Nate Anderson in New York on January 6, 2023. Anderson exposes corporate fraud and Ponzi schemes through his company Hindenburg Research.
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Hindenburg Research, an upstart research and investment firm that made its name with a number of successful short bets, is closing, founder Nate Anderson announced Wednesday.
“As I have shared with family, friends, and our team since late last year, I have decided to end Hindenburg Research. The plan is to close after completing the ideas we were working on. And as with previous Ponzi cases we have just completed and shared with regulators, that day is today,” Anderson wrote. Comment Posted on the firm’s website.
Anderson founded Hindenburg in 2017, and the company has published negative research reports about dozens of companies over the years. One of the first high-profile reports on Hindenburg came in 2020 and focused on Vehicle startup Nikola. Part of the report included allegations that Nikola had shown off the semi-truck’s autonomous capabilities in a video, which The company later admittedNikola founder Trevor Milton was later sentenced four years in jail,
Many of the targets of the Hindenburg report were small companies. The company has also fallen behind the companies key financial figuresIncluding Carl Icahn Icahn Enterprises LP and the business empire of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani.
The most recent report filed by the company was on January 2 regarding the auto retailer CARVANAwhom he called “father-son” accounting grift For ages.” In a statement, Carvana called the firm’s report “intentionally misleading and inaccurate.” The stock fell more than 11% the day after Hindenburg published its report, but has since recovered.
Hindenburg was a short seller as well as a research house. This means that the company was betting against the companies it was researching, putting it in a position to profit if the stocks declined. As Hindenburg’s reputation grew, some stocks saw immediate negative reactions after the report was published.
It is unclear how much money Hindenburg made from his small bets.
The rise of Hindenburg came at a time when the controversial practice of short selling was becoming popular elsewhere. The meme-stock craze of 2021 pitted retail investors against hedge funds, causing some professional investors to step back from short selling. Federal authorities have also been investigating other short sellers in recent years, including an attack on Citron by the Justice Department andrew left with securities fraud charges Last year.
