Don't Blindly Accept SEC Filings

Matt Levine of Bloomberg highlights how anyone can file anything on EDGAR, the SEC online report dissemination system (same thing probably can happen in other countries as well?). The person may still be criminally liable depending on what they file but that is after-the-fact, so one shouldn't blindly accept regulatory filings:
The Securities and Exchange Commission's Edgar system for making securities filings is notoriously prone to hacking. "Hacking" maybe isn't the word; it's very low-tech. You submit an application to the SEC, have a notary stamp it, and get back your Edgar ID. Then you can just make whatever filings you want on Edgar. Want to say that you just bought Facebook Inc.? Sure, whatever, go right ahead, knock yourself out. Want to buy stock in a smallish public company, make an Edgar filing claiming that it's being taken over, and then sell your stock on the reaction to the fake news? Yeah that can sometimes work, though not as well as you'd hope. 
...
Anyway here's a funny story about a guy who said on Edgar that he had sold his art company to Alphabet Inc. for $3.6 trillion of Alphabet stock. He doesn't seem to have made any money off the fake filing; he just did it for fun, or for art. I don't mind that so much.
Yes, you can literally file anything, including this guy who claimed he is the richest man on earth ;) That was a joke but some people do try to manipulate it for personal gain, which is generally illegal (depending on what they do). Worth checking out the main Bloomberg story.

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