The most obvious example is his investigation of Merrill Lynch, the brokerage firm whose analysts were found to have promoted stocks they knew to be worthless.

Mr. Spitzer had accused Merrill of promoting stocks of companies whose investment banking business the firm wanted.

As a result, analysts were routinely selling investors down the river by promoting stocks purely to land banking business from companies.

But maybe there are insiders who are, anonymously or using aliases, promoting stocks that they are eventually going to dump on the public.

Its analysts and brokers may be promoting stocks that they would not like so much if they knew what some of their co-workers in the investment-banking department knew.

Con artists are already finding the Internet to be a cheap, easy way to promote fake "investment opportunities" or to promote stocks in which they have secret stakes.

They may spread false information to promote worthless stocks.

They were accused of helping to promote worthless stocks, taking bribes from promoters and destroying records of their activities.

Neither he nor Mr. Rogers will say, citing laws against promoting stocks.

Her articles illuminated a culture in which analysts spent less time on research and more time promoting stocks of companies that did business with their firms.