Biotech short sell­er lands on fed­s' watch list amid sweep­ing probe — re­port

In the face of short at­tacks, it is not un­com­mon these days for com­pa­nies to cry foul and de­fend them­selves against what they call false and mis­lead­ing state­ments. But are these short sell­ers in­volved in some­thing more ne­far­i­ous? The De­part­ment of Jus­tice is re­port­ed­ly try­ing to find out through a sweep­ing crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Fed­er­al in­ves­ti­ga­tors are scru­ti­niz­ing an un­known num­ber of hedge funds and re­search firms — along­side their trad­ing of at least sev­er­al dozen shorts — to see if any kind of de­cep­tion or ma­nip­u­la­tion was in­volved, Reuters and Bloomberg re­port­ed.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER