A Los Angeles federal jury on Monday returned guilty verdicts on multiple securities fraud charges against well-known short-seller Andrew Left. Jurors found Left guilty on 13 of the 17 counts against him, concluding that he used social-media posts and online communications to mislead retail traders and influence stock prices for personal gain.
According to the prosecutors' case, the trades at issue generated roughly $20 million in proceeds between 2018 and 2023. The allegations center on representations Left made through his online newsletter, Citron Research, and related social-media activity. Prosecutors said those communications were designed to affect the market prices of the companies he targeted and to enable profits from short positions.
Left has been associated with reports on a number of U.S. and Chinese-listed companies over the years. Publicly known targets cited in the trial include the video-game retailer GameStop - which Left shorted during the 2021 short squeeze and meme-stock episode - the now insolvent property developer China Evergrande, and Bausch Health, formerly known as Valeant.
In addition to the criminal case, Left was charged and faced a civil lawsuit in July 2024. The criminal conviction on Monday covers a majority of the counts brought against him in the federal case.
The jury's verdict specifies the counts on which Left was found guilty but does not, by itself, speak to any penalties that may follow or the outcome of related civil litigation. The case presented prosecutors' assertions regarding the role of social-media commentary and newsletter reports in influencing retail investor behavior and securities prices during the period cited in the indictment.
The conviction focuses on alleged conduct tied to social-media-driven communications and the trading results prosecutors attribute to those communications. The proceedings referenced profits prosecutors say accrued to Left from the trading activity under scrutiny between 2018 and 2023.
Notice: The details above reflect the charges, the jury's verdicts, the companies cited during the case, and prosecutors' estimates of proceeds as presented during the trial.