Prominent short seller Andrew Left, the founder of Citron Research, has been charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with multiple counts of securities fraud for a $16 million stock market manipulation scheme.
The Department of Justice said in a statement on Friday that Left is charged with one count of engaging in a securities fraud scheme, 17 counts of securities fraud and one count of making false statements to federal investigators.
Separately, the SEC charged Left on Friday with a $20 million scheme to defraud his followers by publishing false and misleading statements about his stock trading recommendations. Short sellers like Left make bets stocks will decline in value based on their analysis that a business may have underlying financial problems or simply because they believe the shares are overvalued.
Left, an investor who was a frequent guest commentator on television channels including CNBC and Fox Business, built a following for his contrary calls on stocks such as GameStop — a darling of meme-stock followers — and Chinese property developer Evergrande. But securities regulators allege that after Left and Citron published opinions on 23 companies whose stock prices subsequently moved more than 12% on average, they quickly reversed their positions to profit from those stock moves.
"Left bought back stock immediately after telling his readers to sell, and he sold stock immediately after telling his readers to buy," the SEC claimed in a Friday statement.
The alleged bait-and-switch scheme netted Left and his firm $20 million in profits, said Kate Zoladz, director of the SEC's Los Angeles regional office, in a statement.
"Andrew Left took advantage of his readers. He built their trust and induced them to trade on false pretenses so that he could quickly reverse direction and profit from the price moves following his reports," Zoladz added.
Citron didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
If convicted, Left faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison on the securities fraud scheme count, 20 years in prison on each securities fraud count, and five years in prison on the false statements count.
— With reporting by the Associated Press.
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