As you guys probably remember, there was a ton of drama surrounding the recent Dendreon (DNDN) data and stock price fiasco, which we covered almost minute-by-minute.

For a recap, on April 14th DNDN announced Provenge met its primary endpoint and the stock blasted off. Then, in the early morning on April 28th, hours ahead of the full Provenge data presentation at AUA, someone on Yahoo!Finance left a message saying a “bear raid” would occur. A few hours later, it did!! And the stock tanked 50% ahead of the data release.

Then there was a NASDAQ investigation, which ended up saying the trades would stand. The stock climbed back up after hours, but took away fortunes with the drop (if you sold) and made some on the climb, presumably.

Here’s our full coverage of the drama from back in April.

Now, a website called DeepCapture is running a 15-part series on the history of DNDN and its proposed financial manipulation by hedge funds, media, etc.

The story essentially blasts Jim Cramer from The Street as well as infamous financier Michael Milken. Though we don’t necessarily agree or disagree with the piece, we can’t help quote the meat of the story:

“And with every burst of good news, the company has faced waves upon waves of naked short selling – hedge funds illegally selling millions of shares that do not exist to flood the market and drive down the stock price. Along with the phantom stock, people seeking to diminish Dendreon have deployed false financial research , biased media, bogus class action lawsuits, Internet bashers, dubious science, and other familiar weapons of the “battleground.”

The denouement of this stock market “battle” occurred recently, on April 28, 2009, when Dendreon was to present all-important results at the American Urological Association’s annual meeting in Chicago. Some days prior, Dendreon’s CEO, Mitch Gold, had announced that the results of an Independent Monitoring Committee study were “unambiguous in nature…a clear hit” for Provenge.

If a CEO uses language like that and does not produce the data to back it up, he is guaranteed a visit from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Unless the CEO or his allies have juice with the SEC, the commission will usually charge the CEO with making false statements to pump his stock. Gold was unlikely to take that risk, so it was clear to most people that the meeting in Chicago was going to be a triumph for Dendreon.

And it indeed it was. The data presented that day showed that Provenge lowers the risk of prostate cancer death by 22.5 percent, with little or no toxicity. With a few notable exceptions (some of whom are to appear as prominent characters in this story), nearly every medical professional on the planet now concurred that Provenge was a blockbuster drug – one that should receive FDA approval and make Dendreon a highly profitable company.

But the hedge funds weren’t finished. In the days following Gold’s announcement, short sellers piled on with a vengeance, returning Dendreon to the leagues of the world’s most heavily traded stocks. The firm once again found itself on the SEC’s “Reg Sho” list of companies whose stock was “failing to deliver” in excessive quantities – a sign of illegal naked short selling.

The article then discusses the now famous Bear Raid(?) of DNDN:

On CNBC, meanwhile, Cramer had hammered Dendreon. On April 6, 2009, amidst ear-rattling sound effects – dogs fighting, and (inexplicably) a baby crying – Cramer had said “I don’t like Dendreon.” He had shouted that Provenge had no chance of getting FDA approval and Dendreon shareholders should “SELL! SELL! SELL!”

Then, on April 28, at 11:22 am – just hours before Dendreon’s triumph in Chicago – an anonymous message board author on Yahoo! Finance posted this message: “HIGH PROBABILITY OF MASSIVE BEAR RAID…DNDN [Dendreon] could easily drop 50% on a massive bear raid…its coming today@12:30 pm central.”

Just minutes before 12:30 pm central, Dendreon’s stock price began to fall. It didn’t just fall it nosedived from $24 to under $8 … in 75 seconds. That’s correct, during a period of 75 seconds, more than 4,000 trades were placed, totaling 3 million shares, or about 50% of Dendreon’s (spectacularly high) average daily volume. Given that the message board poster knew what was coming, it is a safe bet that this was a coordinated, illegal naked short selling attack. And just in case you still didn’t get this – it caused Dendreon’s share price to lose more than 65% of its value – in just 75 seconds flat.

Check out the full post right here for a take on how DeepCapture proposes Michael Milken and the mafia might be involved behind the ups and downs of DNDN.

The Mafia????!!!!! Oh no!!!!!!!!!

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