{"id":1421,"date":"2026-06-07T05:39:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1421"},"modified":"2026-06-07T05:39:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:39:36","slug":"andrew-left-faces-20-years-in-prison-but-having-a-correct-opinion-about-a-stock-shouldnt-be-a-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1421","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Left faces 20 years in prison \u2014 but having a correct opinion about a stock shouldn\u2019t be a crime"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This past Tuesday afternoon, I rang up Andrew Left, the high-profile short seller long known for meticulously documenting allegations of alleged corporate malfeasance and placing bets against companies like Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Shopify and Chinese real estate giant Evergrande.<\/p>\n

Read more Victoria Gotti told Carmine Gotti Agnello\u2019s girlfriend \u2018you\u2019re a rat\u2019 after she reported abuse: police sources<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHey Charlie, I\u2019m at the airport,\u201d Left said as he picked up. \u201cI\u2019m sitting down, having a vodka.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given what had transpired just hours earlier, it wasn\u2019t hard to understand the sitting-down-having-a-vodka part. Late Monday night, after a two-week trial, Left was convicted in Los Angeles federal court of 13 counts of securities fraud.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors alleged Left circulated his research on social media and\u00a0financial TV to move a bunch of stocks and make a ton of money. That constituted market manipulation, they said, and got a jury to agree with them.<\/p>\n

It sounds to me like what Wall Street does every day \u2014 people who \u201ctalk their book\u201d \u2014 not to mention all the retail trolls you see on X trying to gin up interest in speculative stuff that loses money. Even so, Left now faces 20 years in prison when he is sentenced in \u00adAugust.<\/p>\n

Truth be told, there\u2019s something unsettling in what Left admits he did: Purposely pushing stock prices around to make a quick buck. Big firms have strict rules around trading off research, placing stocks on so-called restricted lists. Reporters like myself don\u2019t buy individual stocks out of fear our reporting will get us jammed up because we can move prices.<\/p>\n

Left, however, was the ultimate day trader with a name and platform that could enhance market gyrations when his research hit the tape. Having an opinion about a stock that turns out to be right \u2014 which were the vast majority of Left\u2019s calls through his company, Citron Research \u2014 shouldn\u2019t be a crime.<\/p>\n

Yes, the trading may look fishy, and this type of trading around \u00adresearch reports and public comments has been a legal gray area. Purposely moving stocks can be construed as stock manipulation. Fishy, though, isn\u2019t something that\u2019s supposed to\u00a0land you in prison for 20 years.<\/p>\n

Try telling that to a jury \u2014 as Left\u2019s lawyers did. In one day of trading, Left could make more than most of those people earned in a lifetime. It didn\u2019t help that Left made his bones as a short seller. Making money from pushing stocks down in value just doesn\u2019t sit well with most people, even if it means exposing\u00a0various abuses\u00a0and is necessary for markets to function properly.<\/p>\n

Swaying the jury<\/h2>\n

\u201cAll these people heard from the prosecution is that I worked with hedge funds, that I\u2019m a short seller. that I made two-and-a-half million dollars for one day\u2019s work and they were like whaaat?\u201d Left tells me.<\/p>\n

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One question is: Do the prosecutors who went after Left understand the law or just want to make short selling de facto illegal? Another: Did they know average people on the jury would buy a weird case because they don\u2019t know much about what the shorts do?<\/p>\n

In my career covering finance, I\u2019ve seen some shady short-selling tips, but the vast majority of market upheavals, like the dot-com crash of 2000 or the 2008-2009 financial crisis, have been on the long side \u2014 people buying stuff based on irrational exuberance and touts.<\/p>\n

Most short selling involves exposing overvalued stocks (Left was famous for unearthing problems at the once high-flying Valeant), irrationally priced securities based on irrational economics (think mortgage-backed securities that led to 2008-2009), or outright sham companies (think Enron).<\/p>\n

It was the legendary short seller Jim Chanos who exposed Enron\u2019s house of cards. He made money by \u201cshorting\u201d the stock \u2014 borrowing shares of Enron, selling them, and then replacing his borrow when shares tanked \u2014 after his research suggested investors were drinking the Kool-Aid.<\/p>\n

We probably need short selling now more than ever as stocks continue to reach irrational highs powered by irrational AI valuations.<\/p>\n

Yes, I know the lead prosecutor in the Left case came out with a post on X that \u201cshort selling is not a crime. Mr. Left was convicted of fraudulently manipulating the market, not for ordinary short selling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

True. According to the indictment, Left posted that \u201cCitron buys $NVDA. This is the first time in two years [the] stock offers an appealing risk-reward to investors .\u2009.\u2009. We see $165 before we see $120.\u201d Left\u2019s crime was selling out his position two\u00a0hours later in the $150-$153 range,<\/p>\n

But since that \u201cinfamous\u201d trade, shares of Nvidia are up nearly 6,000%.<\/p>\n

And short selling really was front and center in the prosecution of Andrew Left, even if he got those calls pretty much right as well. The feds made a big deal out of his profits from shorting a cannabis company named Cronos. It was trading at $11.50 in 2018 when he announced a short-selling price target of $3.50. Again, his crime was selling when his research pushed shares lower and before the price target was hit.<\/p>\n

Read more Police hunt suspect after 12 people shot at family-friendly summer festival<\/a><\/p>\n

On Friday, shares of Cronos closed at $2.74.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past Tuesday afternoon, I rang up Andrew Left, the high-profile short seller long known for meticulously documenting allegations of alleged corporate malfeasance and placing bets against companies like Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Shopify and Chinese real estate giant Evergrande.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-charles-gasparino","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nAndrew Left faces 20 years in prison \u2014 but having a correct opinion about a stock shouldn\u2019t be a crime - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1421\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Andrew Left faces 20 years in prison \u2014 but having a correct opinion about a stock shouldn\u2019t be a crime - 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