A US-based short seller firm that published reports accusing major financial entities in India and abroad of financial irregularities and fraud is set to be shut down.
Nate Anderson, founder of Hindenburg Research, announced Wednesday that he has decided to dissolve the company about eight years after founding it.
The company has been making headlines in India in 2023 After publishing explosive reports About billionaire Gautam Adani's conglomerate, which sparked political disputes and huge losses for the company.
Mr Anderson did not give a specific reason for his decision, but expressed his desire to spend more time with friends and family in the future.
Started in 2017, Hindenburg Research has become known for uncovering alleged financial irregularities at some big-name companies. The company's reports led to companies, in India and abroad, losing billions of dollars in market value.
“Nearly 100 people have been charged with civil or criminal charges by regulators, at least in part through our work, including billionaires and oligarchs,” Anderson wrote in his article. “We shook up some empires that we felt needed to be shaken.” statement Where he announced his decision.
In 2020, the company accused electric truck maker Nikola Corp. of misleading investors about its technology. In 2022, the company's founder, Trevon Melton, was found guilty of lying to investors and found guilty of fraud.
In 2023, it published a report in which it accused the Adani Group of decades of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud.” Adani and his company denied the allegations, calling them “malicious” and an “attack on India”.
In the days following the report, Adani's group It witnessed a loss of about $108 billion of its market value But the company's financial health has since rebounded.
Last year, Hindenburg Research accused Madhabi Puri Buch – head of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) – Because there are links with external funds used by the Adani Group. Both Ms. Buch and Adanis have denied any wrongdoing.
The company's allegations sparked angry political rows in the country, with India's main opposition Congress party accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party of not taking action against Adani's group.
Adani, one of Asia's richest men, is seen as close to Modi and has long faced allegations from opposition politicians that he benefited from his political connections, which he denies.
In his statement, Mr. Anderson expressed his desire to open source Hindenburg's research methodology in the future.
“Over the next six months or so, I plan to work on a series of materials and videos to open source every aspect of our model and how we conduct our investigations,” he wrote.
Short sellers, like Hindenburg, bet against shares of companies that they believe are involved in fraud or other financial wrongdoing, based on their investigations. The process involves borrowing a stock, selling it immediately and then buying it back when its value declines to pocket the difference.
