Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox has criticized the agency’s San Francisco regional officer for issuing subpoenas to two journalists as part of stock-manipulation probe. Calling the subpoenas issued last week to Herb Greenberg of MarketWatch and Carol Remond of Dow Jones Newswire “highly unusual,” Cox said the SEC generally avoids dragging the media into its investigations and the Frisco office should have cleared the move with the main office first. The SEC is looking into whether Arizona-based Gradient Analytics had schemed with hedge fund Rocker Partners by issuing reports that allegedly made stock prices of Overstock.com drop sharply. Cox said in a statement said he had first learned of the subpoenas over the weekend through media reports. The San Francisco office had decided not to enforce the subpoena shortly after reporters questioned it about them, The New York Times reports.
