MW Influential activist short-seller firm Hindenburg Research says it is shutting down

By Lukas I. Alpert

Founder Nathan Anderson says he and his team are ready to move on to the next chapter in their lives after just eight years

Activist short-seller firm Hindenburg Research is calling it quits after an impactful eight-year run in which its reports took on high-profile investors like Carl Icahn and Gautam Adani and helped take down companies like electric-truck manufacturer Nikola Corp.

In an email to followers, Hindenburg's 40-year-old founder, Nathan Anderson, said he and his team were ready to move on to the next chapter in their lives and that he wanted to spend more time with his family and other people close to him.

"There is not one specific thing - no particular threat, no health issue, and no big personal issue." Anderson wrote. "I now view Hindenburg as a chapter in my life, not a central thing that defines me."

In the few short years since Anderson launched the firm in 2017, Hindenburg - named after the famed German airship that exploded over New Jersey in 1937 - repeatedly rocked markets with probes into companies it believed had engaged in financial malfeasance or fraud.

According to Hindenburg's website, its research had led to charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission against 65 individuals, and federal criminal charges from the Justice Department against 24 more.

Some of its highest-profile targets included famed corporate raider Carl Icahn, whose fund, Icahn Enterprises L.P. $(IEP)$, Hindenburg accused of running a "Ponzi-like" structure to mask poor performance. Icahn denied the allegations but later settled with the SEC for failing to disclose that he had used company stock as collateral for personal loans. Icahn and his company agreed to pay $2 million in fines.

In 2023, a report by Hindenburg helped wipe billions in value from the stock of the Adani Group (IN:512599) - the conglomerate owned by India's then-richest man, Gautam Adani - after Hindenburg accused it of stock manipulation. In November, the Justice Department charged Adani with defrauding investors in connection to a bribery scheme involving energy contracts in India.

Hindenburg made its first major splash in 2020, when it accused electric-truck startup Nikola Corp. $(NKLA)$ of lying to investors about the functionality of its vehicles. A year later, Nikola founder Trevor Milton was hit with federal fraud charges. Milton was later convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.

-Lukas I. Alpert

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January 16, 2025 04:14 ET (09:14 GMT)

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