The controversial short-seller Nathan (Nate) Anderson, who is behind the infamous Hindenburg Research, is facing serious allegations of colluding with hedge funds like Canada’s Anson Funds. The information has come to light via court filings submitted in Ontario courts as part of a defamation lawsuit. These documents point to coordinated efforts that may have violated securities laws. The revelations made in the court documents cast doubt on Anderson’s earlier claims that his organisation worked independently.
Notably, a December 2024 report in BNN Bloomberg pointed out that the head of Anson hedge fund, Moez Kassam, said his firm has shared research with several sources including Hindenburg’s Anderson.
Court documents expose Hindenburg-Anson collusion
The documents, which have been brought to the fore by an investigative website named ‘Market Frauds‘, reveal that Anderson collaborated with Anson Funds to produce targeted reports. Interestingly, Anson appeared to have dictated the content and price targets. The screenshots of the email exchanges shared by the website suggest that Anderson lacked editorial control over the reports, which he had earlier claimed. In one of the emails shared, Anson referred to sending a “final draft”, while Anderson sought confirmation on whether there was “more” that needed to be done.
These emails are part of a detailed investigation and show that Anderson was acting as a distributor for Anson’s research rather than an independent analyst. Media reports suggest that these findings are in line with the accusations against Anson that it orchestrated short-selling campaigns and profited from stock price declines that were triggered by the reports published by Hindenburg Research.
The US probe against Anson Funds
BNN Bloomberg report from December last year noted that the US Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had intensified their investigations into alleged market manipulation involving Anson Funds and other bearish firms. The scrutiny follows a series of revelations from court filings submitted to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice as part of a complex defamation lawsuit. These filings suggest coordinated efforts by Anson and its affiliates to influence stock prices through undisclosed payments and collaborative reports.
In June last year, Anson Funds Management and Anson Advisors Inc, both affiliates of Anson, agreed to pay $2.25 million to settle SEC claims. The allegations involved the failure to disclose payments made to external publishers of bearish research, including Citron’s Andrew Left. While the settlement did not involve an admission of wrongdoing, it drew attention to the controversial practices of Anson and its collaborators.
The SEC’s case against Left alleged he manipulated markets through exaggerated social media posts and extreme price targets while unwinding his bets behind the scenes. Left has pleaded not guilty, arguing the SEC is enforcing rules that do not exist. However, court filings reveal Anson’s financial ties with Left, including over $1 million allegedly paid for bearish content on companies such as Namaste Technologies and India Globalization Capital. Emails disclosed in the Toronto lawsuit suggest Anson worked with other short sellers, including Hindenburg’s Nate Anderson, in orchestrating reports to drive stock prices down.
SEC scrutiny and looming charges
The website said that the documents indicate that multiple US securities laws were breached, including Sections 17(a) and 17(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. As Anson failed to disclose its role in preparing reports, it could lead to charges of fraud. Furthermore, Anson’s practice of shorting stocks while influencing their prices through negative campaigns mirrors illegal “pump-and-dump” schemes.
The website further noted that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to intensify its investigation, with potential charges against both Anderson and Anson likely by 2025.
Hindenburg Research shuts down
On 15th January, Nate Anderson announced that he would disband the firm. In a personal note published by Nathan Anderson on Hindenburg Research’s website on Wednesday, he said that the toll of the “rather intense, and at times, all-encompassing” nature of the work was behind his decision to disband the firm founded in 2017. When asked for a specific reason to disband Hindenburg Research, Anderson said, “There is not one specific thing—no particular threat, no health issue, and no big personal issue.”
Breon Peace’s resignation
Interestingly, Nathan Anderson’s announcement to disband Hindenburg Research comes just days after US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace, who brought fraud and bribery charges against Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani and seven other executives, announced his resignation.
OpIndia reported about Breon Peace’s links with Hungarian billionaire and regime change specialist George Soros. Breon Peace’s spouse Jacqueline Jones-Peace is the Director of Development & Senior Attorney at Equal Justice Initiative, which is based in Montgomery, Alabama. The non-profit and human rights organisation was founded by Bryan Stevenson who also serves as its Executive Director. However, the interesting part is that he is also a member of the Open Society Foundations US Programs board, which establishes an evident relationship between the Peace couple and George Soros.
The timing of Hindenburg Research’s sudden shutdown has raised many questions. Not to forget, the decision has come right after Rep Lance Gooden, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland on 14th January 2025 and demanded that all the documents and records related to the Justice Department’s decision to probe Adani Group.
Hindenburg Research’s attacks on Adani
In January 2023, Hindenburg published a report accusing the Adani Group of financial irregularities, leading to a significant drop in the company’s stock price. The group at the time had rubbished these claims.
The Hindenburg report alleged stock manipulation and fraud by the conglomerate. The case is related to the allegations (part of a report by Hindenburg Research) that Adani had inflated its share prices. After these allegations were published, there was a sharp fall in the shares of various Adani group companies’ stocks.
In January 2024, the Supreme Court refused to transfer the probe into the allegations of stock price manipulation by the Adani group to an SIT and had directed market regulator SEBI to complete its probe into two pending cases within three months. By June 2024, Adani group companies’ share prices recovered to their pre-Hindenburg report prices.
On 10th August 2024, Hindenburg Research posted a cryptic message on X saying, “Something big soon India”.
The same day, they released a report that claimed that SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch had investments in an offshore firm used in the Adani money siphoning case. The report also alleged that the SEBI chairperson’s involvement showed a lack of transparency in the market regulator when it came to investigating the Adani group.
The next day on 11th August, SEBI chief Madhabi Buch and her husband released a joint statement, calling the report baseless and saying that their financial records were an open book. In a detailed joint statement issued later in the day by Madhabi Buch and husband Dhaval Buch rejected all allegations of Hindenburg as baseless.
In September 2024, Hindenburg Research claimed that Swiss authorities had frozen more than USD 310 million in funds across several Swiss bank accounts over money laundering allegations against Adani Group. The Adani conglomerate strongly rejected the claims made by Hindenburg Research.
It is notable here that Hindenburg’s claims were used by Indian Opposition parties to target the Modi government suggesting the political motives behind the targeting the Adani Group and Indian stock markets ahead of the general elections in 2024. The speculations became confirmation soon when George Soros himself declared that the Adani issue would be raised in the Indian Parliament and Modi would have to answer, indicating that the incident was another of the larger efforts he supports to attack ‘nationalistic governments’ around the world.
Hindenburg shared report on Adani with China-linked hedge fund 2 months before publication
This is not the first time Hindenburg has been accused of sharing report with a hedge fund before publishing it. Earlier in July 2024, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said in a notice that Hindenburg Research reportedly shared an ‘advance copy’ with one of their clients two months prior to the publication of their report on Adani.
As per reports, Hindenburg had shared its report on Adani with their client two months prior to publication, enabling them to make ‘unfair’ profits from the stock price movements in a brokered deal using the report. The SEBI notice details how Kingdon Capital, led by New York-based hedge fund manager Mark Kingdon, and a broker linked to Kotak Mahindra Bank, profited significantly from the nearly 150 billion dollar loss the 10 companies under Adani Groups faced in the stock market.
The SEBI notice highlights that Hindenburg Research used ‘non-public’ and misleading information about the Adani Group to create a panic in the Indian stock market.
As per reports, Hindenburg’s response to the SEBI notice has acknowledged the prior sharing of information with the said broker but it has claimed that SEBI is trying to ‘silent’ them for exposing Adani. Hindenburg’s response admits that the vehicle used to bet against Adani Enterprises Ltd belonged to Kotak Mahindra International Ltd, a Mauritious-based firm owned by Kotak Mahindra Ltd.
‘Hindenburg and Kingdon partnered to target Adani’
Hindenburg’s response to SEBI has disclosed that Hindenburg and Kingdon Capital partnered to orchestrate a strategic move against Adani Group and benefitted from short-selling Adani stocks.
On Kingdon Capital’s recommendation, Kotak Mahindra Bank created an offshore fund named the Kingdon India Opportunity Fund. It served as a critical vehicle for Kingdon Capital to engage in short selling of Adani Group’s shares. The creation and utilisation of this fund was part of sophisticated strategies employed by Kingdon Capital to leverage financial markets to their advantage.