Chicago Options Associates, What’s the story? Options

[Peter Damian]

In 1994 Wales left the university of Alabama and took a job at Chicago Options Associates, as Research Director. He left in 1996. I am still puzzled how he made enough money so as not to work again, having worked there less than two years, in a research capacity (rather than a trader).

What happened to Chicago Options Associates? The CEO was Michael Davis, who in that period was the subject of a lawsuit referenced here

http://www.state.il.us/court/opinions/appe...tml/1041110.htm
http://www.state.il.us/court/opinions/supr.../may/102578.pdf

I haven’t time to follow the details of the case yet, but it seems Davis was successfully sued for a large sum of money (then), nearly $1m, and tried by various means to avoid payment. Does anyone know the full story? I see Greg has followed this one in the past.

[Kelly Martin]

One of the things I rarely see anyone mention is Jimmy's potentially fraudulent conveyance of Wikipedia from Bomis to the Wikimedia Foundation in 2003. Jimmy has always acted as if he owned all of Bomis, but that wasn't the case; he never owned more than 10%, from what I've been able to piece together. His conveyance of Bomis' sole valuable asset to the Foundation may have been contrary to the interests of the other stockholders, one of whom may well have been Dowling (although it was clearly consistent with Michael Davis' interests, and Davis was the majority owner of Bomis, from what I've been able to learn), and may also have violated one or more of the orders related to the Dowling litigation. I've always regretted that Dowling didn't attempt to pierce the veil and go after Wikipedia. Keep in mind that Wikipedia, in 2006, had a speculative market valuation between $100 million and $2 billion.

One of the dirty little secrets about the WMF is that one of the reasons, perhaps the main reason, it was created was to gut Bomis of value so that even if Dowling got his hands on it, there's be nothing left but an empty shell.