class
25 representative before?
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2 A. No.
3 Q. Have you ever -- have you ever
4 otherwise participated in a class action
5 lawsuit?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. In what capacity?
8 A. As a class member, receiving a
9 postcard in the mail.
10 Q. What suit, if you recall?
11 A. There has been a couple. One
12 was Facebook over using facial recognition
13 technology in Illinois. Another was,
14 like, a car part.
15 Q. Got it.
16 MS. YOUNG: Shuyu, can we go
17 ahead and mark Tab 29. I think this
18 will be Exhibit 67.
19 (Defendant's Exhibit 67,
20 LinkedIn profile, was hereby marked
21 for identification, as of this date.)
22 Q. This will be your version.
23 MR. ROSEN: So whenever you get
24 an exhibit to look at, just read it
25 through to make sure you understand
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2 what you're reading.
3 THE WITNESS: Okay.
4 Q. Ms. Rivas, can you identify this
5 document?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Is it your LinkedIn profile?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Are you currently employed at
10 Casey Family Programs?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And what is Casey Family
13 Programs?
14 A. It's an operating foundation
15 that works on child welfare system reform.
16 Q. Is it a nonprofit?
17 A. Yes. It's a nonprofit operating
18 foundation.
19 Q. And so I guess you said that
20 it's -- works on the child welfare system
21 reform; right?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. So is it a mission-focused
24 organization? Would you characterize it
25 as such?
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2 A. I suppose that sounds, like, an
3 accurate --
4 Q. Okay.
5 A. -- term.
6 Q. What position do you hold?
7 A. I'm a national partnership
8 advisor.
9 Q. And what does that mean?
10 A. It means that I manage our
11 relationships with a group of external
12 partners, advocacy organizations, and
13 professional organizations that share our
14 mission and goals.
15 Q. And you've been in that role
16 since February of 2022?
17 A. Correct.
18 Q. And is that a full-time
19 position?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And I'd like to ask you about
22 some of your work experience before Casey
23 Family Programs, but let's maybe walk
24 through that experience with your résumé.
25 And so this will be 68.
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2 (Defendant's Exhibit 68, Résumé
3 of Cecilia Rivas, Bates P00001092, was
4 hereby marked for identification, as
5 of this date.)
6 Q. And can you identify this
7 document?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. This is your résumé?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. And I don't think this résumé
12 mentions Casey Family Programs.
13 Has it just not been updated
14 since you started working there in
15 February 2022?
16 A. Correct.
17 Q. Okay.
18 A. This was my most up-to-date
19 résumé as of when I was asked for it.
20 Q. And understanding that it's, you
21 know, not completely up to date, does the
22 information contained here otherwise
23 accurately reflect your professional
24 experience and qualifications?
25 A. It does.
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2 Q. Okay. So let's talk about some
3 of those prior jobs.
4 Can you tell me about your
5 experience at the Youth Law Center?
6 A. Sure. I was the implementation
7 director for a foster care reform and
8 improvement initiative called the Quality
9 Parenting Initiative. So we were focused
10 on ensuring that children had excellent
11 parenting every day while in foster care.
12 So I worked with different states that
13 were contracting with the Youth Law Center
14 to implement the Quality Parenting
15 Initiative.
16 Q. And that's what QPI stands for.
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Okay. And you were in that role
19 for about two years?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And what about your position at
22 the Philadelphia Department of Human
23 Services?
24 A. I had a couple of positions
25 there. So I started out as the resource
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2 development administrator, which meant
3 that I was focused on developing the
4 network of resource homes for children in
5 foster care. And then I became the
6 director of intervention and resource
7 development, which means that I worked on
8 ensuring an array of evidence-based
9 interventions for children and families
10 involved in the child welfare system as
11 well as continuing to oversee development
12 of resource homes.
13 Q. Got it.
14 And prior to working at the
15 Philadelphia Department of Human Services,
16 you worked as a CUA case management
17 supervisor?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. On the next page.
20 A. Yes. A community umbrella
21 agency case management supervisor.
22 Q. You anticipated my next
23 question.
24 And you held that job for close
25 to four years?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. And what were your main
4 responsibilities?
5 A. So I supervised a seven-member
6 case management team, and they managed
7 cases ranging from in-home services for
8 families with, you know, at risk of
9 placement to foster care cases, kinship
10 cases, adoption cases, and/or youth.
11 Q. And before that, you were a
12 therapist working in Chicago; right?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. That was at One Hope United?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. What is that?
17 A. It's another -- it's a nonprofit
18 that does community-based foster care and
19 child welfare and mental health services.
20 Q. And you have a master's in
21 social work; right?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. What drew you to social work?
24 A. Wanting to, you know, advocate
25 for children and families who were facing
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2 injustices and wanting to help children
3 and their families be, you know, safe and
4 healthy and thrive.
5 Q. And the master's in social work,
6 that's the highest level of education
7 you've obtained; right?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And you received that degree in
10 2011 from the University of Central
11 Florida?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And you also have a BA in
14 history with a minor in women's studies
15 from the University of Central Florida as
16 well; right?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And you graduated in 2009?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Got it.
21 And you're also licensed in
22 Pennsylvania as a clinical social worker;
23 right?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Okay. Do you have any other
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2 educational credentials, like licenses or
3 certifications, that sort of thing?
4 A. No.
5 Q. You don't have any
6 certifications or licenses that relate to
7 finance; right?
8 A. No.
9 Q. Ms. Rivas, do you have a
10 Facebook account?
11 A. Yes, I do.
12 Q. Do you recall your username or
13 handle?
14 A. I don't recall my username or
15 handle.
16 Q. Okay.
17 MS. YOUNG: Let's take a look,
18 Shuyu, at 23. This will be
19 Exhibit 69.
20 (Defendant's Exhibit 69,
21 Facebook profile page, was hereby
22 marked for identification, as of this
23 date.)
24 Q. Do you recognize this document,
25 Ms. Rivas?
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2 A. I do.
3 Q. Is this your Facebook profile
4 page?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Okay. How often do you use
7 Facebook?
8 A. I look at it every day.
9 Q. Okay. Do you ever use Facebook
10 to research the stock market?
11 A. No.
12 Q. You don't use it to, you know,
13 research investment strategies or possible
14 investments, anything like that?
15 A. I see people talking about
16 investments and, you know, sometimes chat
17 with people, but not in a very
18 sophisticated way. Like, I wouldn't call
19 it investment research.
20 Q. Got it.
21 Have you ever posted anything on
22 Facebook that relates to investing?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. How frequently, would you say?
25 A. I think only during the
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2 situation with Robinhood and GameStop and
3 then back during the Occupy Wall Street
4 protests. I would have been posting about
5 that as well.
6 Q. Got it.
7 Outside of those two time
8 periods, you don't recall ever posting
9 about --
10 A. I don't recall ever posting, no.
11 Q. Do you ever delete posts or
12 comments that you post on Facebook?
13 A. I have.
14 Q. Anything -- have you ever
15 deleted anything investment related?
16 A. No.
17 Q. Okay. Do you have a Twitter?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Okay.
20 MS. YOUNG: Shuyu, can we look
21 at Tab 25, which has been previously
22 marked as Exhibit 2.
23
24
25
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2 (Defendant's Exhibit 2, A letter
3 dated February 27, 2023, was
4 previously marked for identification.)
5 Q. So I just put in front of you,
6 Ms. Rivas, a letter that your counsel
7 previously provided in this action on
8 February 27th of 2023 -- you can see that
9 at the top -- that lists social media
10 handles that you've used.
11 If you take a look at page 2, do
12 you see your name?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. And the handle of your Twitter
15 account that's provided here is
16
17 Is that the correct account
18 name?
19 A. I'm not sure. I'm not sure if
20 my name is spelled that way in the account
21 name.
22 Q. I got it. Okay.
23 MS. YOUNG: Let's take a look at
24 Tab 26, Shuyu, which should be
25 Exhibit 70.
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2 (Defendant's Exhibit 70, Twitter
3 account web page, was hereby marked
4 for identification, as of this date.)
5 Q. Do you recognize this document?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Is this your Twitter page?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And can you please read the
10 handle on this page, which is top --
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. -- left side.
13 A.
14 Q. And the account name is
15 rather than
16
17 A. Yes.
18 Q.
19 Okay. Thank you?
20 Is there any significance in the
21 ?
22 A. It was my
23 Q. Okay. I see.
24 A. Philadelphia.
25 Q. Is this the only account you
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2 have on Twitter?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Have you ever Tweeted from this
5 account?
6 A. I have.
7 Q. Is it just that it's private and
8 that's why we can't see it?
9 A. I'm not sure if it's private or
10 if I deleted Tweets. But I know I Tweeted
11 when I first started at DHS.
12 Q. And when was that?
13 A. That was -- well, I started in
14 November 2017. It would have been
15 sometime while I was a resource
16 development administrator between
17 November 2017 and 2018.
18 Q. But you don't know if there's
19 any Tweets that are currently available or
20 still posted on your Twitter profile.
21 A. I can't remember if I deleted
22 them or if they're just not visible
23 publicly.
24 Q. I see.
25 Do you ever use Twitter to
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2 research the stock market?
3 A. No.
4 Q. Or investment strategies?
5 A. No.
6 Q. Do you have a Reddit account?
7 A. I do.
8 Q. Do you recall your handle?
9 A.
10 .
11 Q. Got it. Okay.
12 CERTIFIED STENOGRAPHER: I'm
13 sorry. Could you repeat that handle.
14 THE WITNESS: It's
15 Q. And do you ever use Reddit to
16 research the stock market?
17 A. No.
18 Q. Or investment strategies?
19 A. No.
20 Q. Have you ever posted or
21 commented on anything on Reddit that
22 relates to investing?
23 A. No.
24 Q. Have you ever viewed discussions
25 on Wallstreetbets on Reddit?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. When did you first learn about
4 Wallstreetbets?
5 A. January 2021.
6 Q. How did you learn about it?
7 A. Either seeing friends write
8 about it or in, like, you know, mainstream
9 media articles. I don't remember which.
10 Q. How closely did you follow that
11 sub-Reddit during that period?
12 A. I read it every day.
13 Q. Every post or just --
14 A. Looked at it every day.
15 Q. Okay.
16 A. I wouldn't say I read every
17 post.
18 Q. Since January of 2021 or
19 February of 2021, have you followed --
20 gone back and looked at Wallstreetbets?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. How frequently?
23 A. Occasionally, I think, during
24 the rest of 2021. I don't believe I've
25 looked at it since then.
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2 Q. Got it.
3 Do you ever delete posts or
4 comments on Reddit?
5 A. No.
6 MS. YOUNG: Let's go ahead and
7 mark 30, which I think is 71.
8 (Defendant's Exhibit 71, Reddit
9 account web page, was hereby marked
10 for identification, as of this date.)
11 MR. ROSEN: This is 71?
12 MS. YOUNG: Yes.
13 Q. The account -- well, I think
14 it's similar. But if you look in the
15 upper right-hand corner, do you see
16 "u/Cat-nap-215"?
17 A. I do.
18 Q. Is that your profile -- your
19 handle?
20 A. It is.
21 Q. Got it.
22 And under "Cake day," it says
23 July 21, 2021.
24 Does that indicate that that's
25 when you created this account?
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2 A. I don't know what that
3 indicates.
4 Q. Do you recall creating an
5 account prior to that time?
6 A. I had an account prior to that
7 time.
8 Q. Do you know if it was this
9 account or a different account?
10 A. I vaguely remember changing my
11 username at one point.
12 Q. Got it.
13 A. I don't remember if I, like,
14 created a different account or -- and I --
15 now that I look at this, I remember this
16 post, but I had completely forgotten it.
17 Q. Understood.
18 MS. YOUNG: Let's mark Tab 24,
19 Shuyu. This will be 72.
20 (Defendant's Exhibit 72, Reddit
21 comment, was hereby marked for
22 identification, as of this date.)
23 Q. And do you recognize this
24 account?
25 A. Yes. No. I'm sorry. Let me
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2 look at it for a second.
3 Q. Sure.
4 A. Yeah. It looks like it's a
5 different username. So maybe this is
6 where I created one under a different
7 name. This is not ringing a bell.
8 Q. The handle of it is
9 ; right?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. But you're not sure if this is
12 your account?
13 A. Maybe? It's a long time ago,
14 and it's not -- I don't remember.
15 Q. Could you read the date below
16 "Cake day."
17 A. .
18 Q. And that was the day before the
19 class period in this case; right?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And if you look kind of beneath
22 "New," looks like there's a post that
23 relates to Robinhood.
24 A. I'm sorry. Which exhibit are
25 you on now? 72 or 71?
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2 Q. 72. So if you look at --
3 there's a -- you commented on "Robinhood's
4 Guinea Pig for Upending Public Offerings."
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. But you're not sure if this was
7 your account?
8 A. I mean, it says so it's
9 probably my account. I truly do not
10 remember this at all.
11 Q. That's not on the list, though,
12 on -- of handles on Exhibit 2; right?
13 A. No. I did not provide this,
14 because I completely forgot about it.
15 Q. Got it.
16 Do you have an Instagram
17 account?
18 A. I do.
19 MS. YOUNG: Shuyu, let's mark
20 Tab 28. 73.
21 (Defendant's Exhibit 73,
22 Instagram account web page, was hereby
23 marked for identification, as of this
24 date.)
25 Q. And while we're waiting for
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2 that, have you ever posted on Instagram?
3 A. I can't remember if I've ever
4 posted. I certainly don't post much.
5 Q. More of a lurker?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Me as well. Oh, wait. I should
8 be giving you this one.
9 MR. ROSEN: This is 73?
10 MS. YOUNG: Yeah. 73.
11 Q. Is this your handle here?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And that's
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. This is the only account you
16 use?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Okay. Do you ever use Instagram
19 to research the stock market?
20 A. No.
21 Q. Or investment strategies?
22 A. No.
23 Q. And do you have a TikTok?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Okay.
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2 MS. YOUNG: Shuyu, let's mark
3 Tab 27. This will be 74.
4 (Defendant's Exhibit 74, TikTok
5 account page, was hereby marked for
6 identification, as of this date.)
7 Q. Do you ever post on TikTok?
8 A. No.
9 Q. Is this your handle, ?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Do you ever use TikTok to
12 research the stock market?
13 A. No.
14 Q. Or investment strategies more
15 generally?
16 A. No.
17 Q. Do you ever delete posts or
18 comments on TikTok?
19 A. No.
20 Q. Do you use any other social
21 media?
22 A. Off the top of my head, nothing
23 is coming to mind. But let me double
24 check this exhibit.
25 No.
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2 Q. You don't have a Discord
3 account?
4 A. No. I've never used Discord.
5 Q. Or a YouTube account?
6 A. I may have a YouTube account. I
7 don't watch it much.
8 Q. Got it.
9 A. I don't watch it at all, I
10 should say.
11 Q. Do you invest in the stock
12 market?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. When did you first start
15 investing?
16 A. August 2020.
17 Q. Why did you start investing?
18 A. I was, you know, stuck at home
19 during a pandemic and got a couple of
20 stimulus checks and the first time decided
21 to take that step.
22 Q. And how did you first start
23 investing?
24 A. I had a Robinhood account. I
25 downloaded Robinhood -- I downloaded
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2 Robinhood in 2018, but I did not put money
3 into it until August 2020.
4 Q. Do you recall why you opened an
5 account in 2018 if you didn't start
6 actually trading until a couple of years
7 later?
8 A. A friend wanted the, you know,
9 credit for referring me, so I downloaded
10 it but didn't -- at that point, I
11 definitely did not have the money to put
12 into the stock market.
13 Q. You're a better friend that I
14 was -- than I would be. I'm not sure that
15 I would open an account. But --
16 A. Well, I didn't ultimately put
17 any money in it, so they probably didn't
18 get the bonus.
19 Q. And are you still a Robinhood
20 user?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. How frequently do you use
23 Robinhood?
24 A. Hardly ever. I just have one
25 stock left in there.
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2 Q. And has your usage kind of waxed
3 and waned over time? Like, were there
4 periods where you were using Robinhood
5 more frequently?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And when was that?
8 A. I was using Robinhood more
9 frequently from August 2020 when I first
10 got onto the platform until January, and
11 then in February, I switched over to
12 Fidelity and, you know, don't use
13 Robinhood too much to look at stocks
14 anymore.
15 Q. So focusing just on that
16 August 2020 to January 2021 period, how
17 frequently would you say you used it?
18 A. Daily.
19 Q. And by daily --
20 A. Sorry. But when you say used,
21 do you mean, like, buying and selling, or
22 do you mean looking at the app?
23 Q. You anticipated my next
24 question.
25 So I should say when you would
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2 go on to Robinhood onto the app, was it
3 just checking your portfolio most of the
4 time or actively trading?
5 A. Most of the time, it was just
6 looking at stocks.
7 Q. And how frequently would you say
8 approximately you traded on the app back
9 during that period between August 2020 and
10 January of 2021?
11 A. There were days where -- or,
12 like, weeks where I would, you know, trade
13 every day. It was kind of that
14 gamification where, like, I would see if I
15 could make a little bit of money here and
16 there on stocks.
17 Q. Got it.
18 A. So waxed and waned, I would say.
19 Q. And there were times I assume
20 that you would just open the app just to
21 take a look at your portfolio.
22 A. Just to take a look at stocks in
23 general, not necessarily even my
24 portfolio.
25 Q. So what features did you use on
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2 the app, if you recall, when you were
3 using it more regularly?
4 A. Creating watch lists and then
5 opening stocks to see how they were doing.
6 Q. Did you ever review
7 company-specific information on the app?
8 A. Company-specific information,
9 like -- like, where they would post, you
10 know, SEC filings and that kind of thing?
11 Q. Yeah, stuff like that.
12 A. I've done that with my brother's
13 company, but besides that, I don't think
14 I've ever looked at that type of -- like,
15 gone that far down the rabbit hole on any
16 stocks.
17 Q. And what about more general news
18 that might be posted about certain
19 companies on the app?
20 A. Yeah. I would sometimes click
21 on the news.
22 Q. Did you subscribe to Robinhood
23 Snack newsletters, if you recall?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Did you review those?
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2 A. Yes. I wouldn't say I
3 subscribed. I think Robinhood put me on
4 the list, but I did not unsubscribe.
5 Q. Understood.
6 You mentioned a Fidelity
7 account.
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Is that your only other
10 brokerage account that you've ever had?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And --
13 A. No. I'm sorry. I created a --
14 that's right. I'm sorry. I created,
15 like, later on, after this -- after the
16 period that I was asked for documents a
17 public account for the, you know, free
18 opening of stocks, and I think last year,
19 I opened a Webull account, same thing, for
20 those stocks but did not trade on those
21 platforms.
22 Q. So a Webull account and a
23 Fidelity account; right?
24 A. And public.
25 Q. And public.
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2 But you opened the Webull
3 account and the public account
4 approximately when?
5 A. It was after the, like, period
6 of time where I was producing my accounts.
7 But it, like -- later in 2021, I think.
8 This is so long ago.
9 Q. And is it only -- of those
10 brokerage accounts, is the only one that
11 you kind of actively use the Fidelity
12 account?
13 A. Yes. Yeah.
14 Q. And when did you create that
15 account?
16 A. That was right after Robinhood
17 turned off the buy button. So it would
18 have been beginning of February 2021.
19 Q. Got it.
20 And how frequently do you use
21 Fidelity?
22 A. Like, to trade or --
23 Q. Yeah.
24 A. -- looking at it?
25 Q. Trade, I guess.
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2 A. Recently, I haven't done any
3 trading. It's just left the money that I
4 have in there in it.
5 Q. Do you invest on behalf of
6 anyone else?
7 A. No.
8 Q. Does anyone invest on your
9 behalf?
10 A. No.
11 Q. Have you ever hired an
12 investment or financial advisor?
13 A. No.
14 Q. Focusing I guess back in that
15 August 2020 to January 2021 period, how
16 much time approximately did you dedicate
17 to investing?
18 A. August 2022?
19 Q. Oh, I'm sorry. Between
20 August 2020 and January of 2021.
21 MR. ROSEN: Per day? Per week?
22 Per month?
23 Q. Per day, let's say.
24 A. It depended upon the day and --
25 so I -- it's hard to say.
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2 Q. What about focusing in on the
3 January 2021 period? How much time would
4 you guess that you were, you know --
5 estimate that you invest?
6 A. I mean, during that period of a
7 lot of activity, probably a couple of
8 hours. So, like, reading and scrolling
9 and --
10 Q. And since that time, have you
11 dedicated, you know, a couple of hours a
12 day to investing or --
13 A. No.
14 Q. -- less?
15 A. No. Much less.
16 Q. How would you describe your
17 investment strategy?
18 A. I think investment strategy is
19 probably too strong of a term for anything
20 I've ever had.
21 Q. Well, what's your main objective
22 in investing?
23 A. To make money.
24 Q. So when you decide to buy a
25 particular stock, can you walk me through
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2 how you make that decision.
3 A. I buy stocks that I think are
4 likely to go up. It depends upon the
5 stock as to how I make that decision.
6 Q. What factors do you consider
7 when you're evaluating whether or not you
8 think the stock price will increase?
9 A. Whether or not I think it's a,
10 you know, sound or good company, whether
11 or not I support the company in terms of,
12 like, ethics. Like, I'm more likely to
13 invest in a green company. I
14 categorically don't invest in, like, oil
15 or energy. And also with respect to
16 stocks that have a lot of buzz among
17 friends, you know, or, like, Meme stocks I
18 would consider sort of the fun aspect of,
19 like, being a part of excitement or
20 enthusiasm.
21 Q. And --
22 A. So many different factors.
23 Q. And so I guess honing in first
24 on when you said you consider whether or
25 not it's a good company.
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2 By that, do you mean that you
3 agree with their -- you know, what you
4 perceive to be the company's ethics? Is
5 that what you meant by "good"?
6 A. I think the first category that
7 I said of, like, things to consider is do
8 I think -- when I said good, I meant is
9 the business doing well or sound.
10 Q. Financially.
11 A. Yeah.
12 Q. And do you base that
13 determination on things like SEC filings
14 or earnings announcements?
15 A. More like news articles and --
16 yeah, like, news articles and sort of
17 knowledge of the general environment for
18 that, you know, respective industries.
19 Q. And do you consider the
20 company's cash flow projections, things
21 like that?
22 A. No. I am not that -- not that
23 savvy.
24 Q. And a few minutes ago, you
25 did -- you mentioned also the fun aspect
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2 of being -- I think you said being --
3 sorry. I don't want to mischaracterize
4 what you said.
5 A. Part of a lot of enthusiasm.
6 Q. Part of excitement or
7 enthusiasm; right?
8 A. Yeah. Yes.
9 Q. Is that how would you
10 characterize the Meme stock events?
11 A. That was one factor, but not the
12 only factor.
13 Q. And when you mention that, you
14 know, you might hear some buzz about a
15 company from friends and stuff like that,
16 is that often stuff that you would hear
17 online on social media?
18 A. Yeah. That's one place.
19 Q. Where else?
20 A. Sometimes text messages with
21 friends that, you know, I don't have
22 anymore.
23 Q. What do you mean that you don't
24 have anymore?
25 A. I mean my iPhone is set to only
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2 maintain text history for three months, so
3 on a rolling basis, you know. So without
4 that history, I really can't remember what
5 I've received via text message, but mostly
6 social media.
7 Q. Are there any other factors that
8 you consider when you're deciding whether
9 or not to invest in a company?
10 A. I think I hit everything.
11 Q. What about the decision to sell
12 a particular stock?
13 A. I sell when I think it's likely
14 going to not go up anymore.
15 Q. And how do you make that
16 determination, or what informs your view
17 as to whether or not you think the stock
18 price will go down?
19 A. If it seems like there's --
20 sometimes there might be momentum in a
21 downward direction where it seems like
22 investors have lost faith in a company.
23 It might be reading bad news about a
24 company. It might be sometimes that it
25 has gone up so much that I just have a
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2 feeling like this stock can't go up
3 anymore, you know. Surely, it's going to
4 come back down.
5 Q. And are there particular news
6 segments or programs that you follow for
7 investing?
8 A. Not specifically. I mean, I,
9 like, am more likely to read MSNBC News
10 online or, you know, I subscribe to the
11 New York Times and the Washington Post and
12 read their business sections.
13 Q. Do you subscribe to any
14 newsletters about investing?
15 A. I don't think so, no.
16 Q. Or listen to any podcasts about
17 the market or investing?
18 A. No.
19 Q. Do you watch any television
20 shows about investing?
21 A. No. I don't own a TV.
22 Q. I'm impressed.
23 A. Thank you.
24 Q. I think you probably answered
25 this earlier, but you don't follow any
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2 social media sources for advice about the
3 market?
4 A. I don't think I follow anybody,
5 no.
6 Q. Okay. And did this general
7 investment strategy that we just discussed
8 change at all around January of 2021?
9 A. No. I wouldn't say it changed.
10 Q. And are you familiar with a
11 company called GameStop?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. What kind of company is it?
14 A. It's a company that sells games.
15 It's a retail company.
16 Q. Have you ever done any research
17 into GME as a potential investment?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. What did you do?
20 A. Reading news articles and
21 chatter on social media.
22 Q. And approximately when was this
23 that you recall doing this research?
24 A. The first time that I've read
25 about GameStop as a stock as opposed to as
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2 a company at the mall, that would have
3 been January 2021.
4 Q. And what do you recall reading
5 around that time?
6 A. A lot of people believed that
7 the stock was undervalued and poised for,
8 you know, business turnaround. A lot of
9 people believed it was shorted even though
10 it was a company with potential.
11 Q. Did you -- do you recall
12 researching things like earnings
13 announcements?
14 A. No.
15 Q. Or press releases, things like
16 that from the company?
17 A. I don't specifically recall
18 reading press releases.
19 Q. Or company financials that the
20 company put out?
21 A. No.
22 Q. Do you recall any -- and you
23 don't recall any company announcements
24 generally from GME in January of 2021.
25 A. I recall that they were pretty,
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2 like, silent. Like, they did not comment
3 on the sharp price increase. That's all I
4 remember, because I remember thinking
5 that's probably smart of them.
6 Q. Why was that?
7 A. Just because they -- nobody will
8 be mad at them for their statements if
9 they don't make statements.
10 Q. Why do you have a view as to why
11 somebody could be mad at them if they had
12 made a statement about the increase in the
13 stock?
14 A. It was a controversial stock, if
15 you will. Many people wanted it to go up.
16 Many people wanted it to go down.
17 Q. Are you aware of anything GME
18 was doing differently as a company in
19 January of 2021?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. What was that?
22 A. They were trying to pivot more
23 into online sales.
24 Q. And you mentioned a moment ago
25 that you thought that GME was a fairly
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2 controversial stock at this time because a
3 lot of people wanted it to go down.
4 Had you heard about a possible
5 short squeeze in GameStop around this
6 time?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And what did you hear about
9 that?
10 A. The belief that there was a
11 short squeeze.
12 Q. Just generally that there was a
13 short squeeze?
14 A. Yes, that the stock was heavily
15 shorted and that short sellers were having
16 to cover their shorts.
17 Q. Did you want to participate in a
18 possible GME short squeeze?
19 A. I didn't know if there was a
20 short squeeze.
21 Q. But you heard about the
22 possibility of a short squeeze.
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. And to the extent that
25 materialized, were you interested in being
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2 part of that squeeze?
3 A. I liked the idea that shorts
4 were losing money on GameStop.
5 Q. And why did you like that?
6 A. I don't like hedge funds. I
7 don't like anybody on Wall Street. And I
8 like GameStop as a company.
9 Q. And were you aware of any other
10 attempted short squeezes in other stocks
11 around this time?
12 A. I heard things, yeah.
13 Q. Do you recall any of those
14 companies?
15 A. Yeah.
16 Q. Can you tell me what those are?
17 A. AMC, Bed Bath & Beyond, Koss,
18 Express, Trivago, something like that.
19 Those are the ones that come to mind.
20 Q. Do you recall anything about an
21 attempted short squeeze of Blackberry?
22 A. Yes, Blackberry as well. That
23 was another one.
24 Q. Nokia?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. Tootsie Roll?
3 A. Yeah. They sound familiar as
4 you name them, like, oh, right, there was
5 that too.
6 Q. Do you recall any specifics
7 about what you heard about short --
8 potential short squeezes in some or all of
9 those stocks?
10 A. That they were -- you know, the
11 theory was that they were heavily shorted
12 and that people wanted to take advantage
13 of that fact by buying the stock,
14 believing it would go up.
15 Q. And by take advantage of that,
16 do you mean that they were trying to take
17 advantage of the fact that it was heavily
18 shorted to induce a short squeeze to make
19 money or to kind of stick it to hedge
20 funds and other institutional investors
21 that were heavily shorting those stocks?
22 MR. ROSEN: Objection. Compound
23 question.
24 Q. I can break it down.
25 A. Sure.
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2 Q. And by -- well, I'll just ask it
3 more generally.
4 What did you mean by, you know,
5 people were trying to take advantage of
6 that, of the short interest or potential
7 short squeeze in those companies?
8 A. I mean, I -- I can't speak for
9 other people's decisionmaking --
10 Q. Sure.
11 A. -- processes.
12 Q. But you had the impression that
13 there were at least some retail investors
14 that were trying to take advantage of
15 that. I guess I'm just trying to
16 understand what you mean by take advantage
17 of that.
18 A. When I said take advantage, I
19 meant to make a profit.
20 Q. Got it.
21 And by late January of 2021, had
22 you heard that the stock price for any of
23 these companies had increased dramatically
24 around this time?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. Do you recall any news or media
3 attention about the price of any of those
4 stocks increasing beyond what many people
5 thought that they were actually worth?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Do you recall anything specific
8 about that?
9 A. I recall speculation in the
10 media that there was a short squeeze.
11 Q. And is it your understanding
12 that a short squeeze would mean that the
13 price of a stock is driven beyond what it
14 would -- what it's really worth?
15 A. That is my understanding of,
16 like, one aspect of what a short squeeze
17 is.
18 Q. And what about for GME
19 specifically?
20 A. What about it?
21 Q. Would you -- did you -- do you
22 recall media or news attention about the
23 stock price of GME increasing beyond what
24 it was actually worth at that time?
25 A. I recall reading news about
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2 there being a short squeeze. Yeah.
3 Q. And again, just to ensure that I
4 fully understand, your understanding is
5 that if there's a short squeeze, that that
6 means that the price of the stock is --
7 has exceeded what it's actually worth.
8 A. I mean, I think that the idea of
9 what it's actually worth is something that
10 for every stock at all times people will
11 debate over. That's why some people buy,
12 some people sell.
13 Q. I think you have used the term
14 earlier "Meme stock."
15 When did you first hear that
16 term?
17 A. I don't remember.
18 Q. What do you understand a Meme
19 stock to be?
20 A. I understand a Meme stock to be
21 a stock with a lot of retail interest and
22 buzz and excitement.
23 Q. Is it your understanding that
24 Memes are supposed to be funny?
25 A. In -- like, in terms of, like,
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2 posting, you know -- posting images on the
3 internet, that in that sense, a Meme is
4 generally funny. But if you're asking
5 with respect to a Meme stock, no. I don't
6 think that it necessarily means that.
7 Q. You don't think that there's --
8 you didn't think that there was anything
9 funny about Meme stocks.
10 A. Not necessarily.
11 Q. Did you believe any of the
12 stocks we've been discussing today were
13 considered Meme stocks around this time?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Which of them?
16 A. All of the ones that we just
17 named were referred to as Meme stocks, you
18 know, in the media and pop culture.
19 Q. And did you think there was
20 anything funny about these, you know,
21 events that we've been discussing in late
22 January of 2021?
23 A. Did I think there was anything
24 funny? I mean, there were aspects that
25 were funny, yes. I think -- yeah.
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2 Q. Could you expand on that, what
3 you mean by that?
4 A. The idea of hedge funds losing
5 money at the hands of retail investors.
6 You know, like, if that was true, I would
7 find that funny.
8 Q. Funny.
9 A. Yeah.
10 Q. Does that sort of relate to this
11 buzz or the excitement in the online
12 community around this time with respect to
13 these events and sort of momentum around
14 that trading activity?
15 A. What do you mean does it relate
16 to -- like, does me finding it funny --
17 Q. Funny. Yeah.
18 A. -- relate to that?
19 Q. Is that part of what you meant
20 by -- I think earlier you described it
21 participating in some of the stuff was
22 fun --
23 A. Yeah.
24 Q. -- around that time, and it was
25 exciting, and it was part of the --
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2 A. Well, when I said it was fun, I
3 didn't mean that it was funny. But yeah.
4 Q. Okay.
5 A. Yeah.
6 Q. The part that you find funny is
7 more just, you know, hedge funds
8 potentially losing money because of their,
9 you know -- how heavily they shorted these
10 stocks.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Is that fair?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Okay.
15 MR. ROSEN: Can we take a break
16 at some point?
17 MS. YOUNG: Yeah. That's
18 actually a good time. Ten minutes?
19 MR. ROSEN: Sure.
20 MS. YOUNG: Okay.
21 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: We're going
22 off the record at 11:03 a.m.
23 (Recess)
24 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: We're back on
25 the record at 11:19 a.m.
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2 BY MS. YOUNG:
3 Q. And Ms. Rivas, you understand
4 you're still under oath.
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Right? Okay.
7 And have you purchased shares of
8 GME before?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. And when was that approximately?
11 A. Which shares?
12 Q. Well, the first time you
13 purchased GME.
14 A. The first time I purchased GME
15 was January 27th of 2021.
16 Q. Okay.
17 MS. YOUNG: Let's look at
18 Tab 21, Shuyu. This is 75.
19 (Defendant's Exhibit 75,
20 Certification, was hereby marked for
21 identification, as of this date.)
22 MR. ROSEN: Exhibit 75?
23 MS. YOUNG: 75. Yeah.
24 Q. Ms. Rivas, do you recognize this
25 document?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. And can you identify it as a
4 certification you signed authorizing the
5 Rosen Law firm to file this action on your
6 behalf?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. I'm going to direct you to
9 paragraph 4 on that first page. You see
10 where the certification says it lists all
11 the transactions you have made in the
12 affected stocks during the class period
13 set forth in the consolidated complaint?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And at the bottom of the page,
16 that bears your signature there?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And if you look at the next
19 page, is this a complete list of all the
20 transactions you made in the affected
21 stocks during the class period?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And those only included trades
24 in GME; right?
25 A. Well, there was a sale in
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2 February.
3 Q. Right. Just during -- yeah.
4 Trades in GME.
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Right.
7 Okay. And then before we turn
8 to the specific trades, I think you
9 discuss a little bit of research that you
10 did or news articles and such that you
11 read about GME around this time period.
12 Was a lot of that prior to
13 investing in GME?
14 A. I have read articles prior to
15 investing in GME.
16 Q. And was there anything in
17 particular that prompted you to trade at
18 this point in time on January 27th?
19 A. I liked the stock.
20 Q. Can you expand on that? What
21 did you like about it?
22 A. I like GameStop as a company and
23 I believed that the stock would go up.
24 Q. Why did you think the stock
25 would go up?
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2 A. It seemed like there was
3 momentum in an upward direction.
4 Q. And was it your understanding
5 that any of that momentum was driven by
6 the enthusiasm on social media?
7 A. I don't remember, like, my exact
8 thought process about why is it going up.
9 Q. Did you have any understanding
10 that a lot of people on social media were
11 coordinating their trading to drive up the
12 price of GME?
13 A. I don't believe that people were
14 coordinating.
15 Q. Do you think that people were
16 encouraging others on social media to buy
17 GME or hold their shares of GME around
18 this time?
19 A. There were people encouraging
20 others to buy GME.
21 Q. And did you read anything
22 specific about GME on Wallstreetbets prior
23 to buying, you know, your share on the
24 27th?
25 A. I read things about GME on
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2 Wallstreetbets prior to buying on the
3 27th.
4 Q. Can you describe anything that
5 you read with much particularity?
6 A. Not really.
7 Q. But at this point in time, you
8 were aware of a potential short squeeze in
9 GME; right?
10 A. I was aware of speculation about
11 a potential short squeeze.
12 Q. Right. Discussion about the
13 possibility of a short squeeze.
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Okay. Let's look at Tab 10.
16 This will be 76.
17 (Defendant's Exhibit 76,
18 Robinhood trading data, Bates
19 RHMDL00097435.001, was hereby marked
20 for identification, as of this date.)
21 Q. And I can represent to you that
22 this exhibit contains trading data that
23 Robinhood produced in connection with this
24 matter and that the account number in the
25 left-hand column is your Robinhood account
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2 number, but I can also show you one of
3 your account statements if you want to
4 confirm that for yourself.
5 A. It's okay.
6 Q. Okay. And if you look at --
7 A. The account statements don't
8 list, like, order created and order
9 cancelled; right?
10 Q. They don't have the specific
11 times, which is why I'm showing you this.
12 A. Right.
13 Q. But it doesn't have your name on
14 it either. So if you want to just be able
15 to, you know, confirm that this number in
16 the account number field is the one in
17 your statement, then I can provide it to
18 you. But --
19 A. I do believe it's the same
20 account number.
21 Q. And if you look at the seventh
22 column, the one titled "Order Created At
23 (UTC)," that shows the time you place each
24 order in the coordinated universal time
25 zone, which is eight hours ahead of
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2 Pacific Standard Time.
3 And if you look at the trade on
4 the second row, do you see that you put in
5 an order to buy one share of GME at the
6 price of 290 per share?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And you placed that order on
9 January 27th at 14:40 UTC, which is
10 6:40 a.m. Pacific; right?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And just to confirm, you don't
13 really recall your exact thought process
14 about why you chose to buy GME at this
15 particular time; right?
16 A. I don't recall my exact thought
17 process, no.
18 Q. Do you recall anything, like,
19 generally?
20 A. Any what?
21 Q. Anything that motivated you,
22 like, more broadly at that time?
23 MR. ROSEN: Objection. Asked
24 and answered previously.
25 Q. You can still answer.
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2 A. I buy stocks when I think that
3 they're going to go up. So I definitely
4 thought it would go up.
5 Q. And why did you think the price
6 of GME was going to increase?
7 A. Why you said?
8 Q. Mm-hmm.
9 A. I mean, I didn't, like, know for
10 sure. There's no way to know that.
11 Q. But why did you think that at
12 the time?
13 A. Both because it's a stock that
14 I -- or a company that I and a lot of
15 people like and because there was a lot of
16 enthusiasm, a lot of people, like, online
17 and via the media saying that they were
18 buying it.
19 Q. Did you consider this a
20 long-term investment in GME?
21 A. I didn't consider one way or the
22 other. Like, I did not think that far
23 ahead.
24 Q. And if you move on to the fifth
25 row, do you see where you sold one share
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2 of GME at a price of 345 per share?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And that was at 15:52 UTC, which
5 is 7:52 a.m. Pacific; right?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. So that was --
8 A. I'll trust you on that.
9 Q. Yeah. I can represent to you
10 the conversion.
11 But that was less than an hour
12 and a half after you bought that share at
13 6:40 a.m. Pacific; right?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Why did you decide to sell that
16 share of GME so soon after buying it?
17 A. I sell when I believe that a
18 stock is likely to go down. So I was at
19 that point concerned that it would go
20 down, and so that's why I sold.
21 Q. Did you learn anything new about
22 the company that led you to believe it was
23 now overvalued?
24 A. Did I learn anything new, like,
25 as far as reading new financial statements
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2 or something or, like, what do you mean by
3 learning anything new?
4 Q. Was there anything that you
5 learned about GME between when you bought
6 the share, you know, let's say an hour and
7 a half earlier and when you sold it that
8 made you feel differently about its actual
9 value?
10 A. I don't recall specifically why
11 I thought this is the moment where I
12 should sell.
13 Q. But it's fair to say you thought
14 that the price was going to decrease.
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. And do you have any recollection
17 as to why you believed that?
18 A. I don't remember exactly. Like,
19 I don't want to speculate about my thought
20 process between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m.
21 Q. Did you think that the stock
22 price had risen substantially during that
23 short period?
24 A. I did think that that was a
25 substantial gain.
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2 Q. Did you want to cash in on the
3 $55 profit?
4 A. I mean, I cashed in on the $55
5 profit.
6 Q. But you don't recall whether or
7 not that was part of the reason you
8 decided to sell at that time.
9 A. It was a fact at the time that I
10 sold. So I assumed that was part of the
11 reason.
12 Q. Do you often sell stocks within
13 a couple of hours or days after buying
14 them?
15 A. No.
16 Q. Then what -- for, you know, most
17 of the other stocks that you buy, what
18 informs your decision about how long to
19 hold them?
20 A. It really depends on the stock.
21 Q. And was there any reason why you
22 considered GME an exception to your
23 general practice of holding stocks for
24 longer periods of time?
25 A. I don't think I said that I have
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2 a general practice of holding stocks for a
3 long time. Or do you mean an exception to
4 not buying and selling in the same day?
5 Like --
6 Q. I think when I asked you do you
7 often sell stocks within a couple of hours
8 or days after buying them, you said no.
9 MR. ROSEN: Hours or days.
10 Q. Sure.
11 So is it fair to say, then, that
12 for most stocks, you hold them for more
13 than a couple of days?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And is there a particular reason
16 why you treated GME differently than other
17 stocks you've held?
18 A. It was, like, certainly an
19 unusual pattern for a stock. It's very
20 rare that I have a stock that goes up that
21 percent in that short of a period of time.
22 Q. Did you think that that price
23 might be more volatile than other stocks?
24 A. That it would be more volatile
25 than other stocks?
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2 MR. ROSEN: At the time she
3 purchased it?
4 Q. Right, or during this period.
5 Let's say January 27th that the price
6 movement was more volatile than other
7 stocks maybe in your portfolio at that
8 time.
9 MR. ROSEN: It would have moved
10 up?
11 Q. Throughout the day. Up, down,
12 volatile.
13 MR. ROSEN: Before she
14 purchased? Before she sold? You have
15 to be precise.
16 MS. YOUNG: In general
17 throughout the day on the 27th, she
18 bought and sold and bought again on
19 the 27th. So --
20 MR. ROSEN: And the question
21 is --
22 Q. And the question is did you
23 think that the price of GME was relatively
24 volatile at that point in time?
25 A. I would say that it was
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2 volatile. Like, if volatile means
3 particularly going up and down compared to
4 usual intraday changes.
5 Q. Right.
6 A. Then yes.
7 Q. I think that's a fair --
8 A. By that, I --
9 Q. I think that's a fair
10 characterization.
11 Let's move to the eighth row.
12 So you bought one share of GME
13 this time at a price of 350.
14 Do you see that?
15 A. I don't see a price. Oh.
16 Q. You have to go to the other
17 column. 305. Not 350. I'm sorry.
18 A. Okay. Yes. The 305 order
19 price.
20 Q. Yeah.
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And you placed that order on
23 January 27th at 19:40 UTC, which is
24 11:40 a.m. Pacific. And -- well, I'll
25 tell you that that's --
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2 A. I'm trusting you.
3 Q. And that's less than four hours
4 after you sold your share of GME for 345;
5 right?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Do you recall why you decided to
8 buy it again?
9 A. I don't recall specifically at
10 that moment. As I said, I buy a stock
11 when I think it's going to go up at that
12 moment.
13 Q. But earlier in the day, you
14 thought that the stock price was going to
15 decline; right?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And that's why you sold? Is it
18 part of the reason you might have sold at
19 that time?
20 A. Yeah.
21 Q. And do you recall anything
22 happening in those let's call it four
23 hours that made you think it was going to
24 increase again?
25 A. I mean, it was a day with a lot
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2 of talk about the stock, a lot of news
3 coverage about the stock.
4 Q. Do you recall anything in
5 particular in terms of, like, news or
6 media about the stock?
7 A. People were reporting on the
8 fact that it was going up and down
9 rapidly.
10 Q. But you don't recall reading
11 anything in particular, like, specific
12 Tweets or news articles on that day?
13 A. I can't name off the top of my
14 head, like, specific Tweets or news
15 articles.
16 Q. It's a long time ago. I don't
17 expect you to.
18 And so the stock in those four
19 hours had dropped by about 40 bucks a
20 share; right?
21 A. Yeah.
22 Q. Have you heard the expression
23 "buying a dip"?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. What do you understand that to
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2 mean?
3 A. It means buying a stock when it
4 goes down temporarily, believing that it's
5 going go back up.
6 Q. And is this an instance where
7 you recall that you were buying a dip?
8 A. I don't remember if I would have
9 phrased it that way at that time.
10 Q. And at this point in time, did
11 you believe that this -- that it was
12 possible that a short squeeze in GME was
13 still ongoing?
14 A. There was speculation about it,
15 and I was aware that there was speculation
16 about it.
17 Q. Did you want to buy in again to
18 kind of hold before the stock price
19 increased further?
20 A. I only buy when I think that the
21 stock price is likely to go up.
22 Q. And so for each of these
23 transactions on the 27th, you only, you
24 know, bought and sold a single share of
25 GME; right?
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2 A. Correct.
3 Q. Why is that?
4 A. I didn't have a ton of money at
5 that point in my life, and I was, you
6 know, keeping in mind not to invest, you
7 know, too much money when I didn't have a
8 lot to lose.
9 Q. Was part of the reason that
10 you -- that that made sense to you at that
11 time because of the price swings for GME
12 during this period, you know, you thought
13 maybe I should, you know, limit any sort
14 of potential loss?
15 A. I can say at this time in my
16 life, $300 was a lot of money.
17 MS. YOUNG: Let's go to Tab 2,
18 Shuyu, if you wouldn't mind pulling
19 that out. This will be 77.
20 (Defendant's Exhibit 77, A
21 Facebook post dated January 27, 2021,
22 Bates P00001087, was hereby marked for
23 identification, as of this date.)
24 Q. Do you recognize this document,
25 Ms. Rivas?
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2 A. I do.
3 Q. Is this a Facebook post that you
4 posted on January 27, 2021?
5 A. I do. Yes, it is.
6 Q. That's the same day that you
7 made those trades we just discussed in the
8 prior exhibit; right?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Okay. Can you please read aloud
11 the text of the post.
12 A. "I'm holding" and then rocket
13 signs and then "to the moon." Did you
14 want me to read the headline or just the
15 text at the top?
16 Q. Sure. Why not? Throw the
17 headline in there.
18 A. "'Dumb Money' is on GameStop,
19 and it's Beating Wall Street at its Own
20 Game."
21 Q. Thank you.
22 And by "I'm holding," were you
23 referring to holding your share of GME?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. And there are those five rocket
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2 ship Emojis that you just described.
3 Why did you include those in the
4 post?
5 A. It's a, you know, humorous Emoji
6 to use, so that's why I used it.
7 Q. What does "to the moon" mean in
8 this context?
9 A. "To the moon" is an expression
10 that means that a stock is going to go,
11 like, to a higher price or that people
12 will make money.
13 Q. And why did you post this on
14 Facebook?
15 A. I don't remember my specific
16 logic at that moment.
17 Q. I think you testified earlier
18 that aside from the Occupy Wall Street
19 kind of period and then this period, you
20 didn't -- you don't really otherwise post
21 about investing; right?
22 A. Correct.
23 Q. So is there a particular reason
24 why you might have wanted to communicate
25 your intention to hold GME at this point
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2 in time?
3 MR. ROSEN: Objection. Asked
4 and answered.
5 Q. You can answer.
6 A. I don't remember specifically
7 why, like, on that day, I posted this
8 article.
9 Q. Did you want to encourage any
10 other retail investors to either buy GME
11 or hold their shares of GME at this time?
12 A. No.
13 Q. As a no, you didn't want them
14 to, or just you're agnostic?
15 A. Like, I was agnostic.
16 Q. And then this is a New York
17 Times article that you linked to the post;
18 right?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Let's take a look at that
21 specifically.
22 MS. YOUNG: Shuyu, if you
23 wouldn't mind. It's Tab 4. So this
24 will be 78.
25
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2 (Defendant's Exhibit 78, An
3 article titled "'Dumb Money' Is on
4 GameStop, and It's Beating Wall Street
5 at Its Own Game," was hereby marked
6 for identification, as of this date.)
7 Q. Okay. Do you recognize this
8 document?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Is this the article that you
11 linked in the prior exhibit?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And if you linked this to your
14 post, is it fair to say that you read the
15 article?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And it's dated January 27th?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. And the sub-header beneath the
20 title is "GameStop shares have soared
21 1,700 percent as millions of small
22 investors, egged on by social media,
23 employ a classic Wall Street tactic to put
24 the squeeze -- on Wall Street."
25 Do you see that?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. And I'm going to direct you to
4 the first -- that second paragraph here.
5 Do you see where it states,
6 "They are among the millions of amateur
7 traders collectively taking on some of
8 Wall Street's most sophisticated
9 investors -- and, for the moment at least,
10 winning. Propelled by a mix of greed and
11 boredom, gleefully determined to teach
12 Wall Street a lesson, and turbocharged by
13 an endless flow of get-rich-quick hype and
14 ideas delivered via social media, these
15 investors have piled into trades around
16 several companies, pushing their stock
17 prices to stratospheric levels."
18 Do you see that?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. And was it your understanding
21 that this -- around this time, do you
22 recall the stock price of GME soaring to
23 stratospheric levels?
24 A. I don't know if I would have
25 used the term stratospheric levels. Like,
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2 I'm not sure what that means specifically.
3 MR. ROSEN: So Ms. Young, the
4 article says it was posted on
5 January 27, 2021. But it says it was
6 updated October 18, 2021. So it's
7 unclear what aspect of the article was
8 printed on January 27th and what
9 aspect was printed on October 18th.
10 MS. YOUNG: Okay. We can take a
11 look at that at a break. For now,
12 I'll just continue asking her
13 questions about the post.
14 MR. ROSEN: All right.
15 Q. And was it your understanding
16 that this price went up as a result of
17 amateur traders, you know, collectively
18 taking on some of Wall Street's most
19 sophisticated investors, as it put it?
20 A. As I think I said before, I was
21 aware that there was speculation of that.
22 Q. Speculation of retail investors
23 trying to invest to the detriment of these
24 institutional investors? Is that what you
25 mean?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Okay. And could you read the
4 fourth paragraph there that begins "On
5 Wall Street."
6 A. "On Wall Street, individual
7 investors are often derided as 'dumb
8 money,' destined to lose against the
9 highly compensated analysts and traders
10 who buy and sell stocks for a living. But
11 in recent days, individual investors --
12 many of them followers of a popular,
13 juvenile, foul-mouthed Reddit page called
14 Wall Street Bets -- have upended that
15 narrative by banding together to put the
16 squeeze on at least two hedge funds that
17 had bet that GameStop's shares would
18 fall."
19 Q. Thank you.
20 And so at this point in time,
21 you were well aware of this, you know,
22 potential short squeeze in GME, at least
23 as of January 27th; right?
24 A. I was aware of speculation about
25 a short squeeze.
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2 Q. And in the penultimate paragraph
3 on that page, do you see where it states,
4 "On Wednesday, the retail brokerage firm
5 TD Ameritrade put restrictions on the
6 trading of GameStop, AMC and other stocks,
7 citing 'unprecedented market conditions'"?
8 A. Yes, I see that.
9 Q. So at this point in time, were
10 you aware of GME trading restrictions that
11 TD Ameritrade implemented?
12 A. I read the article, so I would
13 have been aware of that sentence in the
14 article. Like, I can say that.
15 Q. Do you recall restrictions on
16 trading GME that any other brokerage put
17 in place on January 27th?
18 A. No.
19 Q. And then if you go to the second
20 page, the fourth paragraph from the
21 bottom, do you see where it says,
22 "Analysts say GameStop shares have become
23 unmoored from underlying expectations for
24 profit that typically determine the value
25 of a stock"?
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2 A. I see that.
3 Q. And so at this point in time,
4 you were aware of at least some analysts
5 that thought that GME stock price was
6 disconnected from the underlying
7 fundamentals of the company?
8 A. Again, I had read that in this
9 article.
10 Q. And if you turn to the next
11 page, could you read the fourth paragraph
12 down.
13 A. "And then there is Wall Street
14 Bets, the wildly popular Reddit forum
15 focused on options trading that has become
16 a sort of public hive mind where retail
17 investors loosely coordinate their
18 collective buying power on targets that
19 are most likely to amplify price pops. In
20 recent weeks, posts began to appear on the
21 forum spotlighting the large amount of
22 GameStop shares held short, and explicitly
23 urging others to buy shares and options to
24 move the price higher."
25 Q. And did you see yourself as
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2 participating in that community on Wall
3 Street Bets?
4 A. What do you mean by
5 participating?
6 Q. Well, did you consider yourself
7 to be some of these retail investors that
8 were coordinating their collective buying
9 power and targets that are most likely to
10 amplify price pops?
11 A. I don't remember if I, like,
12 thought of myself as part of a hive mind
13 or that, like -- yeah. I don't recall my
14 exact thought process.
15 Q. And in the next paragraph,
16 there's a quote that says, "'Rally the
17 troops, my brothers, for the war could be
18 over very soon,' a commentator that goes
19 by Gardeeon wrote on January 19th. 'You
20 control the power, GME is not going to the
21 moon, but to the edge of the [expletive]
22 observable universe.'"
23 This expression "to the moon,"
24 that was also in your post; right?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. Was this a commonly cited
3 expression at this time?
4 A. It was a common expression.
5 Q. With respect to GME specifically
6 or Meme stocks broadly?
7 A. Sorry. I meant with respect to
8 Meme stocks broadly.
9 Q. Got it. But that would include
10 GME.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And let's look at the final
13 paragraph on the next page. There's a
14 quote from a couple that invested in GME.
15 And do you see where it states,
16 "'There's a catharsis to actually making
17 money off their pain a little bit,' he
18 said of his modest earnings from GameStop.
19 His wife put it more bluntly. 'Eat the
20 rich.'"
21 Do you see that?
22 A. I see that.
23 Q. Did that sentiment resonate with
24 you?
25 A. I don't remember, like, exactly
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2 what I was thinking on that day.
3 Q. Earlier, did you testify that
4 you hated hedge funds?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Was your hatred for hedge funds
7 or financial institutions --
8 MR. ROSEN: Objection. Hedge
9 fund is a subset of financial
10 institution. She didn't say she hated
11 all financial institutions.
12 Q. Okay. Did your hatred for hedge
13 funds -- was that part of your interest in
14 holding your GME share?
15 A. Was -- did I hold it because of
16 my hatred for hedge funds?
17 Q. At least in part.
18 A. I don't -- like, I don't
19 remember if that -- if I would have said
20 that at that time.
21 Q. Did you -- at the time, did you
22 hate hedge funds?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Did you want -- did you hope
25 that holding GME or taking a long position
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2 on GME could inflict some losses on hedge
3 funds?
4 A. I always want to see losses to
5 large financial firms and institutions.
6 Q. Got it.
7 MS. YOUNG: Okay. Let's look at
8 Tab 3, which will be 79. Is that
9 right? Yeah.
10 (Defendant's Exhibit 79, A
11 Facebook post, was hereby marked for
12 identification, as of this date.)
13 Q. And do you recognize this
14 document, Ms. Rivas?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Does this document contain
17 Facebook posts from your Facebook feed?
18 MR. ROSEN: Take a look at it.
19 A. Does it contain, like --
20 MR. ROSEN: Before you answer
21 the question, you should look at what
22 she handed to you.
23 A. (Witness perusing document.)
24 Would you say the question
25 again?
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2 Q. Oh, sure.
3 I asked did this document
4 contain Facebook posts from your Facebook
5 feed?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Did you compile this document?
8 A. Did I compile --
9 Q. The screen shots in this
10 document.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Can you explain how you went
13 about searching for the post to include?
14 A. I did a couple of things.
15 First, I, like, scrolled down to the date
16 range that I was asked to find posts for
17 and screen shotted anything that I saw,
18 and then I went to the search function
19 where you can search your own history and
20 typed in every keyword related to, like,
21 the issues at hand that I could think of
22 to make sure that I found posts that were
23 on other people's profiles as opposed to
24 my own. So, you know, typed in different,
25 like, buzz phrases.
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2 Q. Do you recall what keywords or
3 searches you ran?
4 A. I can recall some of them at
5 least.
6 Q. Yeah.
7 A. GME, GameStop, like, both
8 GameStop as a full word and GME, AMC,
9 Robinhood, short squeeze, Reddit, Wall
10 Street. Those are the ones that come to
11 mind right now.
12 Q. Thank you.
13 Does this contain only public
14 posts, or are there any private messages
15 that you exchanged with other Facebook
16 users that are contained in this?
17 A. When you say -- do you
18 mean posts that are private -- like,
19 there's different levels of privacy.
20 Q. I guess I mean messages rather
21 than -- like, DMs rather than --
22 A. None of these are DMs.
23 Q. Right. Did you search DMs?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Okay. And because I think that
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2 these posts span a couple of days, we'll
3 be periodically returning to it. But for
4 now, I'm going to direct you to a post
5 from January 27th, which is on the
6 second-to-last page. So if you look at
7 the Bates on the bottom right-hand corner,
8 it's the one that ends 383.
9 A. Okay.
10 Q. And this message is posted by
11 Nathan Stuckey on January 27th; right?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Who is Nathan Stuckey?
14 A. Nathan Stuckey is a high school
15 classmate.
16 Q. And the person includes a quote,
17 "This country needs unity," and then he
18 writes, "I agree, and this GameStop stock
19 is going through the roof is actually a
20 pretty hefty dose of unity between left
21 and right lower classes."
22 Do you see that?
23 A. I do.
24 Q. And beneath that, there's a
25 thumbs up Emoji that states you besides
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2 it.
3 Does that indicate that you
4 liked Mr. Stuckey's post?
5 A. It does.
6 Q. And what did you understand
7 Mr. Stuckey to be saying with respect to
8 unity in GME stock?
9 A. I mean, like, I understood
10 what -- like, I can't provide further
11 interpretation besides what he said. I
12 can re-tell you what he said.
13 Q. Well, why did you like it?
14 A. The sentiment was -- like, I
15 liked it. I don't remember, like, what I
16 would have said at that time about why I
17 liked it.
18 Q. Did you agree that GameStop
19 stock was creating unity between left and
20 right lower classes at this time?
21 A. I don't remember if I would have
22 said that at that time.
23 Q. Was there any portion of this
24 post that you agree with or endorsed?
25 A. I mean, it seems like he --
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2 like, I hit "like," so I, like, in general
3 liked the sentiment. Is there a specific,
4 like, aspect that I endorse? I don't
5 know. Or that I would have endorsed, I
6 don't know.
7 Q. Did you in general enjoy what I
8 think you described as some of the
9 enthusiasm and the online community around
10 GME at this time?
11 A. Did I enjoy the enthusiasm in
12 the online community? Yeah. I --
13 Q. Specifically related to GME I
14 mean.
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. At the time.
17 A. I like GameStop, so yes.
18 Q. And then underneath that,
19 there's a comment from you stating, "Yes.
20 I've got my one share and I'm holding
21 baby"; right?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And how exactly does that
24 connect to Mr. Stuckey's post?
25 A. He was posting about GameStop
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2 and I was posting about GameStop.
3 Q. And did you believe that by
4 holding onto your share that you
5 were participating in a kind of broader
6 activist movement?
7 A. I don't know if at that moment,
8 I, like, would have said that.
9 Q. Do you feel that way today, that
10 holding onto your share was a means of
11 participating in some sort of social
12 activism?
13 A. I do, yeah.
14 Q. And did you want to hold onto
15 your share of GME to be part of that
16 community of people that felt this way?
17 MR. ROSEN: Objection. Asked
18 and answered.
19 Q. You can answer.
20 A. As I said before, I hold on when
21 I think I'm likely to make money on a
22 stock, and I sell when I'm likely to lose
23 money on a stock or when I've gained
24 enough money.
25 Q. Let's turn to January 28th.
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2 You're aware that Robinhood
3 implemented certain purchasing
4 restrictions on its platform on January
5 28th; right?
6 A. I am. Which -- what did you
7 want me to turn to?
8 Q. Oh, no document yet.
9 A. Okay.
10 Q. Yeah. Just saying the date that
11 I'm turning to in my mind, it's more for
12 my own purposes.
13 Can you describe those
14 restrictions.
15 A. They turned off the buy button
16 so you could not use their platform to
17 purchase GameStop. They implemented other
18 steps, like closing options early and, you
19 know, later on limiting the number of
20 shares that you could buy, but most
21 immediate action that morning was to turn
22 off the buy button.
23 Q. And those restrictions impacted
24 GME; right?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. And do you know how long
3 Robinhood kept those restrictions in
4 place?
5 A. Until February 4th.
6 Q. Did they vary at all during that
7 period from your recollection?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And do you know if any other
10 brokers put in similar restrictions around
11 this time in late January 2021?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Do you recall any of those other
14 brokers specifically?
15 A. I don't recall specifically.
16 Q. And when did you first hear
17 about Robinhood's restrictions?
18 A. The morning of January 28, 2021.
19 Q. And how did you hear about them?
20 A. I don't remember if I heard --
21 like, I don't remember where exactly I
22 heard it first.
23 MS. YOUNG: Let's go to Tab 5,
24 Shuyu. 80.
25 A. Like, page 5 of this?
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2 Q. Oh, no. This is a different
3 one. Sorry. But you might want to keep
4 that just to the fact we'll be turning
5 back to it at some point.
6 (Defendant's Exhibit 80, A
7 Facebook post, was hereby marked for
8 identification, as of this date.)
9 Q. Do you recognize this document,
10 Ms. Rivas?
11 A. I do.
12 Q. And is this a post from your
13 Facebook?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And did you post this message on
16 January 28th?
17 A. I did.
18 Q. And can you read the actual post
19 aloud for me.
20 A. "LOL guys. The class action
21 lawsuit against Robinhood for blocking GME
22 buys was already filed two hours ago.
23 American heros." Diamond hands.
24 Q. What does diamond hands connote?
25 A. Diamond hands means, like,
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2 either holding a stock or, in this case,
3 just more generally, like, enthusiasm.
4 Q. In this case, you think that you
5 are including the diamond hands as a show
6 of enthusiasm?
7 A. Yeah.
8 Q. And by blocking GME buys, were
9 you referring to Robinhood's suspension of
10 the buy button --
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. -- as you sometimes refer to?
13 Okay. And again, I think that
14 this is obvious, but it was your
15 understanding at the time that those, you
16 know, restricted securities included GME.
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Did you also see information on
19 the Robinhood app regarding those
20 restrictions?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Do you recall the substance of
23 any of those posts?
24 A. I remember that they made a blog
25 post at some point that day.
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2 Q. Do you recall reviewing it?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And you recall it referencing
5 GME specifically?
6 A. I don't recall if it referenced
7 GME specifically or if it just talked
8 about their actions on, you know, stocks.
9 I don't remember exactly.
10 Q. Okay. Let's take a quick at Tab
11 6. This has been previously marked in a
12 deposition.
13 (Defendant's Exhibit 6, A blog
14 post titled "Keeping Customers
15 Informed Through Market Volatility,"
16 was previously marked for
17 identification.)
18 Q. Do you recognize this document?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Is --
21 A. Let me finish reading through
22 it. I recognize the first page.
23 (Witness perusing document.)
24 Okay. So what was the question
25 again?
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2 Q. I was going to ask whether or
3 not you recognize this document. And I
4 believe you said yes, but you were
5 reading --
6 A. Yeah. I recognize the, like,
7 blog post portion, so the first two pages.
8 Q. And is it the blog post that you
9 mentioned a few minutes ago?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Got it. Okay.
12 And if you look at the second
13 page, I think in the second paragraph, it
14 says, "We continuously monitor the markets
15 and make changes where necessary. In
16 light of recent volatility, we are
17 restricting transactions for certain
18 securities to position closing only,
19 including" -- and there's a list there
20 that includes GME; right?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Got it.
23 And so at least as of
24 January 28th, you're aware that GME was
25 among the stocks that Robinhood had
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2 implemented restrictions on.
3 A. I was aware of that.
4 Q. And -- you can set that aside, I
5 think.
6 Around this time, do you recall
7 hearing anything about the specific
8 reasons for the Robinhood restrictions?
9 A. Around that time -- specifically
10 which time?
11 Q. 28th, when you heard about the
12 restrictions.
13 A. Do I recall hearing anything
14 about why?
15 Q. The reasons that Robinhood
16 implemented them.
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And what reason did you hear?
19 A. What they wrote in their blog
20 post, so, like, we continuously monitor
21 volatility, and therefore, we're doing
22 this and other, you know, speculation.
23 Q. And did you believe that reason?
24 A. I don't remember exactly what I
25 believed and did not believe.
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2 Q. Fair enough. It was a while
3 ago.
4 Okay. Let's go back to a
5 document we were looking at, not the
6 Facebook post. But let's see. This was
7 76. So it's that printout of that
8 spreadsheet with your trades on it.
9 A. Okay.
10 Q. And earlier, we discussed one
11 share of GME that you purchased and sold
12 on the 27th with a gain of, like, 355
13 bucks I think, and then on the same day,
14 you purchased another share of GME at the
15 price of 305.
16 Does that sound about right?
17 A. Mm-hmm.
18 Q. And then if you look at the
19 fourth-to-the-last row in that
20 spreadsheet, do you see where you placed a
21 limit order to try to sell that one share
22 of GME on January 28th for a thousand
23 bucks?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Is it fair to say that that
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2 price you set of $1,000 for the share was
3 quite a bit higher than what you purchased
4 it for at 305 on January 27th?
5 A. I would say it's about $700
6 higher.
7 Q. Why did you think it was
8 possible that GME stock price had
9 increased so significantly?
10 MR. ROSEN: Objection.
11 A. Yeah. I mean, I don't remember
12 what I, like, would have said at that time
13 about why it was possible.
14 Q. Is it fair to say that you
15 thought that it was possible that it could
16 hit a thousand dollars a share around this
17 time?
18 A. I'm not sure if I, like -- I
19 think I would have thought that it was
20 possible. But the next trade makes me not
21 sure. The next limit sell makes me not
22 sure.
23 Q. The one on the 29th?
24 A. No. Yes.
25 Q. And that makes you less sure
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2 just because it's a lower price? Is that
3 what you mean?
4 A. No. I mean just because it's a
5 joke.
6 Q. Oh. So what's the joke there?
7 What's the price that you placed that
8 limit order for?
9 A. $694.20.
10 Q. And what's the joke?
11 A. It was a humorous -- it was two
12 humorous numbers, like, that people joked
13 about.
14 Q. And were people joking about
15 694.20 on social media?
16 A. That was one place, yeah.
17 Q. Was there anywhere else that you
18 recall seeing this joke?
19 A. I think people made it, like,
20 verbally. I don't remember if I was
21 specifically talking to someone about it.
22 But if I was, they would have been making
23 it verbally.
24 Q. And do you recall placing this
25 order as a joke?
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2 A. I don't recall. Like, it's sort
3 of funny as I look at it.
4 Q. But does that at all relate to
5 your limit order that prior day for a
6 thousand dollars a share?
7 A. I don't remember specifically.
8 Q. Okay. Do you recall telling
9 anybody about the limit order you placed
10 for $694.20 on the 29th?
11 A. No.
12 Q. Do you recall other people
13 trading in similar -- you know, with a
14 similar digit there?
15 A. I do.
16 Q. For GME specifically?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And do you recall learning any
19 information on or around the 28th that
20 made you believe that GME could
21 potentially achieve the
22 thousand-dollar-a-share price?
23 A. Any information -- I mean, not
24 specifically. Like, besides the general
25 speculation, like, not specifically, no.
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2 Q. And by general speculation, do
3 you mean just general social media buzz
4 around GME?
5 A. Yeah.
6 Q. And you placed this limit
7 order -- well, withdrawn.
8 Let's go back to the big
9 social -- the big Facebook --
10 A. The big packet?
11 Q. -- which is -- yeah, packet is I
12 guess a good way of putting it. I think
13 that's 79. And you can turn to the page
14 that ends 365.
15 A. Okay. I'm going to put on my
16 jacket. It's freezing.
17 Q. Oh, yeah. Do you want to get a
18 coffee or tea or anything?
19 A. No. It's okay.
20 Q. And this is a January 28, 2021,
21 post from Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani?
22 A. That's pretty good. Ciruce.
23 Q. Oh, Ciruce. Sorry.
24 Is Mr. Movahedi-Lankarani your
25 husband?
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. And it's a pretty long post that
4 spans a couple of pages if you flip.
5 But before you dig into the
6 substance of the post, if you look to 367,
7 that's where the comments and likes
8 starts.
9 Do you see the thumbs up icon,
10 which is part of the comments, indicates
11 that you liked this post?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Okay. And just above the like,
14 there's a link to a New York Times article
15 titled "The GameStop Reckoning was a Long
16 Time Coming" that's included with the
17 post; right?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Okay. And I don't think we need
20 to go through all of this in a ton of
21 detail. I mean, obviously, you're welcome
22 to read through it. But I'm going to
23 direct you to a couple of portions, if you
24 turn back to 365, which is the beginning
25 of the post.
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2 And looking at the first
3 sentence, do you see where he states,
4 "This is the new Occupy Wall Street.
5 Camping on the streets failed, for what
6 does it mean to occupy the streets when
7 our financial titans can helicopter over
8 the crowds and place trades from anywhere
9 in the world? It means nothing. Instead,
10 Occupy Wall Street Balance Sheets. Make
11 hedge funds feel pain they cannot easily
12 escape. Melvin Capital, which had a huge
13 uncovered short position on GameStop,
14 almost failed this week."
15 Do you see that?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Was it your understanding that
18 your husband was drawing a parallel
19 between Occupy Wall Street -- the Occupy
20 Wall Street movement to a movement
21 coalescing around this time in late
22 January 2021?
23 A. I mean, that appears to be what
24 he is stating, yes.
25 Q. And was it your view that that
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2 movement related to a community of retail
3 investors, you know, organizing on social
4 media to drive up the price of GME?
5 MR. ROSEN: Which movement are
6 you talking about?
7 MS. YOUNG: This analogy that he
8 is drawing between Occupy Wall Street
9 and Occupy Wall Street Balance Sheets.
10 A. Sorry. Say the rest of your
11 question again.
12 Q. Sure. Did this Occupy Wall
13 Street Balance Sheet -- let's call it,
14 like, a movement idea -- that he
15 references here, was it your understanding
16 that that related to the community of
17 retail investors that were organizing on
18 social media to invest in GME?
19 A. I think your -- where I'm
20 concerned is your statement that they were
21 organizing, and I'm not sure what you mean
22 by -- like, your question assumes that
23 people were organizing, and I'm not sure
24 what you mean by organizing.
25 Q. Driving up enthusiasm on social
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2 media for GME. Is that fair?
3 A. People were enthusiastic, yes.
4 People were enthusiastic. There were
5 people who were enthusiastic.
6 Q. And do you recall people on
7 social media around this time encouraging
8 others to buy or hold GME?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. And when he wrote "Occupy Wall
11 Street Balance Sheets. Make hedge funds
12 feel pain they cannot easily escape," what
13 did you understand that to mean?
14 A. I don't remember what I, like,
15 specifically thought at this moment.
16 Q. Sitting here today, what do you
17 understand that to mean?
18 A. Sitting here today, what it
19 says, that, like, Occupy Wall Street
20 Balance Sheets is a way to make hedge
21 funds feel pain.
22 Q. Is pain in your mind in this
23 context synonymous with, like, losses?
24 A. Yeah.
25 Q. And did you believe that
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2 investing in Meme stocks around this time
3 was a way of taking action against, like,
4 Wall Street establishment players?
5 A. I'm not sure if I, like, felt
6 confident of that or would have said that.
7 Q. And did you view your investment
8 in GME as a way of participating in any
9 sort of activist movement against certain
10 financial institutions?
11 A. I'm not sure if I would have,
12 like, framed it in that way at that time.
13 Q. Sitting here today, do you -- do
14 you view your investment in GME as a way
15 of, you know, demonstrating your support
16 for a movement against establishment
17 investment institutions?
18 A. Yeah.
19 Q. And if you flip to the second
20 page, if you look at the very end of the
21 post, your husband writes, "For the
22 record, I have exactly one share of
23 GameStop" --
24 A. Oh, the second page of that.
25 Q. Oh yeah.
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2 A. Sorry. Let me get back to it.
3 Q. Yeah. Not the -- second page of
4 the post. Bates ending 666.
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. And he writes, "For the record,
7 I have exactly one share of GameStop I
8 bought for the lulz and the politics of
9 it. Whatever happens, I will be fine."
10 Do you see that?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Did your husband also buy one
13 share of GME, or does this refer to the
14 share of GME acquired on your Robinhood
15 account?
16 A. He's not referring to my share.
17 Q. He separately bought GME?
18 A. He says that he did.
19 Q. What did you understand "I
20 bought for the lulz and the politics of
21 it" to mean?
22 A. I mean, I don't remember, like,
23 what I was thinking as I read this post.
24 Q. What do you, sitting here today,
25 understand that to mean?
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2 A. It -- lulz is humor and politics
3 is, like, as he described, the occupy
4 balance sheets.
5 Q. Is that also why you bought GME
6 at this time -- around this time, I should
7 say?
8 A. Again, I think I said I don't
9 remember, like, exactly what I thought at
10 that moment.
11 Q. If you turn two pages to the one
12 ending 367, where the comments to the post
13 begin.
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And there's one done here by
16 Kristen Cevoli.
17 A. Uh-huh.
18 Q. Do you know Kristen Cevoli?
19 A. I do.
20 Q. Who is she?
21 A. She is the owner of our favorite
22 beer store in Philadelphia.
23 Q. Good woman.
24 And her comment begins -- it
25 spans onto the second page. We can flip
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2 to it in a second. But it begins, "I
3 won't pretend to understand the finer
4 details about the GameStop story, short of
5 a large hedge fund was purposely trying to
6 manipulate the price of stock down
7 basically because they bet the stock was
8 going to decrease, and wanted to make
9 money."
10 It continues onto this next
11 page. And then she says, "But I'm still a
12 little confused about the David versus
13 Goliath aspect of this story, as many
14 outlets have reported that individuals
15 were putting 10K to 50K into stocks (and
16 in theory will make millions when this is
17 all said and done). If you've got that
18 much lying around to invest, I'm not sure
19 you really qualify as a main street
20 investor... or did I miss something?"
21 Do you see that?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And then -- sorry. This one
24 goes on for a while. But if you turn to
25 the next page, it looks like you respond
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2 to Ms. -- her name is -- Cevoli.
3 Do you see you tag her and say
4 "Kristen"?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. So you're responding to her
7 prior post; right?
8 A. Yes. Yeah.
9 Q. And you can also -- if you flip
10 to the next page -- sorry -- you can
11 actually see your full response back to
12 her.
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Can you read that aloud.
15 A. "Kristen, it says a lot about
16 economic inequality that if you have
17 'only' $10,000 to $50,000 to put into
18 stocks, then you're a retail investor, but
19 that's where we are. To become an
20 investor in the kind of hedge fund that
21 creates its own realities, you need tens
22 of millions of dollars, at which point you
23 can make more tens of millions while
24 people on Reddit are celebrating
25 life-altering gains of a few thousand
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2 dollars in many cases. Yeah, this spike
3 wouldn't have happened if it was just low
4 income folks putting their stimmy checks
5 in. But people with tens or even hundreds
6 of thousands of dollars to invest on a
7 retail basis are close enough to Davids
8 that they can level the playing field for
9 everybody. I'm not exactly an investment
10 expert, but that's my hot take. LOL."
11 Q. And did you see your investment
12 in GME as a way of, you know, joining this
13 David versus Goliath fight?
14 MR. ROSEN: Could you repeat the
15 question?
16 Q. Did you see your investment in
17 GME as a way of joining the David versus
18 Goliath fight?
19 A. I don't remember, like, what I
20 said at that point about whether I was
21 personally part of the David versus
22 Goliath fight.
23 Q. I think earlier today, you
24 mentioned that you started investing in
25 2020 during the pandemic, getting stimulus
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2 checks. That's sort of what turned you on
3 to investing; right?
4 A. Mm-hmm.
5 Q. And I think you said that you
6 bought one share because at the time, 300
7 bucks was a lot.
8 A. Yeah.
9 Q. And this David versus Goliath
10 analogy, sitting here today, do you think
11 it's fair to say that you are more likely
12 a David in that scenario than a Goliath?
13 A. I think yes, I would be in any
14 situation involving investments not a
15 Goliath.
16 Q. And you conclude your post by
17 writing, "I'm not exactly an expert."
18 Do you consider yourself, like,
19 an inexperienced investor?
20 A. I would say I am inexperienced.
21 Q. Did you believe that around this
22 time, January 28th, that GME's stock price
23 was disconnected from the underlying value
24 of the company?
25 A. I don't remember what I -- like,
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2 what exactly was going through my head at
3 that time.
4 Q. If you could pull up four more
5 pages to the one ending 374.
6 This is a post from Nicholas
7 Adam that he uploaded on January 28, 2021;
8 right?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Who is Mr. Adam?
11 A. He is a college classmate.
12 Q. He states, "Reddit has proven
13 that with a small amount of money and a
14 little coordination, you can asterisk
15 literally asterisk make the stock market
16 do whatever you want because stocks are so
17 disconnected from the underlying value of
18 the company."
19 Do you see that?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And you liked this post; right?
22 A. I don't know if I hit like or
23 heart or angry face.
24 Q. Oh. Is that an angry face?
25 A. The third one is I think the
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2 angry face.
3 Q. Do you think that you would have
4 hit the angry face?
5 MR. ROSEN: Objection. Calls
6 for speculation.
7 Q. You can answer, Ms. Rivas.
8 A. I don't, like, remember which
9 one I hit or would have hit.
10 Q. Do you recall agreeing with any
11 part of the post -- any part of Mr. Adam's
12 post?
13 A. I don't remember specifically
14 what I thought at that moment.
15 Q. Sitting here today, do you agree
16 with any portion of this post?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Can you elaborate on that?
19 A. The richest one percent of
20 Americans own 50 percent of stocks I think
21 is a pretty -- I think I've read that fact
22 before, or I think it is a fact.
23 Q. You don't have any view as to
24 whether or not at this time Reddit had
25 proven that you could with a little --
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2 with a small amount of money and a little
3 coordination, you can make the stock
4 market do whatever you want because stocks
5 are so disconnected from the value of --
6 the underlying value of the company?
7 A. You mean right now do I agree
8 with it? I'm sorry.
9 Q. Yeah. Sure. Right now.
10 Sitting here today.
11 A. No.
12 Q. And you don't recall how you
13 felt about this at the time.
14 A. I don't.
15 Q. And can you turn to the page
16 ending 377.
17 And this is a post from Michael
18 Camarda on January 28th; right?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Who is Mr. Camarda?
21 A. Michael Camarda is a high school
22 classmate.
23 Q. Another high school person.
24 Okay.
25 He posts, "Boomer hedge fund
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2 managers still believe in boring things
3 like market fundamentals; millennials
4 don't care -- they just want cash now
5 because $600 checks ain't cutting it."
6 Do you see that?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And do you know if you liked
9 this post?
10 A. I don't know if I hit like or
11 laugh face or care face.
12 Q. What's care face? Is that,
13 like, the inquisitive face, like I'm
14 pondering?
15 A. No. That -- where you're
16 hugging a heart means that you care about
17 what people are saying.
18 Q. Oh, I didn't see that that was a
19 heart. Okay. That's the third one.
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Okay. Would you consider any of
22 those reactions that you might have
23 provided to be positive generally with
24 respect to the post?
25 MR. ROSEN: Objection. Vague.
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2 A. Yeah. I'm not sure what you --
3 Q. Well, you either liked it,
4 right, which would mean that you in some
5 ways supported this post.
6 Is that fair to say?
7 MR. ROSEN: Objection.
8 A. Not necessarily.
9 Q. Do you recall agreeing with any
10 portion of this -- of the sentiment
11 expressed in this post?
12 A. I don't remember what I thought
13 at the time. It's sort of a confusing
14 post. So I don't remember what I thought
15 at the time.
16 Q. There's a cartoon with a couple
17 of people -- I think there's a label on it
18 that says millennials -- riding an arrow
19 up to the moon; right?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And we discussed that expression
22 that you used around this time that, you
23 know, "to the moon"; right?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. So did you interpret this post
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2 in the context of the Meme stock events in
3 late January 2021?
4 A. I don't remember, like -- I
5 don't remember the post. I don't remember
6 looking at the cartoon. So it's really
7 hard to say what I thought about it at
8 that time.
9 Q. Are you a millennial?
10 A. I am.
11 Q. And you don't have any view as
12 to whether this post resonated with you,
13 Mr. Camarda's.
14 A. I don't. I mean, sometimes you
15 hit like on a friend's post, and it
16 doesn't necessarily mean that you agree
17 with or disagree with what they're saying.
18 And so I don't remember what I
19 specifically thought at that moment.
20 Q. And with respect to your
21 investment in GME, did you care about
22 boring things like market fundamentals?
23 MR. ROSEN: Objection.
24 Q. You can answer.
25 A. Yeah. I don't know -- I think
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2 your question, like, assumes that
3 fundamentals are boring things. I'm not
4 sure what exactly you're asking me to
5 agree or disagree with.
6 Q. Well, with respect to your
7 investment in GME, did you care about
8 market fundamentals?
9 A. I think I said previously that I
10 cared about, like, multiple things or
11 there are multiple factors when I choose
12 to buy something, including GME.
13 Q. And do you recall any factors
14 related to market fundamentals that
15 motivated your investment in GME?
16 A. I recall thinking that the
17 business had a, like, you know -- I was
18 hopeful that it was staging a turnaround,
19 as I mentioned, because of the, you know,
20 pivot to online.
21 Q. Okay. We can turn --
22 A. Online sales.
23 Q. -- to -- I know we've been
24 looking at a bunch of these.
25 But around this time, you had
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2 posted and engaged with other posts
3 regarding GME. Is that fair?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Okay. So if we stay with the
6 same exhibit, if you go to the page 357.
7 So this is back near the beginning.
8 And do you see a January 29th
9 post from Chris Skene?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Who is Mr. Skene?
12 A. He's a family friend and a
13 middle school classmate.
14 Q. Do you know what he does
15 professionally?
16 A. I'm not sure right now.
17 Q. And can you describe the post?
18 A. He posted a series of Emojis.
19 Q. There's a peace sign and then a
20 heart and then an ampersand, and then I
21 think you called this diamond hands.
22 A. Diamond hands.
23 Q. Yeah.
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. And what did you understand this
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2 to communicate?
3 A. I don't remember what I
4 specifically thought at that moment in
5 looking at it.
6 Q. What about today? What do you
7 understand this to mean?
8 A. At this moment, I'm not sure.
9 Like, peace, love and diamond hands, I
10 don't remember exactly what was happening
11 at that moment and why he said that.
12 Q. So you then write beneath that,
13 "Buy the dip"; right?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And I think we discussed that a
16 little earlier.
17 Do you know what you might have
18 meant by "buy the dip" in this context?
19 A. In this context -- I mean, I'm
20 not sure what his post meant, and so I'm
21 not sure, like, what exactly -- like, why
22 exactly I wrote that.
23 Q. So sitting here today, you have
24 no clue why you would have said "buy the
25 dip"?
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2 MR. ROSEN: Objection.
3 Q. You can answer.
4 A. Yeah. I'm not sure, like -- I
5 don't recall specifically.
6 Q. I understand you might not
7 recall what you were thinking at the time
8 or seeing this post --
9 MR. ROSEN: You asked her if she
10 had a clue. That's not much of a
11 question. So maybe a proper question
12 would be helpful.
13 Q. Okay. So sitting here today,
14 based off of the timing and the context of
15 this post itself and your response, do you
16 have any sense of what you might have
17 meant by "buy the dip"?
18 A. It is a, you know, internet buzz
19 phrase. So I think I was, you know,
20 having humorous banter with him.
21 Q. Why was it humorous?
22 A. Because we were going back and
23 forth with internet buzz phrases.
24 Q. And sitting here today, is it
25 your understanding that this was likely in
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2 the context of the Meme stock events?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And after Alex Rivas says, "We
5 like the stock" -- is that somebody
6 related to you, actually?
7 A. My brother.
8 Q. Oh, okay. Your brother.
9 You then say, "I want to see you
10 persuade your dad to buy the next dip. He
11 could prove he's cool for less than $300.
12 It's a bargain. He'll be the only boomer
13 allowed on the moon." And then there's a
14 little rocket ship and then a little I
15 guess price graph maybe or line graph of
16 some sort.
17 Do you know what you were, you
18 know, trying to communicate in that
19 response?
20 A. It -- I don't remember what I
21 was thinking at that moment.
22 Q. Sitting here today?
23 A. It reads to me like I was being
24 humorous.
25 Q. When you say, "He could prove
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2 he's cool for less than $300. It's a
3 bargain," were you saying it was cool to
4 buy GME?
5 A. I'm not sure if that's what I
6 was saying.
7 Q. And sitting here today, do you
8 have any idea of what you meant by he'll
9 be the only boomer allowed on the moon
10 with those Emojis?
11 A. We have ongoing jokes about,
12 like, boomers. And his dad goes along
13 with it. Like, his dad, you know, refers
14 to himself as a boomer. Yeah. So it's
15 banter that's not connected to, like, GME
16 but broader banter.
17 Q. And when you wrote for less than
18 $300, it's a bargain, do you know if
19 you're expressing your belief that, like,
20 the stock price would increase after this
21 point in time?
22 A. I don't remember if I thought
23 that the stock price would increase at
24 that time.
25 Q. And if you look at the next
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2 page, because I think Mr. Skene's response
3 gets cut off, he says, "Cecilia Rivas GME?
4 I have one share. The 30-minute chart
5 shows this is the dip. So maybe I'll
6 double down and buy another share. LOL."
7 Do you see that?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. You then write back tagging him
10 and saying, "Neil yes," all caps,
11 exclamation point, exclamation point,
12 exclamation point. "Boomer to the moon.
13 I knew you were cool. Now, got any advice
14 on how to know when the squeeze is at its
15 peak?"
16 Do you see that?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And so this is another kind of
19 reference to, like, boomers, and we heard
20 about millennials a couple of times.
21 A. Generational banter.
22 Q. Yeah. Generational banter.
23 When you ask him about timing
24 the peak or knowing when the peak -- when
25 the squeeze is at its peak, were you
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2 asking him for kind of casual advice on
3 anticipating when the GME short squeeze
4 would be at its peak?
5 A. I don't remember what I was
6 thinking specifically when I wrote that.
7 Q. Sitting here today, do you have,
8 you know -- what's your best understanding
9 of what you were asking in that question?
10 A. I really only know what it says.
11 Q. So you were asking if he had any
12 advice on how to know when the squeeze is
13 at its peak.
14 A. That is what I said.
15 Q. And when Mr. Skene said in his
16 prior post -- he said, "Cecilia Rivas
17 GME?" Right?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. And so if you did not respond
20 saying that you were talking about
21 something -- some other peak besides GME,
22 is it fair to say this was in the context
23 of, you know, you were asking about the
24 timing of GME's peak?
25 MR. ROSEN: Objection. Vague.
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2 And compound.
3 Q. You can answer.
4 A. Could you say your question
5 again?
6 Q. Sure. Based off this context
7 and understanding that you don't recall
8 specifically at the time, do you believe
9 that you were asking about -- for advice
10 on the timing of the peak of GME -- of the
11 GME squeeze, I should say?
12 A. He wrote about two different
13 stocks prior to my post, so I, like, can
14 only speculate.
15 Q. Do you know if you held SLV at
16 the time?
17 A. I don't think I did.
18 Q. I think that you said earlier
19 that you weren't sure what Mr. Skene does
20 professionally.
21 Do you know if he has ever
22 worked in any sort of, like, investment
23 capacity?
24 A. Which Skene are you asking
25 about?
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2 Q. Oh, are there two?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Neil -- oh, Neil and Chris. I
5 see.
6 So Neil is the --
7 A. Generational banter because
8 Neil --
9 Q. Yeah.
10 A. -- is his father.
11 Q. And were you asking -- so you're
12 asking the father for advice about the
13 timing of when the squeeze would be at its
14 peak.
15 A. This is in the context of, like,
16 a lot of joking, clearly, banter. So --
17 but, yes, that is what I said. Do you
18 have any advice on how to know.
19 Q. And do you know what Mr. Neil
20 Skene did for a living?
21 A. I have an idea.
22 Q. What is that?
23 A. So he -- he has done a few
24 things. One was being a newspaper
25 publisher for a while, he was a consultant
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2 in child welfare, and he also is a pretty
3 active investor.
4 Q. So do you often, you know,
5 solicit any sort of even kind of informal
6 investment advice from users on social
7 media?
8 MR. ROSEN: Objection. Vague.
9 A. Yeah. What do you mean by often
10 and what do you mean by solicit?
11 Q. Do you ever ask for even
12 informal investment advice from users on
13 social media?
14 A. I don't -- I mean, are you
15 characterizing -- like, I'm -- what do
16 you --
17 Q. I'm asking --
18 A. I'm confused.
19 Q. I'm asking a general question.
20 Do you ever ask other users on
21 social media for even informal investment
22 advice?
23 MR. ROSEN: Other than the one
24 that you're asking her about? Are
25 there other instances of that
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2 happening?
3 MS. YOUNG: I'm asking if she
4 has ever done that.
5 A. There are no other instances
6 that are coming to my mind.
7 Q. Thank you.
8 And then if you look at the next
9 page, Mr. Neil, I guess the father,
10 Skene's response that begins, "The peak is
11 hard to spot," and he says, "and to
12 distinguish from a pullback. I suspect we
13 will see a bit of compression, trading in
14 a tighter range for a day or two, before a
15 bigger move up or down, but who can
16 predict a flash mob? Traders use multiple
17 indicators (including stop-loss levels)
18 depending on risk tolerance."
19 Do you see that?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Do you know if you formulated
22 any sort of view as to when you thought
23 the squeeze would peak based off of this
24 feedback that you got from Mr. Skene?
25 A. Like, your question assumes a
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2 couple of things. So -- but I don't
3 believe I, like, formed an opinion on
4 anything as a result of the post. Like, I
5 don't typically read a post and then form
6 an opinion.
7 Q. Then the -- can you turn to the
8 page ending 360.
9 A. Okay.
10 Q. This is another one from Mr. --
11 I guess the father -- Skene?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And it's a post from
14 January 29th, and it begins with him
15 sharing a memory about a feature on
16 Facebook. In the last bit of the first
17 paragraph, he writes, "The billionaires
18 seem to be successfully using that to
19 distract the mob."
20 And then you comment, asking,
21 "To distract the mob? What does that
22 mean?"
23 Do you see that at the bottom of
24 the page?
25 A. I do.
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2 Q. And then if you turn one more
3 page, you can see that he responds to you,
4 tagging you, and says -- I think that's
5 your name bolded -- and says, "Wall Street
6 views the Robinhood folks as a mob, wants
7 to distract them by having them turn on
8 Robinhood."
9 Do you see that?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. And then can you read what you
12 write back to Mr. Skene?
13 A. "Gotcha. I would disagree that
14 the mob is distracted. The mob is adding
15 Robinhood to the hit list as they continue
16 to hold GME and drain as much money as
17 possible from the hedge funds. I spend an
18 awful lot of time on Reddit these days and
19 most of the discussion when buying was
20 blocked yesterday was about the need to
21 hold firm and focus on the squeeze. The
22 lack of retail selling yesterday even as
23 the stock fell was rather inspiring to
24 me."
25 Q. Thank you.
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2 And did you hold onto your share
3 of GME at this time to drain as much money
4 from the hedge funds as possible?
5 A. I don't remember, like, what I
6 would have said at that time was exactly
7 my motivation.
8 Q. Sitting here today.
9 A. I don't -- I can't say what my
10 motivation was at that time.
11 Q. Did you believe that other
12 retail investors on social media were
13 either buying or holding their shares of
14 GME to drain as much money from the hedge
15 funds as possible?
16 A. I knew that people were writing
17 that they wanted to drain money from hedge
18 funds.
19 Q. And is it accurate to say that
20 at this time, you spent an awful lot of
21 time on Reddit?
22 A. What's an awful lot of time to
23 you?
24 Q. These are your words, Ms. Rivas.
25 So what is an awful lot of time
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2 to you?
3 MR. ROSEN: You asked her a
4 question. So she's asking you how
5 you define --
6 Q. Okay. So how did you -- what do
7 you mean by an awful lot of time?
8 A. I think the context that I need
9 to make clear is that, like, not
10 everything that I post on Facebook is a
11 factual reflection of my opinions or
12 beliefs. Like, this is, you know, where
13 you go to sort of have fun and have
14 conversation. It's not a diary.
15 Q. Are you suggesting that you were
16 not spending an awful lot of time on
17 Reddit those days or just that you weren't
18 using your -- choosing your words
19 carefully?
20 A. Neither. Like, neither of those
21 statements.
22 Q. Okay. So what did you mean when
23 you wrote, "I spend an awful lot of time
24 on Reddit these days"?
25 A. I don't remember exactly what
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2 was going through my head when I wrote
3 that.
4 Q. Sitting here today, what would
5 you believe an awful lot of time meant?
6 A. Again, like, because I am not
7 sure how serious I was being, I'm not
8 sure, like -- it's not possible to say
9 what I would have thought was an awful lot
10 of time, because I'm not even sure how
11 serious I was being.
12 MR. ROSEN: Another way to get
13 the answer would be to ask her about
14 how much time she was spending on
15 Reddit.
16 MS. YOUNG: I believe I already
17 asked her that question earlier today.
18 MR. ROSEN: So then I guess
19 you're good.
20 Q. Would you consider -- I think
21 earlier today, you testified that you
22 spent -- you think around this time, you
23 were spending several hours a day
24 investing loosely or reading about
25 investing, that sort of thing.
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2 A. I think I said about a couple of
3 hours.
4 Q. Couple of hours. Is that not
5 what I said?
6 A. You said a few hours.
7 Q. Okay. A couple of hours.
8 Would you consider your time
9 spent on Reddit to kind of count towards
10 those few hours?
11 A. Yeah. When I said that I spend
12 a couple of hours, like, thinking about
13 investing, if I was reading investment
14 threads on Reddit, then I'm including
15 that, like, the mental energy thinking
16 about the stock market.
17 Q. And so when you say here -- you
18 said -- let's see -- when buying was
19 blocked yesterday -- and I think this post
20 was on the 29th, so I think you're
21 referring back to the 28th.
22 Does that seem fair to you?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. And you saw a lot of discussion
25 about the need to hold firm and focus on
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2 the squeeze.
3 Do you see that?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. So was it your view at this time
6 that the potential short squeeze in GME
7 wasn't yet over or hadn't yet reached its
8 peak?
9 A. Your question assumes that,
10 like, there was a short squeeze, and I --
11 again, I don't remember exactly what I
12 thought at that time.
13 Q. So sitting here today, what do
14 you believe you meant by saying that the
15 discussion you heard about was about
16 focusing on the squeeze?
17 A. I -- again, I don't know, like,
18 to what -- like, I don't know how serious
19 I was being. I had no recollection of
20 this exchange until, you know, searching
21 for my screen shots or searching for my
22 posts.
23 Q. You also mention that the lack
24 of retail selling was rather inspiring to
25 you.
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Why was that inspiring to you?
4 A. Again, I don't know how serious
5 I was being. I don't know if I was being
6 facetious. Like, I just truly do not
7 remember my thought process as I sat there
8 typing, because I am so often facetious or
9 just having fun on Facebook.
10 Q. Do you think you were being
11 sarcastic about whether or not the lack of
12 retail selling was inspiring?
13 MR. ROSEN: Objection. Asked
14 and answered.
15 MS. YOUNG: I didn't ask that
16 question.
17 Q. You can answer.
18 A. Again, I did not say that I was
19 being sarcastic. I said I don't remember
20 whether I was being serious or not.
21 Q. And sitting here today, you
22 don't have any view as to whether or not
23 you were likely being serious or
24 facetious?
25 A. Yeah. I don't want to speculate
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2 about my thought process at the time.
3 Q. But I don't mean at the time. I
4 mean right now. Your view right now as to
5 what you meant here.
6 MR. ROSEN: When you asked her
7 what she was thinking back then, and
8 then you asked her --
9 MS. YOUNG: Thank you, Mr.
10 Rosen.
11 MR. ROSEN: -- what do you think
12 now about what she thought about back
13 then, isn't it the same thing?
14 Q. No. I'm asking you, reading
15 this today, what is your understanding of
16 the lack of retail selling being rather
17 inspiring to you?
18 A. Again, I don't want to speculate
19 about my thought process at that time,
20 because I just don't remember.
21 MS. YOUNG: Let's take a look at
22 Tab 7, Shuyu. This is No. 81.
23
24
25
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2 (Defendant's Exhibit 81, A
3 Facebook post, Bates P00001088, was
4 hereby marked for identification, as
5 of this date.)
6 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: Counsel, I
7 just want to mention that at some
8 point within the next 15 minutes, we
9 should break to change the media.
10 MS. YOUNG: Okay. Sure. Maybe
11 we can finish this document and then
12 break for lunch, if that works. Okay.
13 MR. ROSEN: What number is this?
14 MS. YOUNG: 81.
15 BY MS. YOUNG:
16 Q. Do you recognize this document,
17 Ms. Rivas?
18 A. I do.
19 Q. What is this?
20 A. It's a post that I posted on
21 Facebook.
22 Q. And this is on January 29th;
23 right?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Can you read the text of the
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2 post.
3 A. "The squeeze hasn't squoze yet
4 and we'll keep draining billions as long
5 as these people keep shorting. GME stock
6 up 68 percent today. Can't stop, won't
7 stop, GameStop." And then a diamond hands
8 symbol.
9 Q. And then you link a CNBC
10 article; right?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And what's the title of that?
13 A. "GameStop short sellers are
14 still not surrendering despite nearly 20
15 billion in losses this month."
16 Q. And what did you mean by "the
17 squeeze hasn't squoze yet"?
18 A. Again, I don't remember -- like,
19 I don't remember posting this, so I don't
20 remember what I -- I can't offer you
21 interpretation on it beyond what it says.
22 Q. What does "squoze" mean to you?
23 I don't know if that's in Merriam Webster.
24 A. I don't think it is. I would
25 have found the, like, verb funny as I
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2 often use that with respect to my cat's
3 eyes. So -- but I mean, "squeeze hasn't
4 squoze" means, like, that it's not done.
5 Q. So based off of this,
6 understanding that you might not, you
7 know, recall specifically, this -- sitting
8 here today, do you believe that this post
9 expressed that you thought that the GME
10 short squeeze was still ongoing?
11 A. Again, I don't remember posting
12 it, and therefore, I don't remember how
13 serious I was being. And I don't take
14 this to be, like, a literal reflection of
15 my thought process at that time.
16 Q. And what did you mean by "we'll
17 keep draining billions as long as these
18 people keep shorting"?
19 A. Like, it says what it says. I'm
20 not sure. Can you say your question --
21 Q. Maybe I'll break it down a bit.
22 Who did you mean by "we"?
23 A. I don't know exactly. Like, I
24 don't remember writing this.
25 Q. Based off this context, do you
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2 have any understanding of what you might
3 have meant by "we"?
4 A. I think I meant people who hold
5 GME.
6 Q. And when you wrote "those
7 people," you know, do you think you were
8 referring to investors that were short
9 GME?
10 A. Based upon the sentence, yes.
11 These people keep shorting means I'm
12 referring to the people that are shorting.
13 Q. That are short GME?
14 A. Yeah.
15 Q. And does billions refer to, you
16 know, what those institutions would -- or
17 those short sellers would have to pay to
18 cover or exit their short positions?
19 A. That's what I, yeah, understand
20 the sentence to mean.
21 Q. And by "won't stop," were you
22 expressing that you wouldn't sell your
23 share of GME at this time at least?
24 A. It's a humorous sentence.
25 Q. And it rhymes.
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2 A. Right. It's a reference to a
3 broader, like, pop culture phrase.
4 Q. Why would you have posted this
5 on Facebook?
6 A. Like, I don't remember my
7 motivation for posting this.
8 Q. But again, I think that you said
9 that these were, you know, one of only two
10 kind of periods when you posted about your
11 investments on social media; right?
12 A. Mm-hmm.
13 Q. Sitting here today, is there any
14 reason why you think that you might have
15 wanted to post something publicly about
16 this, about those investments?
17 MR. ROSEN: Objection. Vague.
18 Q. You can answer.
19 A. What do you mean by public?
20 Because I don't --
21 Q. Public on social media. I don't
22 mean, like, that your actual Facebook page
23 is publicly to everybody, but people that
24 have access to your account.
25 A. I use Facebook as a, like -- I
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2 use Facebook for engaging with friends and
3 family and, like, activity to connect
4 socially.
5 MS. YOUNG: I think I'm done
6 with this document. But if you guys
7 want to go a little bit longer, we
8 can. Do you have any preference?
9 MR. ROSEN: Well, he's got --
10 MS. YOUNG: Do you need to
11 switch over now, Zef? How much longer
12 do you have before you need to switch
13 over?
14 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: I'd say,
15 like, ten minutes or so.
16 MR. ROSEN: You want to take a
17 break now or --
18 MS. YOUNG: Yeah. Maybe now
19 is -- is now good for lunch maybe?
20 THE WITNESS: Sure.
21 MS. YOUNG: Okay.
22 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: We're going
23 off the record at 12:46 p.m.
24 (Luncheon recess: 12:46 p.m.)
25
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2 A F T E R N O O N S E S S I O N
3 1:41 p.m.
4 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: We're back on
5 the record at 1:41 p.m.
6 BY MS. YOUNG:
7 Q. Okay. Let's go to Tab 8.
8 A. Oh, is this a new one?
9 Q. Mm-hmm.
10 A. Okay.
11 Q. Yeah.
12 (Defendant's Exhibit 82, An
13 article titled "GameStop short-sellers
14 are still not surrendering despite
15 nearly $20 billion in losses this
16 year," was hereby marked for
17 identification, as of this date.)
18 MR. ROSEN: Exhibit 82?
19 MS. YOUNG: This is 82. Yeah.
20 Q. Okay. Do you recognize this
21 article, Ms. Rivas?
22 A. Looks familiar.
23 Q. I think when we were in the last
24 exhibit we were looking at, which is 81 --
25 A. Right.
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2 Q. Tab 7.
3 Does it look like this is the
4 article that you linked to that post?
5 A. Yeah. Which page number is
6 that, is the Facebook post?
7 Q. Oh, it's the -- it's not in
8 the big packet. It's in that freestanding
9 one. It should be No. 81, the last
10 exhibit.
11 A. Here we go. Yes.
12 Q. And if you posted it, it's safe
13 to say you read this article?
14 A. I did read it.
15 Q. And could you read the second
16 paragraph on -- well I guess it's not on
17 the page -- the paragraph that's fourth
18 from the bottom on the second page.
19 A. "The video game stock" -- that
20 paragraph?
21 Q. Yeah.
22 A. "The video game stock has been
23 the star of the show on the WallStreetBets
24 Reddit forum, whose members have grown
25 rapidly to over 5 million. A wave of day
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2 traders continued to encourage each other
3 to pile into GameStop's shares and call
4 options, creating a massive short squeeze
5 that inflicted pain for hedge funds
6 betting against the name."
7 Q. The paragraph mentions a short
8 squeeze that inflicted pain for hedge
9 funds betting against the stock; right?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Does a desire to force losses
12 for hedge funds that were short GME
13 motivate you to hold onto your share of
14 GME?
15 MR. ROSEN: Asked and answered.
16 Q. You can answer.
17 A. I think I've said my primary
18 motivation with buying and selling GME was
19 to make money.
20 Q. Were you in any way motivated to
21 hold onto your share to inflict losses on
22 short sellers that were short GME?
23 A. Yeah. It's hard to say exactly
24 what I was thinking besides the motivation
25 to make money. Like, that is the
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2 overriding.
3 Q. Let's take a look back on -- at
4 81.
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. "We'll keep draining billions as
7 long as these people keep shorting. GME
8 stock up 68 percent today. Can't stop,
9 won't stop, GameStop," diamond hand
10 Emojis; right?
11 A. Mm-hmm.
12 Q. And so at the time at least you
13 wrote that, you wanted to diamond hands
14 hold GME to keep draining billions as long
15 as these investors were short GME.
16 MR. ROSEN: Objection. That's
17 not what the document says.
18 Q. Ms. Rivas, what did you mean by
19 "we'll draining billions as long as these
20 people keep shorting"?
21 A. Given that I own one share, I'm
22 pretty confident I didn't think I
23 was draining billions. However, I don't
24 remember exactly what I was thinking at
25 that moment.
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2 Q. But "we" presumably includes
3 more than just you; right?
4 A. "We" is a plural.
5 Q. Right.
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And so did you have a broader
8 community of individuals in mind than just
9 yourself when you said "we'll keep
10 draining billions"?
11 A. I think I've indicated that the
12 idea of hedge funds losing money was
13 appealing to me. But I -- when I say
14 things on social media, they're not to be
15 taken literally. This is just where I go
16 to have fun and banter with friends and,
17 you know, perhaps trash talk, one might
18 say.
19 Q. And it mentions traders
20 continued to encourage each other to pile
21 into GameStop shares; right?
22 MR. ROSEN: Are you talking
23 about Exhibit 82?
24 Q. I meant 82. Sorry. Not yours.
25 The article.
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2 A. The article?
3 Q. Yeah.
4 A. Yes. A wave of day traders.
5 Q. Did you observe users on social
6 media encouraging each other to pile into
7 GameStop?
8 MR. ROSEN: Objection.
9 Q. You can answer.
10 A. Yeah. I mean, can you, like --
11 can you explain encouraging versus posting
12 what they are doing? Like -- what I read
13 on social media was people saying, "I'm
14 buying GameStop. Woohoo." Like -- so if
15 that's the sense that you mean, then yes.
16 Q. Did any of that general
17 enthusiasm for GME encourage you to invest
18 or hold onto your shares?
19 A. I feel like we're going back in
20 a circle here. My primary goal is or was
21 to make money. And if, you know, making
22 money at the expense of a hedge fund was
23 what was happening, then all the better.
24 Q. In any of these posts, did you
25 say that your primary motive for buying
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2 one -- one share of GME was to make money?
3 A. I would need a minute to go back
4 over them. But probably not.
5 Q. When you say that you would go
6 to social media to sort of have fun, and
7 there's some levity to it, was there
8 any -- did you find anything fun about
9 your investment in GME at this time?
10 A. Did I find anything fun about
11 it?
12 Q. Yes.
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Can you expand on that? Or,
15 like, how was that fun?
16 A. It had entertainment value to be
17 invested in something that, you know,
18 other people were talking about. Like,
19 it's kind of socially engaging.
20 Q. I think earlier, you also -- you
21 used the expression or the term, rather,
22 "gamification."
23 What do you mean by that?
24 A. When I referred to gamification,
25 I don't think I was referring specifically
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2 to GameStop.
3 Q. Right.
4 A. But broadly gamification -- I
5 mean, it refers to making something into a
6 game that's not a game, and in the case of
7 Robinhood, you know, they gamified
8 investing, which is a serious thing with
9 things like putting confetti, you know, on
10 the app when you buy a stock.
11 Q. And that --
12 A. So making a serious thing into
13 a -- into a game.
14 Q. And that was -- I guess is it
15 fair to say that you felt that way about
16 it back when you started trading, which I
17 think you said was earlier in 2020?
18 A. August 2020 --
19 Q. August 2020.
20 A. -- is when I first invested.
21 Q. Right.
22 So prior to the Meme stock
23 events, I mean, you felt this way about
24 this gamification idea.
25 A. I think the gamification is a
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2 real, like, psychological effect, and so I
3 think, like, yeah, you know, seeing
4 confetti is, like, a dopamine hit, if you
5 will.
6 Q. But you would -- that's separate
7 from the fun of investing at this time
8 that seems more kind of community driven,
9 online community driven, I mean.
10 Is that fair?
11 A. I think the primary -- like, my
12 primary motivation was to profit. And so
13 I'm not sure what you're, like, trying to
14 get me to say.
15 Q. I think I was just -- I don't
16 see it updating right now, but what -- you
17 just said something about it being fun.
18 MR. ROSEN: I think she said
19 posting on social media was fun.
20 Q. Right. And I said is there
21 anything fun about your investment in GME
22 at that time. I believe you said that
23 there was.
24 A. Yeah. And I said that it's fun
25 to own a stock that so many people are
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2 talking about.
3 Q. People are talking about. Yeah.
4 A. Yeah. I guess the distinction
5 I'm making is between something having
6 entertainment value and me doing it for
7 entertainment value.
8 Q. But -- withdrawn.
9 Let's go to -- back to that big
10 packet, Exhibit 79.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. So this time, you'll go to
13 page 355 for the Bates.
14 It looks like this is another
15 post by Mr. Camarda; is that right?
16 A. Yes, Camarda.
17 Q. And this is February 21, 2021.
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. It's two days after the last
20 post we were looking at.
21 Do you see where he writes, "It
22 didn't take much more than" -- I guess he
23 means -- "a week before an establishment
24 comedian blamed Russia for what's going on
25 on Reddit."
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2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Do you see that at the top?
4 A. Mm-hmm.
5 Q. And then at the bottom, looks
6 like he tags you, and this goes on to the
7 second page. But he says, "Cecilia Rivas,
8 how many rubles you getting from Putin?"
9 Do you see that?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. And then you respond,
12 "Hahahahaha. I have no need for rubles on
13 the moon."
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And so at this point in time, on
16 February 21st, you were still holding onto
17 your GME share; right?
18 A. I still had one share. Yeah.
19 Q. And this "to the moon"
20 expression is something that you also saw
21 used on Reddit around this time; is that
22 right?
23 A. It was also used on Reddit at
24 this time.
25 Q. And so if you're using
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2 expressions like "on the moon," is that
3 because you at this point in time still
4 believed that the price of GME would
5 increase?
6 A. So although I don't like to
7 speculate about my mindset, the fact that
8 I put "ha," like, eight times before my
9 words suggests to me that I was joking.
10 Q. But if you really thought that
11 it wasn't going to increase, you would
12 have sold your shares, right, if you're
13 only investing because, you know, you
14 wanted to make money?
15 A. I don't remember at that moment,
16 like, my feelings about where the stock
17 was going to go.
18 Q. And this was a couple of days
19 into the restrictions --
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. -- that we talked about.
22 A. Right.
23 Q. Okay. So if we go back to 76.
24 That's that spreadsheet with the orders.
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. And flip to the second page.
3 That last row, looks like you
4 sold your share of GME on February 4th at
5 the price of $57.22; right?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And why did you decide to sell
8 your share at this time?
9 A. I remember, like, feeling a
10 sense of hopelessness at Robinhood's
11 manipulation and just feeling like I guess
12 I should cut my losses.
13 Q. Could you expand on that
14 hopelessness?
15 A. I felt that the restrictions
16 that were so affecting the price of the
17 stock were, like -- weren't allowed or
18 shouldn't be allowed. You know, I'm not
19 an expert in those rules. But it seemed
20 like I guess they're getting away with
21 this.
22 Q. Was it your view that
23 Robinhood's trading restrictions alone
24 caused you to lose money on GME? On the
25 share of GME?
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2 A. Robinhood puts actions alone on
3 this specific share.
4 Q. Robinhood's restrictions alone
5 were the only contributing factor to you
6 losing money on this share of GME.
7 A. Share prices are affected by
8 different things, and I wouldn't, like,
9 venture a guess one way or the other as to
10 one decisive factor.
11 Q. So you believe it's possible
12 that other factors could have contributed
13 to the share price decline in GME at this
14 time.
15 MR. ROSEN: Objection. Asked
16 and answered.
17 MS. YOUNG: I didn't ask that.
18 Q. You can answer.
19 A. I don't want to speculate about,
20 like, the exact reasons why GameStop or
21 any stock rises or falls at any given
22 moment.
23 Q. Do you believe that the end of a
24 short squeeze or attempted short squeeze
25 could cause you to lose any money on your
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2 GME investment?
3 A. No.
4 Q. I think you testified earlier
5 today that you believe that a short
6 squeeze -- a short squeeze causes a stock
7 price to be overvalued relative to its
8 fundamental value. Is that right? Or am
9 I mischaracterizing anything?
10 MR. ROSEN: Objection.
11 A. I can't remember if I said it
12 like that. Like, I probably shouldn't
13 have spoken with such confidence if that's
14 what I did say.
15 Q. I'm probably paraphrasing. If
16 you have a more -- I don't want to
17 misrepresent anything if that's not --
18 MR. ROSEN: Well, what's the
19 specific question you're asking her?
20 Q. I'm asking how do you think that
21 an attempted short squeeze in GME would
22 have impacted the stock price, prior to
23 you selling, immediately prior to you
24 selling?
25 MR. ROSEN: On February 4th?
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2 Q. In late January to early
3 February.
4 A. I mean, my feeling or my belief
5 is that Robinhood's -- by, you know, going
6 to position close only and those other
7 restrictions were the primary reason that
8 the stock tanked, and I can't say what
9 would have or could have or should have
10 happened had they not done that. Like,
11 what they did was tank the stock.
12 Q. Do you know if, after all of
13 those restrictions were lifted, whether or
14 not the stock price recovered?
15 A. At what --
16 Q. At -- let's say the January 27th
17 peak.
18 A. Like, did it recover on -- when
19 did it -- I'm sorry.
20 Q. After Robinhood -- after there
21 were no more restrictions on Robinhood's
22 platform, do you know whether or not GME's
23 stock price recovered to the
24 January 27, 2021, peak price?
25 A. I'm not sure if it did.
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2 Q. Do you recall whether --
3 actually, withdrawn.
4 Between January and
5 February 2021, you didn't buy or sell any
6 shares of AMC; right?
7 A. No.
8 Q. Or Blackberry.
9 A. No.
10 Q. Bed Bath & Beyond?
11 A. No.
12 Q. Express?
13 A. No.
14 Q. Nokia?
15 A. No.
16 Q. Koss?
17 A. No.
18 Q. Tootsie Roll?
19 A. No.
20 Q. And Trivago?
21 A. No.
22 Q. Did you consider buying any of
23 those shares in January 2021?
24 A. I don't remember if I considered
25 it or not.
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2 Q. Since January 2021, when you
3 purchased the shares of GME, have you ever
4 purchased any more shares?
5 A. Since January, yes.
6 Q. When was that?
7 A. I'm trying to remember. It was
8 later in 2021. I don't think I've bought
9 any after 2021.
10 Q. But you don't know when in 2021.
11 A. I don't remember.
12 Q. And you still trade today;
13 right?
14 A. I haven't bought or sold any
15 stocks in a while, but I still have a
16 brokerage account.
17 Q. And I think you said earlier
18 that that's mainly Fidelity; right?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Today, do you hold, you know,
21 stock in any of the companies we've
22 discussed?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Which ones?
25 A. I still have a couple of shares
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2 of GameStop in Fidelity.
3 Q. And what stocks make up the
4 biggest portion of your portfolio today?
5 A. An S&P index fund and a NASDAQ
6 index fund.
7 Q. And what's the approximate value
8 of your portfolio today?
9 A. My total portfolio, it's I think
10 about
11 Q. And what's your role in this
12 lawsuit?
13 A. I'm a plaintiff.
14 Q. Are you a named plaintiff?
15 A. Yes, a named plaintiff.
16 Q. Do you know what a class
17 representative is in a class action?
18 A. I do.
19 Q. And are you seeking to be a
20 class rep in this action?
21 A. I am.
22 Q. And what do you understand your
23 responsibilities to be in that role?
24 A. My responsibilities are to
25 represent and look out for the interests
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2 of the absent class members by, you know,
3 participating in the litigation.
4 Q. And how did you hear about this
5 lawsuit?
6 A. I was, like, Googling for
7 whether or not there were lawsuits related
8 to the Robinhood market manipulation, and
9 so the Rosen Law Firm came up.
10 Q. And did you contact the Rosen
11 firm?
12 A. I did.
13 Q. How did you reach out?
14 A. They had a, you know, inquiry
15 form on their website.
16 Q. Why did you want to be involved
17 in this lawsuit as a named plaintiff?
18 A. Because I was and am angry at
19 Robinhood's manipulation of the stocks
20 during this time.
21 Q. And I think earlier today, I was
22 asking about a post about Exhibit 80
23 maybe. You don't have to go back to it.
24 But it's the one where you reference
25 another class action that had been filed
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2 in January of 2021.
3 And I believe in that post, you
4 describe the plaintiffs in that action as
5 American heroes?
6 A. Yes. I remember that.
7 Q. What did you think was heroic
8 about the plaintiff in that lawsuit?
9 A. The post was referring to the
10 attorneys. Like, are you asking about the
11 attorneys or the, like --
12 Q. Oh, I thought you were talking
13 about the plaintiffs.
14 A. The plaintiffs that the
15 attorneys represented. I'm sorry.
16 Q. It's -- I guess the better
17 question would have been who are the
18 American heroes that you're referring to
19 in that post?
20 A. I think it was the lawyers.
21 Q. Okay. So do you consider
22 Mr. Rosen heroic, then, in this case?
23 A. I consider him an American hero.
24 Q. An American hero. Thank you.
25 So you don't consider your own
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2 participation in this action heroic?
3 A. Let's say it is. Sure. My
4 participation in this litigation is
5 heroic. I will agree with that
6 characterization.
7 MR. ROSEN: After what you've
8 gone through in this deposition.
9 Q. I can't believe it was that
10 unpleasant. Those were some good cookies
11 that hopefully you enjoyed.
12 A. I'll have one on my way out.
13 Q. They're good.
14 Excluding your dep today, how
15 much time have you spent on things related
16 to this lawsuit?
17 A. I'm not sure exactly, but it's
18 been quite a bit of time.
19 Q. Does it sort of vary over
20 different periods?
21 A. Yeah.
22 Q. Have you read filings in the
23 case?
24 A. I have.
25 Q. Anything in particular?
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2 A. I think I've read all of them.
3 So I've read the original complaint, the
4 amended complaint, the -- Robinhood's
5 motion to dismiss, the response to that,
6 and the judge's opinion.
7 Q. How often do you communicate
8 with counsel, about?
9 A. It varies. But I don't think
10 we've gone more than three or four weeks
11 without some communication.
12 Q. Have you been compensated for
13 the time you've spent on this case?
14 A. No.
15 Q. Have you been told whether you
16 will receive compensation at any point for
17 your involvement in this case?
18 A. As the certification indicates,
19 I believe I have been told that I will not
20 be compensated by the Rosen Law Firm for
21 my participation in this case.
22 Q. And you're aware that a request
23 for production of documents was served on
24 you to your counsel; right?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. And we talked about this a
3 little bit earlier with respect to the
4 Facebook posts.
5 But I gather you did some sort
6 of search for potentially responsive
7 documents?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And when was that?
10 A. It would have been shortly
11 before the law firm produced them. It was
12 a few months ago now. I'm not sure
13 exactly when.
14 Q. Do you have a personal email
15 account?
16 A. I do.
17 Q. Did you search through your
18 email or email accounts for documents that
19 Robinhood requested?
20 A. No.
21 Q. And why is that?
22 A. Because I knew that I wasn't
23 emailing people concerning the affected
24 stocks or the, you know, issues at hand in
25 the litigation.
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2 Q. Ever?
3 A. Yes. Other than my attorneys,
4 yes.
5 Q. I think you also said -- when
6 did you say that you reached out to the
7 Rosen firm about participating in this
8 action? Or did I not ask you that?
9 A. I don't think that you asked me
10 that.
11 Q. When did -- when about did you
12 reach out to them?
13 A. I can't remember how long it was
14 before I signed the certification, but it
15 was a few weeks before I signed the
16 certification.
17 Q. Okay. I think the
18 certification -- well --
19 A. November 23, 2021.
20 Q. Yeah. And you mentioned that
21 you have your cellphone set to delete --
22 did you say texts every three months,
23 automatically delete texts every month?
24 A. Three months --
25 Q. Three months.
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2 A. -- is how long they're retained.
3 Q. Yeah. And that's always been a
4 setting on your phone?
5 A. As long as I can remember.
6 Q. After signing on to act as a
7 plaintiff in this litigation, did you
8 change that setting?
9 A. I did not change that setting.
10 Q. Do you ever communicate through
11 any other apps, like WhatsApp or instant
12 messaging apps like that?
13 A. I have used WhatsApp.
14 Q. Did you search WhatsApp or any
15 sort of similar apps for any responsive
16 material?
17 A. Did I search WhatsApp or --
18 Q. Mm-hmm.
19 A. I did not search WhatsApp.
20 Q. And is that because, like text,
21 you're confident that nothing responsive
22 would exist there?
23 A. I'm confident on WhatsApp
24 because I only use it to communicate with
25 a couple of people that I know I wasn't
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2 communicating with them about stocks.
3 Q. And what about Facebook
4 Messenger?
5 A. I searched Facebook Messenger.
6 Q. Does Reddit have direct
7 messaging?
8 A. It might. I'm not sure.
9 Q. Okay. I assume, then, you've
10 never used that feature on Reddit if it
11 does exist.
12 A. I'm pretty sure I have not.
13 Q. Okay. Have you deleted or
14 thrown out any kind of social media posts
15 that were related to issues in this
16 litigation?
17 A. No.
18 Q. Have you taken any steps to
19 preserve documents requested in this
20 litigation?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. What kind of actions?
23 A. I screen shotted or downloaded
24 these materials.
25 Q. So throughout the day today, we
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2 talked a lot about sort of enthusiasm on
3 Reddit and other social media sites
4 related to GME in, say, late January 2021.
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Fair?
7 A. Quite a bit.
8 Q. And did you consider yourself a
9 participant of any of that social media
10 enthusiasm?
11 A. I don't know if I would have
12 called myself a participant. I don't know
13 if I would have used that
14 characterization.
15 Q. Would you consider yourself
16 engaged in that social media enthusiasm
17 related to GME in late January of 2021?
18 A. What I would say is that I
19 followed that enthusiasm and made a
20 limited number of posts.
21 Q. And a lot of -- we've discussed
22 today that a lot of users on social media
23 were using kind of jargon like "to the
24 moon," right, or "diamond hands"; right?
25 A. Yes.
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2 Q. Those are also expressions or
3 Emojis or terms that you used in posts
4 around this time; right?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. And on days where you actually
7 posted things like "I'm holding to the
8 moon" and things like that were during
9 periods where you actually were holding
10 your GME share; right?
11 A. The posts that we have gone
12 over, yes, I was holding a GME share.
13 Q. Right. I think earlier, you
14 testified that you thought that some of
15 your social media posts were more comedic
16 in nature rather than a serious reflection
17 of how you felt about your investment in
18 GME.
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. But you took your investment in
21 GME very seriously as an actual financial
22 investment?
23 A. I don't know if I would say that
24 I, like, took it -- like, seriously is not
25 the word that came to my mind. I hoped to
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2 make money off of it. So if you define
3 seriously, like, what's your definition of
4 serious?
5 Q. Let me ask maybe a different --
6 a better question.
7 Were you motivated to either
8 invest in GME or hold onto your share of
9 GME in solidarity with the larger Reddit
10 community that was enthusiastic about the
11 company at that time?
12 A. I was primarily motivated by the
13 desire to make a profit and the fact that
14 there was, like, a potential benefit to --
15 like, a potential, you know, negative
16 effect to hedge funds was an added bonus.
17 I was not motivated by a desire to be,
18 like, a part of Wall Street Bets.
19 Q. Prior to January of 2021, you
20 know, you for a while have been investing
21 in Robinhood; right?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And after this time, you
24 continued investing I assume not on
25 Robinhood as actively but on your Fidelity
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2 account; right?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Do you recall any other
5 instances where you ever posted on social
6 media about those investments?
7 A. I don't recall any.
8 Q. The only time you recall ever
9 posting about investing -- your actual
10 investments, I mean -- was this time for
11 your one share of GME in January and I
12 guess in early February of 2021.
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. You never prior to that or after
15 that felt the need to post about, you
16 know, your investments that you made in
17 companies, you know, driven by your desire
18 to make money off of those investments.
19 MR. ROSEN: When you're asking
20 her if she felt the need, are you
21 asking her if she did it or if she
22 ever felt the need to do it?
23 Q. Did you ever do it?
24 A. I have not, but I -- did I post
25 about my desire to make money off of
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2 investments? Was that the question?
3 Q. I'm asking did you ever -- I
4 should rephrase.
5 Why did you -- if GME is the
6 only investment that you ever posted about
7 on social media, you know, why was that?
8 A. I can't say why I didn't post
9 about other investments. I can say that I
10 did post about GameStop because I used
11 Facebook as a social venue, and so I was
12 talking with other people about it in,
13 like, a social sense. It wasn't about
14 investments. It was about -- the pop
15 culture phenomenon is what I was talking
16 with people about, because that's what's
17 fun to talk about on Facebook.
18 Q. And is that what also made your
19 investment in GME fun? Like, this -- I
20 think you described it as a social
21 movement in this cultural phenomenon
22 around GME at this time?
23 A. Is that what made is fun?
24 Q. Yeah. I think a couple of
25 times, you used the word "fun" to describe
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2 your experience investing at this time.
3 A. Is -- so is talking with people
4 on social media what made it about it --
5 what made it fun.
6 Q. Yeah, or is that part of what
7 made it fun?
8 A. Yeah, that's part of what made
9 it fun.
10 (Pause)
11 MS. YOUNG: I'm just going over
12 my notes, but I don't think I have
13 much more.
14 (Pause)
15 MS. YOUNG: I think -- I want to
16 take ten minutes, but then I think I'm
17 done.
18 MR. ROSEN: Okay.
19 MS. YOUNG: Okay.
20 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: We're going
21 off the record at 2:14 p.m.
22 (Recess)
23 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: We're back on
24 the record at 2:30 p.m.
25 MS. YOUNG: Thank you for your
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2 time, Ms. Rivas. I don't have any
3 further questions for you.
4 THE WITNESS: You're welcome.
5 Thanks.
6 MR. ROSEN: No questions from
7 us.
8 THE VIDEOGRAPHER: We're off the
9 record at 2:30 p.m. This concludes
10 today's testimony given by Cecilia
11 Rivas.
12 MR. ROSEN: I just want to
13 designate the transcript Confidential
14 pursuant to the protective order.
15 (TIME NOTED: 2:30 p.m.)
16
17 ____________________________
18 CECILIA RIVAS
19
20 Subscribed and sworn to
21 before me this _________
22 day of ________________, 2023.
23
24 _______________________
25 Notary Public
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