I miss the dot-com boom. The ever rising stock prices. The nonchalant dismissal of basic concepts such as revenue, profit and cost-control. The research analysts allegedly offering companies a “buy” rating in exchange for investment banking business. I miss it all. But thanks to Rodman & Renshaw LLC, we are no longer left to wallow entirely in nostalgia. According to FINRA, Rodman may have resurrected the art of trading favorable research coverage for investment banking business. But is FINRA right about this? After all, the email evidence below suggests that the alleged culprit, research analyst Lewis Boreas Fan, was not seeking investment banking business at all, but instead was seeking only to be loved — by a Chinese manufacturer of mineral-based, heat-resistant products. [Read more…]