Apparently Byrne also denied responsibility for weather, tides, and the great Chicago fire. More from the Reuters article:

...The San Francisco office of the SEC took the unusual step of issuing subpoenas to two Dow Jones & Co. columnists, Carol Remond and Herb Greenberg, to demand telephone records, e-mails and other documents related to Overstock.com...

...Byrne acknowledged speaking to SEC officials about the probe, but dismissed the notion that the subpoenas were related to a lawsuit Overstock filed in August against hedge fund Rocker Partners and research firm Gradient Analytics...

..."It's my sense that the SEC was onto Herb's scent long before we came along," Byrne said. "I have not orchestrated the SEC investigation."...

Check out the full article here. And, as reported earlier this morning, SEC Chair Chris Cox has since re-called the hounds.

-- MDT

Labels: Gradient Analytics, Patrick Byrne