Andrew Left

Andrew Left
Born (1970-07-09) July 9, 1970
Residence Beverly Hills, California[1]
Occupation Financial analyst, financial writer, short seller
Years active 1995 – present
Organization Citron Research, formerly StockLemon.com
Website citronresearch.com

Andrew Edward Left (born July 9, 1970) is an activist short seller, author and editor of the online investment newsletter Citron Research, formerly StockLemon.com.[2][3] Under the name Citron Research, Left publishes reports on firms that he claims are overvalued or are engaged in fraud. Left is known for advising investors on short selling and has often appeared on various media outlets such as CNBC and Bloomberg to talk about his opinions on stocks.[4][5]

Citron has launched 51 investigative reports against S&P 500 companies between 2009 and 2015, as well as several Chinese companies, citing allegations of pyramid schemes, ineffective products and accounting or business frauds.[6] Despite being sued by multiple companies for the reports he has released, Left claims he has never lost a case in the United States.[5][7]

Early life and career

Left was born in a Detroit suburb[8] and later moved with his family to Coral Springs, Florida. He attended Coral Springs High School where he was a member of the debate team and president of the Jewish youth group.[1] He attended Northeastern University in 1993.[9]

Left's first job was with Universal Commodity Corp, a high-pressure commodities brokerage firm that hired salespeople to make cold calls and push "questionable investments."[8] Left quit in March 1994, after 9 months with the company. When the National Futures Association sanctioned the firm in December 1998, Left, along with every other former employee, was sanctioned for three years along with being required to take an ethics-training course as part of the probe into the firm for making false statements to sell commodity futures contracts.[10] The National Futures Association stated Mr. Left “made false and misleading statements to cheat, defraud or deceive a customer in violation of NFA compliance rules.” [11]

Left became active in short selling by the age of 24. He has cited his experience with Universal Commodity Corp as the reason he started short selling stocks promoted by boiler-room scams.[5] When the boiler rooms eventually went out of business, Left started shorting stocks from bulletin-board scams, in which people would send out email blasts saying, "Buy this stock now or you'll miss out."[1]

In April 1999, Left became president and CEO of Detour Media. He was named director of the company in November 1999.[9][12][13] In 2002, his then employer Detour Media sued Left and prevailed on a $25,000 default judgment against him.[14]

Left switched to shorting the stocks full-time,[8] using his own research to publish free reports on firms he feels are overvalued or engaged in fraud.[5] In 2001, he founded StockLemon.com, now known as Citron Research. According to Left, he has made profits every year since he started short selling.[15]

Citron Research

Left initially started StockLemon.com in 2001 as a self-published blog containing reports on controversial companies. He rebranded the site as Citron Research in 2007.[5][8][16] Left researches and short sells companies he believes to be engaged in fraud, have been suspiciously promoted, or have been mistakenly overpriced by the stock market.[17][18]

According to a Wall Street Journal analysis of 111 Citron short-sale reports spanning from 2001 to 2014, there was an average share-price decline of 42 percent in the year after Left's report was released. Of those shares, 90 were lower one year later while 21 gained, according to data from S&P Capital IQ.[5]

GTX Global Corp. sued Left for defamation after a 2005 article he published through Citron about GTX Global. In 2007, the case was dismissed under California's anti-SLAPP statues which cover writings about publicly traded companies as matters of public interest.[19][20]

In 2008, Left released a report in which he concluded that Home Solutions was not transparent about the company's relationship with American Renaissance. Home Solutions had loaned money to American Renaissance before the "partnership" was disclosed publicly. As a result of Left's research, Home Solutions’ stock plummeted.[21] Starting in 2012, Left published multiple reports about Questcor Pharmaceuticals centered around incorrect labeling of the drug Acthar's ingredients. When Questcor was acquired by Mallinckrodt, Left criticized the new company for continued misconduct.[22] Several of Left's reports have become highly publicized, including a 2012 report on the legality of operations by Nu Skin Enterprises, and a 2015 report on Valeant Pharmaceuticals bringing attention to inflated sales.[6][23]

Valeant Pharmaceuticals

Left's 2015 report on Valeant Pharmaceuticals accused the company of channel stuffing[24] and using sham transactions to inflate drug sales. Left's initial report focused on an investigation launched by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Elijah Cummings that examined Valeant's business model of massively spiking the prices of drugs to which it had acquired marketing rights.[25] Left followed up with a report focused on pharmaceutical distributor Philidor RX.[26] Left called for the US Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate the issue and referred to the company as the "Pharmaceutical Enron".[27][28] As a result of the report, Valeant shares dropped after a five year peak,[29] eventually falling more than 90 percent from its peak in August 2015, and announced the resignation of longtime CEO Michael Pearson the following March.[30][31]

Citron's reports on Chinese companies

Citron Research has published reports on 18 Chinese companies, 16 of which experienced a drop in stock prices, with 15 of them experiencing drops of over 70%.[32] This has caused a collective of Chinese business leaders, including Qihoo 360 CEO Zhou Hongyi (a company that has been targeted by Left), to launch a site called CitronFraud.com (no longer operating).[33] Left sent a legal notice to the 60 Chinese executives involved, seeking an apology, and told Tech In Asia that he is consulting with lawyers and considering legal action in response.[34] Qihoo 360 has also threatened to take legal action against Citron, as well as former Google China chief Kai-Fu Lee, now the chairman and CEO of Innovation Works.[35][36]

In 2011, Left released a report through Citron about Longtop Financial, a financial software house based out of China, accusing it of defrauding shareholdings, over-reporting revenues, and lacking transparency in the company's acquisition process.[37] The report pointed out Longtop's outsized margins and unexplained stock grants and pointed out Longtop's relationship with China's largest banks.[38][39] The company was later issued a Wells Notice of impending criminal charges from the SEC.[40]

In 2016, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission accused Left of spreading false and misleading information about Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd. The trial marks the first legal action of the Securities and Futures Commission against a short seller with ramifications for free speech, according to the judge. Left had been researching Evergrande since 2012 when he received papers from an anonymous whistleblower, and claimed they were insolvent and the chairman's credentials were false.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Julia La Roche (November 9, 2015). "Meet the short-seller single-handedly crushing the titans of the hedge fund industry". Business Insider. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Drug Maker Questor Down on Short Seller Comments". Reuters. 2012-07-10. Retrieved 2013-11-27.
  3. ↑ "Citron Research Vindicated - The Motley Fool Blog". Caps.fool.com. Retrieved 2013-11-27.
  4. ↑ Paul R. La Monica (March 2, 2016). "More bad news for Tesla and Elon Musk". CNN. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Matt Wirz (October 22, 2015). "The 'Short' Who Sank Valeant Stock". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  6. 1 2 Oliver Renick; Anna-Louise Jackson; Joseph Ciolli (October 21, 2015). "Ackman Feeling Shortseller's Sting as Citron Sinks Valeant Stock". Bloomberg. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Citron's Andrew Left on Life As A Short-Seller". Business Insider. December 9, 2011. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Daniel Bases; Ryan Vlastelica; Clare Baldwin; Mark Bendeich (August 5, 2011). "Special report: The "shorts" who popped a China bubble". Reuters. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  9. 1 2 "Detour Media Group Inc". SEC. December 31, 2000. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  10. ↑ Daniel Bases; David Gaffen (October 21, 2015). "Citron's Left hits nerve with new Valeant broadside". Reuters. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  11. ↑ Niall McGee (October 21, 2015). "Who is Citron Research?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  12. ↑ Susan Carpenter (July 3, 2001). "It's Publish and Perish in L.A.". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Detour Media Launches Detour Custom Publishing". The Write News. June 20, 2000. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Detour Media Group Inc - '10QSB' for 3/31/02". SECinfo.com. Retrieved 2015-04-03.
  15. 1 2 Julie Steinberg (March 15, 2016). "The Short Who Got Valeant Right Is on Trial in Hong Kong". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Evergrande Stock Tumbles on Fraud Accusation - Market Watch". Articles.marketwatch.com. Retrieved 2013-11-27.
  17. ↑ "Nu Skin Shares Fall After Short-Seller Questions China Ops - Reuters". In.reuters.com. 2012-08-07. Retrieved 2013-11-27.
  18. ↑ Weil, Jonathan (2013-12-05). "Weil on Finance: Carl Icahn's Mug". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  19. ↑ Martin Samson. "GTX Global Corp. v. Left". Internet Library of Law and Court Decisions. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  20. ↑ "GTX Global Corp. v. Left". Digital Media Law Project. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  21. ↑ Gordon Russell (January 15, 2008). "Disaster rebuilder faces storm of its own". Nola.com. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  22. ↑ Cynthia Koons (November 9, 2015). "Mallinckrodt's $35,000 Drug Is Back in the Spotlight". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  23. ↑ Yukhananov, Anna (2012-08-16). "Exclusive: Nu Skin told not to use researcher's name". Reuters. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  24. ↑ John Melloy, Everett Rosenfeld (October 21, 2015). "I bought 2M shares of Valeant today; I believe in the company". CNBC. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  25. ↑ Michael Hiltzik (November 3, 2015). "Valeant scandal shows why we need short-sellers in the stock market". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  26. ↑ "Valeant Plunges 30% After Short Seller Citron Research Makes Fraud Allegation". Forbes. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  27. ↑ Fred Imbert (May 17, 2016). "Citron's Andre Left: Yes, L'm long Valeant, but…". CNBC. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  28. ↑ Linette Lopez (March 2, 2016). "The short seller who took down Valeant is out of the stock because it is 'uninvestable'". Business Insider. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  29. ↑ Charles Stein (October 21, 2015). "Bill Ackman among investors feeling Valeant Pharmaceutical Inc's pain with billions erased in stock fall". Financial Post. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  30. ↑ Damon van der Linde (May 18, 2016). "Valeant Pharmaceuticals short seller Andrew Left buying into the company does not signal a turnaround, says analyst". Financial Post. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  31. ↑ Stephen Gandel (March 20, 2016). "What Caused Valeant's Epic 90% Plunge". Fortune. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  32. ↑ iChinaStock (2011-12-09). "Interview With A Deadeye China Short Seller". Business Insider. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  33. ↑ Steven Millward (2012-09-04). "Shit Gets Real, and Personal, as Chinese Business Leaders Slam Short Sellers Citron". Techinasia.com. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  34. ↑ Steven Millward (2012-09-06). "Citron's Andrew Left Defends His China Record". Techinasia.com. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  35. ↑ "Citron steps up fight against Chinese entrepreneurs｜Economy｜News｜WantChinaTimes.com". Wantchinatimes.com. 2012-09-20. Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  36. ↑ "Citron Faces Lawsuit from Qihoo and Kai-Fu Lee_ChinaScope Financial | News". Chinascopefinancial.com. 2012-10-11. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  37. ↑ "Longtop Financial Technologies under fire from research firms". IBS Intelligence. May 16, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  38. ↑ "Longtop in Trouble:CFO and Auditor Resign". Business Insider. May 23, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  39. ↑ Eddie Staley (August 19, 2011). "Citron Research Sees Longtop Financial as Potential Takeover Target". Benzinga. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  40. ↑ "Longtop Financial Fraud Investigation Reaches 'Final Step'". Business Insider. August 30, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2016.

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