Nathan Anderson is the founder of Hindenburg Research, a New York-based investment research firm known for its investigative reports and short-selling strategies. [1]
Anderson's exact birth date is not publicly known, but he was reported to be 38 years old as of early 2023. Anderson grew up in the state of Connecticut, where he attended an Orthodox Jewish day school. He is the son of a university professor and a nurse. [2] During a business podcast, Anderson recalled that he had tried to convince the head rabbi of his school that the Book of Genesis was compatible with the modern theory of evolution. [3]
He earned a degree in international business [4] from the University of Connecticut. Between March 2004 and January 2005, [4] he worked as an ambulance driver in Israel. [5]
He has qualified for two financial professional certifications: the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) and the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
He began his financial career working for FactSet Research Systems Inc. He later described his experiences to the Wall Street Journal, saying: "I realized they were doing a lot of run-of-the-mill analysis; there was a lot of conformity." [5] [6] He then took a job vetting potential investments for the private wealth management services of wealthy people. [2] After this initial experience, he founded his first firm, ClaritySpring. [4]
Anderson has stated that his decision to specialize in financial fraud investigations was inspired by Harry Markopolos, a financial fraud investigator who was instrumental in uncovering the Bernie Madoff's investment scandal. [5] [6] Anderson reportedly worked with Markopolos on the Platinum Partners investigation, which resulted in seven executives being charged with securities fraud. [2] Around 2014, Anderson began filing whistleblowing reports with U.S. authorities, hoping to collect government bounties for uncovering fraud [7] (for an example of such a program, see the Security and Exchange Commission's Office of the Whistleblower [8] ).
Anderson initially established a brokerage firm for hedge funds, specializing in providing due diligence services and fraud reports. By 2017, the brokerage had only managed to accrue a net capital balance of $58,382, while Anderson's landlord filed suit to evict him. [9] These difficulties led Anderson to forgo his brokerage license and start Hindenburg.
In 2018, Anderson founded Hindenburg Research, a small investment management firm specializing in forensic finance investigations. It seeks to unearth 'man-made disasters floating around in the market'. [10] In 2023, the firm was thought to employ about a dozen people. [2] Its website describes its activities as follows:
... we believe the most impactful research results from uncovering hard-to-find information from atypical sources. In particular we often look for situations where companies may have any combination of:
- Accounting irregularities
- Bad actors in management or key service provider roles
- Undisclosed related-party transactions
- Illegal/unethical business or financial reporting practices
- Undisclosed regulatory, product, or financial issues [11]
The firm's first influential report, in September 2020, targeted electric vehicle manufacturer, Nikola Corporation. [11] The report alleged that Nikola was lying about its technology and product performance. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice investigated these claims and Trevor Milton, the founder of Nikola, was ultimately convicted of fraud charges. [4] In January 2023, a high-profile Hindenburg report covered alleged massive stock manipulation and accounting fraud by the Adani Group, an Indian conglomerate headed by Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest men. [12]
Anderson's wealth is not public. He has given many media interviews but has not commented on how much he or Hindenburg make from short investments. [7] In 2021, he said that Nikola was his firm’s biggest win to date. [13] About 10 unnamed investors bankroll some of the firm’s operations, and some of them make their own short bets alongside Hindenburg. [13] Hindenburg Research is not publicly traded, so few rules for information disclosure apply to its top officers. [11]
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is the regulatory body for securities and commodity market in India under the administrative domain of Ministry of Finance within the Government of India. It was established on 12 April 1988 as an executive body and was given statutory powers on 30 January 1992 through the SEBI Act, 1992.
Adani Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Ahmedabad. Founded by Gautam Adani in 1988 as a commodity trading business, the Group's businesses include sea and airport management, electricity generation and transmission, mining, natural gas, food, weapons, and infrastructure. More than 60% of its revenue is derived from coal-related businesses.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) is an Indian multinational port operator and logistics company, part of Adani Group. APSEZ is India's largest private port operator with a network of 12 ports and terminals, including India's first port-based SEZ at Mundra and the first deep water transshipment port at Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala.
Gautam Shantilal Adani is an Indian businessman who is the founder and chairman of the Adani Group, a multinational conglomerate involved in port development and operations in India.
Shearson was the name of a series of investment banking and retail brokerage firms from 1902 until 1994, named for Edward Shearson and the firm he founded, Shearson Hammill & Co. Among Shearson's most notable incarnations were Shearson / American Express, Shearson Lehman / American Express, Shearson Lehman Brothers, Shearson Lehman Hutton and finally Smith Barney Shearson.
Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American financial criminal and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest known Ponzi scheme in history, worth an estimated $65 billion. He was at one time chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. Madoff's firm had two basic units: a stock brokerage and an asset management business; the Ponzi scheme was centered in the asset management business.
Harry M. Markopolos is an American former securities industry executive and a forensic accounting and financial fraud investigator.
René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet was a French aristocrat, money manager, and businessman. He was one of the founders of Access International Advisors, a company caught and subsumed in the Madoff investment scandal in 2008. He died by suicide after losing an estimated $1.4 billion in Madoff's scheme.
The Madoff investment scandal was a major case of stock and securities fraud discovered in late 2008. In December of that year, Bernie Madoff, the former Nasdaq chairman and founder of the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, admitted that the wealth management arm of his business was an elaborate multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
Accounting scandals are business scandals which arise from intentional manipulation of financial statements with the disclosure of financial misdeeds by trusted executives of corporations or governments. Such misdeeds typically involve complex methods for misusing or misdirecting funds, overstating revenues, understating expenses, overstating the value of corporate assets, or underreporting the existence of liabilities; these can be detected either manually, or by the means of deep learning. It involves an employee, account, or corporation itself and is misleading to investors and shareholders.
Prudential Securities, formerly known as Prudential Securities Incorporated (PSI), was an American financial services arm of the insurer, Prudential Financial. In 2003, Prudential Securities was merged into Wachovia Securities, a division of Wachovia Bank.
Adani Power is an Indian multinational power and energy company, subsidiary of Adani Group and based in Khodiyar in Ahmedabad, India. It is a private thermal power producer, with a capacity of 15,250 MW and operates a mega solar plant of 40 MW at Naliya, Bitta, Kutch, Gujarat. Adani Godda Power is implementing a 1,600 MW plant at Jharkhand. The company has signed long term power purchase agreements of about 9,153 MW with the government of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Punjab.
Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) is an Indian multinational publicly-listed holding company and a part of Adani Group. It is headquartered in Ahmedabad and primarily involved in mining and trading of coal and iron ore. Through its various subsidiaries, it also has business interests in airport operations, edible oils, road, rail and water infrastructure, data centers, and solar manufacturing, among others.
Trevor Robert Milton is an American convicted felon, former businessman and the founder and former executive chairman and CEO of Nikola Corporation. In September 2020, Milton resigned from his position as executive chairman after the U.S. SEC and Department of Justice began investigating claims that Milton and Nikola committed securities fraud. In July 2021, Milton was indicted by federal prosecutors on three counts of securities fraud and wire fraud and released on $100 million bail. In June 2022, he was charged with another count of wire fraud. In October 2022, he was found guilty on three of the four counts, and received a 4 year prison sentence, a $1 million fine, and may be forced to forfeit part of his property holdings as a part of his sentence.
Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) is an Indian renewable energy company, headquartered in Ahmedabad, India. It is majority-owned by Indian conglomerate Adani Group and minority-owned by TotalEnergies. The company operates Kamuthi Solar Power Project, one of the largest solar photovoltaic plants in the world.
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Adani Energy Solutions Ltd, formerly known as Adani Transmission Ltd, is an electric power transmission company headquartered in Ahmedabad. Currently, it is one of the largest private sector power transmission companies operating in India. As of July 2020, the company operates a cumulative network of 12,200 circuit kilometers, and more than 3,200 circuit kilometers are under various stages of construction.
Hindenburg Research LLC is a U.S. investment research firm with a focus on activist short-selling founded by Nathan Anderson in 2017. Named after the 1937 Hindenburg disaster, which they characterize as a human-made avoidable disaster, the firm generates public reports via its website that allege corporate fraud and malfeasance. Companies that have been the subjects of their reports include Super Micro Computer, Adani Group, Nikola, Clover Health, Block, Inc., Kandi, and Lordstown Motors. These reports also feature defenses of the practice of short-selling and explanations of how short-sells can "play a critical role in exposing fraud and protecting investors."
B. Riley Financial, Inc. is an American financial services company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The company is known for its investment banking services regarding small cap companies as well as retail liquidation services. It has also acquired several organizations and companies in recent years.
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