Anson Funds Used Seeking Alpha to Crush Companies
The below information was originally posted by an anonymous user on Reddit. We have gone through everything in detail and all the information checks out. Hopefully the regulators will be looking closely at this and speaking with the OSC about their deal with Anson Funds. Original post can be found here
Part I: Moez Kassam and Anson Funds: A Tale of Corruption, Greed, and Failure
Part II: Moez Kassam & Anson Funds Part II: Rotten To The Core
Part III: Moez Kassam & Anson Funds: Panic as DOJ Widens Investigation
Part IV: Selling Everyone Out
Other reading: Anson Funds and the Great Con
Other reading: Anson Funds and Andrew Left – Insider Trading & The Secret Partnership
Other reading: Moez Kassam & Anson Funds: The Big Secret
It actually wasn’t very difficult to break this all down once I figured out the connection … Anson Funds and Sunny Puri have been using Seeking Alpha quite a lot as a distributor of hit pieces on companies.
It looks like Sunny Puri is the head of this media snake—never by name, of course. There are a bunch of pseudonyms but the ones that really stand out are “Grumpy Bear Research” and “The Emperor Has No Clothes”.
“Grumpy Bear Research” leaves a pretty obvious trail for anyone to follow, with a string of hit pieces published on Seeking Alpha. See them all here: https://seekingalpha.com/author/grumpy-bear-research
These pieces—each written by Sunny Puri—are clear hit pieces on the following companies—all of which I believe Anson was either shorting or seeking to harm in some way:
* Namaste Technologies – Vaporizing Shareholder Value (80% Downside)
* Isodiol Is MJNA 2.0 – Expect Massive Dilution From Not-So-Arm’s-Length Transactions
* NexOptic: Seeing Through The Blurred Hype; 88% Downside
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4064144-nexoptic-seeing-through-blurred-hype-88-percent-downside
* Aurora Cannabis: Up In Smoke… Puff, Puff, Pass
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4031926-aurora-cannabis-up-in-smoke-puff-puff-pass
* Dialog Deal Keeps Energous’s Pipe Dreams Alive, Patents Could Face Challenges
A curious development took place in May 2018, however. Following the Namaste hit piece published on May 4th, 2018, Sunny Puri suddenly went silent and ceased publishing as Grumpy Bear. There was no real mystery, though. This is when the OSC (the Canadian regulator) caught onto Anson’s game of stock manipulation and forced the Fund to cut a settlement deal that also was more or less a cease and desist in terms of publishing any more hit pieces under pseudonyms.
That is also when Anson started to use other short sellers more frequently to do their dirty work via the media to provide another layer of distance between themselves and hit campaigns. The short sellers they began to rely on heavily included Left, Axler and Anderson, among a few others. (Anyone following this thread recently will know who these guys are).
Grumpy Bear Research also “liked” the following article by Hindenburg Research: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4225817-aphria-shell-game-cannabis-business-on-side
This is relevant because I believe that Anson Funds provided Hindenburg with most of the research for his negative short report and that the Fund was working as part of a wolf pack to bring the stock down. (Catalyst lawsuit is another good example of the wolf pack at work: https://catalystlitigation.com/ )
But this isn’t the first time Anson Funds have gotten into trouble with hit pieces they published on Seeking Alpha.
Sunny Puri was previously extremely active as well under his other pseudonym, “The Emperor Has No Clothes”, which can be read here: https://seekingalpha.com/author/the-emperor-has-no-clothes
As was noted on the website www.marketfrauds.to Sunny Puri and Anson Funds were sued by the company Nobilis for the hit pieces that was published under this exact pseudonym:
https://marketfrauds.to/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Nobilis-Statement-of-Claim.pdf
I’ve got some friends on Bay Street and rumor has it that Anson Funds had to make a large payment to Nobilis to settle the lawsuit because the evidence of market manipulation and publishing false and defamatory information had piled up in Nobilis’ favor. Anson was guilty of everything Nobilis listed in their lawsuit.
Here is a list of the reports. The headlines read like a definitive hit list:
* Nobilis: About To Fall From Nobility (Original Post Update)
https://seekingalpha.com/article/3670356-nobilis-to-fall-from-nobility-original-post-update
* Nobilis: About To Fall From Nobility, Part I, 65%+ Downside
https://seekingalpha.com/article/3561556-nobilis-to-fall-from-nobility-part-i-65-percent-downside
* Aquinox Pharmaceuticals: Low Float Insanity Meets Biotech Bubble
* QIWI’s Compliance Issues May Place Its Stock And Business In A World Of Hurt
* USEC Inc. – Still Disconnected From Reality
https://seekingalpha.com/article/2473655-usec-inc-still-disconnected-from-reality
* USEC Inc. – Stock Price Disconnected From Reality
https://seekingalpha.com/article/2296945-usec-inc-stock-price-disconnected-from-reality
* Terra Tech: A Natural-Born Capital Killer – (for this one there is an entire website devoted to how Anson Funds attacked this company. Sunny Puri even committed Libel in an open letter to the Clark County Commissioner of Nevada as part of a deliberate effort to deny Terra Tech an operating license in that county. https://ansonfundconspiracy.wordpress.com/
https://seekingalpha.com/article/2256753-terra-tech-a-natural-born-capital-killer
* Growlife: Why It Got Halted And What You Need To Know Before Trading Resumes On Friday, April 25th
Four years later on Seeking Alpha, Sunny posted the following comment:
“I, The Emperor Has No Clothes, am correcting disclosure on this article. I was short PHOT at the time of the posting of this article. I did write this article myself and it did express my own opinion at the time. I received no compensation for it. I had no business relationships with the companies mentioned in the posting. For further clarity, I have no current position in the stock.”
This all went way beyond short-selling on the part of Sunny.
Anson Funds is also pretty good at pumping stocks (something regulators should also be looking at – especially how the moved up Genius Brands before dumping it hard – https://marketfrauds.to/genius-brands-the-story-anson-funds-doesnt-want-you-to-read/ )
One clear Anson Funds pump using Seeking Alpha was for Tempur Sealy using the headline “Tempur Sealy – Protected Downside With Significant Upside”.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/2124023-tempur-sealy-protected-downside-with-significant-upside
Four years after the pump, Anson issued the following statement:
“I, The Emperor Has No Clothes, am correcting disclosure on this article. I was long TPX at the time of the posting of this article. I did write this article myself and it did express my own opinion at the time. I received no compensation for it. I had no business relationships with the company’s mentioned in the posting. For further clarity, I have no current position in the stock.”
The sheer level of arrogance here by the Anson Funds folk is unbelievable. They seem to think they are untouchable, but recent developments shows they clearly aren’t.
Did you see the Hindenburg report on Adani? https://hindenburgresearch.com/?p=2376
Who might have been involved in this with Hindenburg? Looks like Hindenburg disclosed that he was short the bonds but the day before someone took out $2 million worth of puts.
Who is known for doing this sort of thing?
Also doesn’t the timing of the report look a bit off? Right before the offering. Who again do we know that does these sorts of things?
Might be worth investigation.
moez kassam is the biggest fraudster, his reign is coming to an end soon!!!