Stunning Confessions of a Short Seller
Michelle Celarier, 22 June 2021
Anonymous short activist Rota Fortunae profited from put options on Farmland Partners — and now admits the relevant report he authored was riddled with errors.
The proliferation of short activist research in recent years has raised red flags about some of the originality, accuracy, and depth of these works — especially when combined with put options that are timed to coincide with the publication of reports that might send the stocks into a tailspin.
Thirty-four women who claim they are victims of Pornhub filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against the company’s secretive Canadian parent, MindGeek; its owners and executives; Visa, which processes payments for the porn site; and hedge fund Colbeck Capital, which underwrote a debt financing for the company. 
On a Saturday morning last December, Bill Ackman was scrolling through Twitter when an article in The New York Times caught his eye. “The Children of Pornhub,” by Nicholas Kristof, told how unauthorized sex — and rape and torture — videos were being spread across the internet on a website called Pornhub, one of the most popular in the world. 
Nate Anderson’s Hindenburg Research, the short activist firm that burst onto the scene last fall with an exposé of electric truck maker Nikola, is back with its fifth big takedown of a special-purpose acquisition company.
Gabriel Plotkin’s Melvin Capital, the hedge fund at the center of the GameStop trading frenzy in January, is a defendant in nine lawsuits by retail investors alleging a conspiracy to limit trading that caused them to lose money.