What is Occupy SEC2023?

Mike Maynar was a marine. He understands commitment and hard work. Together with Creatd’s Founder and CEO Jeremy Frommer, he has put together the first organized public protest against abusive trading practices and naked short selling of public securities. Not since occupy wall street protests of the last decade has so much attention been brought to the plight of the retail investor. He intends on taking the movement right to the front door of the SEC.

Mike has described his journey to us. 

“I got into investing late in my life, almost at the age of 40, and I decided to start researching companies to figure out how to invest in stocks, and which stocks to invest in. Through that, I found other folks that were looking to invest in stocks utilizing social media through places like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Discord, and so on. As a community, we started to learn together as we shared information and did due diligence on the companies. That’s when I found out about AMC and GameStop and started to learn about these heavily shorted manipulated stocks. The longer I stayed in those communities, the more information I obtained; the more corruption I discovered in the stock market. 

I saw how the average person, often referred to as the 99%–the ones at work every day, that show up, boot up to make a good living so they can take care of their families–ultimately, they are the ones that pay the price when these folks on Wall Street get greedy. Of all the things that I discovered being in these communities, researching and hearing the methods that hedge funds, market makers, and prime brokers utilize to maximize their profits, the one that hurt me the most was the fact that these guys found a way to make more money running good companies out of business. 

The really sad part is that the SEC, which is supposed to be the enforcement division of the stock market, sits idly there just like they did with Madoff. No matter how many tweets we send them, how many times we watch Gary Gensler and his interviews, we still see no change for us, the average retail investors. Unfortunately, it’s almost as if we see that our own government or SEC is just as corrupt as those on Wall Street. And even worse, the average person out there–the working class, the middle class, the 99%–they don’t even see it.

They pay faithfully into their 401(k) plans, and into their retirement plans, hoping that they’ll build up enough for their retirement so they can enjoy it but unfortunately, I see more and more retired folks having to come out of retirement just to survive because their savings accounts are continuously destroyed and ran down.

Being a former Marine and having been willing to fight and die for my country, I saw that this corruption was hurting my fellow Americans and I could no longer sit back and watch it without being willing to stand up, speak out, and draw the 99% together to unite. If anything, do this for your children and their futures. I am doing it for my 6 children.

That’s why, about five months ago, I decided to start introducing what I call “Being M.A.D.” Mass Awareness Days. On January 27 and 28th, all of retail, no matter what stock you may own, will come together, and stand shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the SEC offices. I have already received the permit to head up the Washington DC corporate location, where I hope many other folks will take the time to come and join us.  My whole reason behind these Mass Awareness Days, or Occupy SEC 2023, is to show that we are uniting to let those on Wall Street and our own government know that we, the 99%, are fed up.”

The protest is expected to attract a large crowd including retail investors, indusrty specialists as well as CEOs of company’s that have been damaged by the systemic issues cause by naked short selling of Stock. 

Said CEO of Creatd (OTCQB:CRTD)as well as the founder of CEOBLOC.com Jeremy Frommer, “It is time to take the movement to the next level. We are demanding action in the form of legislation and prosecution of individuals participating in nefarious behavior in the public markets. No CEO can succeed if the deck is stacked against them. United we can stand against the odds and shift the balance in favor of the retail investor, empowering the 99% is the mission.