Bloomberg published an investigation last month into Anson Funds and how its leadership colludes with other short sellers, proving a link between Anson and short-selling groups that had previously denied working with the fund.
The Bloomberg article, which appears to be the beginning of a series, also informed us that there are thousands of useful legal documents relating to Anson Funds’ illegal practices that are now in the public domain and accessible by anyone.
As soon as the article was published, our research team wrote to the Ontario court and requested the documents that were filed there, as mentioned by Bloomberg.
The court responded to our mail, and after weeks of back and forth, we now have complete access to everything filed with them and are working through the tens of thousands of documents.
It’s bad for Anson.
There are multiple counts of securities fraud for both Anson Funds and Nate Anderson, and we have only gone through 5% of what’s in there as of the time of writing.
One fact that we feel we must raise is that Nate Anderson lied to Bloomberg and also on Twitter in this thread, posted hours after the Bloomberg piece went live: https://x.com/NateHindenburg/status/1867202979004080245
Nate Anderson said the following,
“As part of a broader article, the crack research team at Bloomberg uncovered that in 2020 an investor shared a really good lead with us. And during our research process, we even talked with them about the idea– how scandalous! We routinely get leads from all walks of life; including industry experts, analysts, investors, etc. Throughout our history, we independently vet any lead and always have full editorial control.”
We know for a fact, from the email conversations between Anderson and Anson Funds, that he was indeed working for Anson and published whatever they told him to, from the price target to what should and shouldn’t be in the report. He asked them multiple times if they needed “more”. From what we can see in the dozens of exchanges, at no time did he have editorial control. He was being told what to publish. Anson Funds were not a mere investor reaching out with a tip as his post suggests. (see below.)
From what we have read so far, it is almost a certainty that when the whole exchange between Hindenburg and Anson reaches the SEC, Nate Anderson will be charged with securities fraud in 2025. (More on the laws he has broken below.)
Here is just one of the documents filed with the court, exposing Nate Anderson as a liar. These are actual court documents that were sent in by Anson Funds. (start at the bottom and work your way up)
Take a look at the language. Anson Funds is clearly writing the reports. Nate is merely the distribution outlet. He does not have editorial control as he claimed to Bloomberg and mentioned in his tweet. He is a hired gun and has committed securities fraud.One very important aspect to note is that the above exchange took place after dozens of emails between the two groups. After weeks of back and forth, Anson Funds reached out with the first draft.And it couldn’t finish any better for regulators looking into the Wolfpack, with Anson’s Joshua Fineman helping to demonstrate the collusion among groups by saying:“Hey Nate, Latest draft here, believe we are in a much better place now. Looking forward to tomorrow. To full downside, Mike”
Nate’s response to Sunny Puri and Michael Roussel a few messages higher is also a gift for regulators:
Review attached for any required final edits/changes.
This doesn’t really require comment as it speaks for itself. Nate Anderson was not writing the hit piece and did not have editorial control.
What you and regulators will be pleased to know is that this is only one of about 30 emails on this fraud–and this is by no means the worst.
We wonder what Marc Cohodes will make of all this?
Looks like he was right from the beginning about Nate Anderson: https://x.com/AlderLaneEggs/status/1857523169344762280
Spare everyone Nate, people in the industry know your gig and to hold yourself out as a “Boy Scout” doesn’t work.. Do you coordinate your “trading” with other funds when you put out your reports? I dont know it just stinks, and you were tipped about this as well. Care to explain the Callidus trade?
He also commented on just how many reports Nate Anderson published that were actually written by Anson Funds.
The ones we know for certain are: Genius Brands, Facedrive, Aphria, Callidus, NexTech, Bloom Energy, Riot Blockchain, PolarityTE and there are probably others… See below.
To make things worse for Anson Funds, Bloomberg also left clues about its trading in Facedrive during this period, with the following sentence:
“Trading records provided by Anson in the lawsuit show it had been shorting Facedrive almost daily before the report and began unwinding some bets the day Hindenburg published.”
As part of the court documents we were sent, we found Anson’s Facedrive trading records and will explain below why this is fraud and why the regulators have a slam dunk case against both. (Their trading records will be published early February, as well)
Securities Fraud:
The documents we have seen so far show that Anson Funds was involved in preparing the articles but failed to disclose its participation, and this is frequently charged by the SEC as securities fraud under Sections 17(a) and 17(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Because Anson Funds is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser, it is also subject to the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and this conduct can be charged as fraud under Section 206 of the 1940 Act.
The second, and probably bigger, issue for Anson Funds is that the fund is orchestrating a short campaign while simultaneously purchasing the stock to cover its shorts. In other words, in the same way that the SEC charges “pump and dumps”—when people orchestrate long campaigns, and then sell into the demand created by the promotional reports—it is equally fraudulent under the 1933 Act and the 1934 Act to orchestrate a short campaign, and then buy into the demand created by the promotional reports.
Regulators can 100% charge Anderson for fraud as the publisher, and Anson Funds as well. Expect this to come in 2025.
Nate can post all the lies he likes and buy himself a month. But in January/February, the proof of his collaboration with Anson Funds will be published here for all to see.
The collusion runs deeper, too. There is evidence in the documents they worked together on Aphria below.
Tilray documents, Canntrust and Schedule B-1
Tilray:
We also have hundreds of emails sent between Anson Funds and TD Bank during the whole Tilray debacle in which Anson was down hundreds of millions of dollars on a terrible short position.
We are working our way through them, but from what we can see it does not look good for TD Bank.
Could another scandal soon be coming TD Bank’s way? We need a few weeks to find out just how bad it is for TD.
Canntrust:
We have also obtained information from a Whatsapp conversation relating to Canntrust between Moez Kassam and another short researcher. There are 54 pages of it, and here we include a few highlights from the first four pages only.
These are Moez Kassam’s words:
Page 1 – “I’m paying you 15% of profits. Let me cut you a big check. We need to keep this quiet.” (This is VERY important as it is a paid balance sheet arrangement on the effectiveness of the reports and the profit that will be shared)
Page 3 – “What do you think you’ve got that isn’t out that will have the most impact. I’ll short some more b4 report”
Page 4 – “What time you going?”
Page 5 – “I shorted more”
The following is from a separate conversation on Canntrust (highlighting his relationship with Andrew Left and Nate Anderson again)
On 7/6/2019 at 8:17 pm – Moez Kassam is speaking with another short researcher in relation to Canntrust who is about to put a piece out, and Moez says: “We can have citron on it. Hit puts too”
Then later on at 8:30pm Moez says: “I want to get Andrew excited and On-board” (Andrew Left)
On 7/6/2019 at 8:22 pm – Moez says: “I gave Hindenburg his entire file” (these are his own words. I wonder what Nate has to say about this?)
We will be publishing the full Whatsapp conversation soon, and these are actual screenshots. But the above is just a taste and again shows more securities laws being broken. Regulators will love this.
Schedule B1 – Aphria
On the 3rd batch of mails sent to us by the court there was something called the Plaintiffs’ Schedule B1 dated March 31, 2023.
This should be keeping Moez up at night. There are some very interesting emails listed in here, including more emails between Anson and Nate Anderson on Aphria, that show collusion between the two on multiple hit pieces.
SOL Global is mentioned, and numerous emails between Anson and the Globe & Mail – obviously a close partnership there.
More of this coming in January when we have had a chance to go through everything and understand the full picture. Remember these are court documents and actual emails Anson Funds has sent. Irrefutable proof of the fund’s illegal dealings.
Receive the documents yourself
We will also be letting you know how to retrieve the documents for yourselves once we have gone through everything and located all useful information. This will be covered in our next post.
But for those sleuths amongst you it’s easy to obtain the information. Just reach out directly to the Ontario courts. The court file number is: CV-20-0653410-00CL
Stay tuned.
What brokers do they use?
Is this the end of anson and this abusive short selling and what about the dirty zenabis emails.
Who then all the suspects/alleged ? What are their roles now.
we should put a list of people together
“colleagues”
Break out the popcorn, shits bout to get real!
This article was worth the 5 month wait….well done!
for real, holy moly
this is going to ruin moez and many others day.so nate is stepping down and lawyering up