‘I regret any harm:’ Short seller compensates target in rare move
Lawrence Delevingne, 22 June 2021
BOSTON, June 21 (Reuters) – A small Texas investor who caused shares of a real estate investment trust to plunge 39 percent in a day has agreed to pay the company restitution to settle a lawsuit against him, a rare development that could embolden other companies to pursue such claims.
Quinton Mathews, who published his research on companies online under the pseudonym Rota Fortunae, will pay Farmland Partners Inc (FPI.N) “a multiple” of the profits on his short bet in 2018, according to the terms of the legal settlement announced late Sunday. His research had helped wipe as much as $115 million off Farmland’s market value.
The parties declined requests for comment on the exact value of the settlement.
Mathews conceded that “many of the key statements” in a report he published on website Seeking Alpha targeting Farmland – including allegations of dubious related-party transactions and the risk of insolvency – were wrong.
