The founder of Hindenburg Research said he is closing his short-selling research shop

Hindenburg Research, the research and investment firm that made a name for itself with several successful short bets, is closing, founder Nate Anderson announced Wednesday.

“As I’ve shared with family, friends and our team since the end of last year, I’ve decided to liquidate Hindenburg Research. The plan was to end after finishing the line of ideas we’ve been working on. And the last Ponzi cases we’ve just completed and shared with regulators, that day is today.” Anderson wrote. record posted on the company’s website.

Anderson founded Hindenburg in 2017, and since then the company has published negative research reports on dozens of companies. One of Hindenburg’s first high-profile reports came in 2020 and was in the spotlight car starting Nikola. Part of the report included claims that Nicola faked the semi truck’s autonomous capabilities in a video. the company later admitted. Nicola’s founder, Trevor Milton, was later punished four years in prison.

Many of the targets of the Hindenburg reports were small companies. The firm also went after firms key financial figuresincluding Carl Icahn’s Icahn Enterprises LP and the business empire of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani.

The most recent report issued by the company was on January 2 regarding the car dealer To the caravanhe called it “father-son”. accounting In a statement, Carvana called the firm’s report “deliberately misleading and inaccurate.” Shares fell more than 11% the day after the Hindenburg report was released, but have since recovered.

Hindenburg was both a short seller and a research house. This means that the firm is betting against the companies it is researching that it could profit if the stock goes down. As Hindenburg’s reputation grew, some stocks saw immediate negative reactions after the reports were released.

It is not clear how much money Hindenburg made from his short bets.

Hindenburg’s rise came at a time when the controversial short-selling practice was falling out of favor elsewhere. The meme stock frenzy of 2021 pitted retail investors against hedge funds and caused some professional investors to pull back from short selling. Federal officials have also investigated other short sellers, including the Justice Department, which has hit out at Citron in recent years. Andrew Sol with securities fraud charges last year.