- Andrew Left sues Anson Funds, accusing them of lying to federal investigators to avoid their own regulatory exposure.
- Anson allegedly funneled Left’s 2018 Namaste payment through false invoices; their testimony helped prosecutors charge Left with false statements.
- The dispute exposes short-selling’s cutthroat nature: alliances collapse under SEC scrutiny, and players quickly betray one another to save themselves.
In the cutthroat world of short selling, where the goal is to profit from other people’s misery, loyalty is a myth. And now, the knives are out—among the short sellers themselves.
Andrew Left, the once-feared founder of Citron Research, has just filed a blistering federal lawsuit accusing Toronto-based Anson Funds of throwing him under the bus to dodge their own regulatory heat.
The message is clear: in this game, even your partners will sell you out the second the SEC comes knocking.
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The complaint, unsealed in Los Angeles federal court on Thursday, reads like a betrayal straight out of a Wall Street crime novel.
Left claims Anson’s top brass—Moez Kassam and Sunny Puri—deliberately lied to federal investigators about a 2018 payment tied to a joint short on Namaste Technologies, a now-defunct Canadian cannabis stock.
According to Left, Anson didn’t just mislead the SEC—they weaponized those lies to build the government’s criminal case against him. Let that sink in: two short-selling outfits, once aligned in a profitable takedown, now locked in a public bloodbath.
This isn’t about market manipulation anymore. It’s about survival—and who gets left holding the bag when the feds close in.
The Deal That Went Sour
Back in 2018, Namaste was the darling of the cannabis boom. Anson wanted in on the short. They didn’t have the research firepower, so they turned to Left, the king of viral short reports.
According to the lawsuit, Kassam and Puri approached him, collaborated on the report, and agreed to split the profits. Citron published the takedown.
Namaste’s stock cratered. Anson pocketed $5 million. Left was owed $840,000.
But here’s the twist: Anson was also involved in a bought deal for Namaste—meaning they were about to go long on the same stock they just helped torch.
To avoid a paper trail, they allegedly routed Left’s payment through a third party using “false invoices.” Left says he didn’t care how the money moved—he just wanted his cut.
Fast forward to 2021. The SEC and DOJ launch a sweeping probe into short sellers. Anson gets subpoenaed—twice.
Facing millions in potential fines, Kassam and Puri, under oath, allegedly flipped the script: Left came up with the invoice scheme, they claimed. Left wanted to hide the payment.
Left was the shady one. The complaint doesn’t hold back:
“Defendants knew, or consciously disregarded a substantial risk, that their lie would result in civil and criminal charges against plaintiffs but told these lies anyway to save their own skins… It worked.”
And it did work—for a while. The SEC cited the Namaste payment in its 2024 settlement with Anson, fining them $2.25 million.
More importantly, federal prosecutors used Anson’s testimony to charge Left with making false statements to investigators—one of 19 criminal counts he now faces, with trial set for March.
No Honor Among Shorts
This isn’t just a legal dispute. It’s a public execution of the myth that short sellers operate with any kind of code.
These aren’t noble crusaders exposing fraud—they’re mercenaries. And when the heat turns up, they’ll rat each other out faster than you can say “margin call.”
Eric Rosen, Left’s attorney at Dynamis LLP, didn’t sugarcoat it:
“We believe as alleged that there was a real miscarriage of justice here and we’re doing everything in our power to correct it.”
Anson’s response? Pure venom. A spokesman fired back:
“Mr. Left’s meritless complaint is nothing more than a desperate and extreme attempt to manipulate the legal system ahead of his criminal trial… Faced with 19 federal criminal counts and a dwindling list of options, Mr. Left is willing to say anything to try to escape accountability.”
They’re not wrong about the timing. Left only learned the full extent of Anson’s alleged lies during trial prep, when government disclosures revealed what Kassam and Puri had told investigators.
Now, with his freedom on the line, he’s fighting dirty—because that’s the only language this crowd speaks.
The Bigger Picture: A Fracturing Pack
The short-selling community has always thrived on secrecy and mutual distrust. But this lawsuit exposes the rot at the core: when the SEC starts circling, alliances dissolve instantly.
Anson settled two enforcement actions in two years—$3.3 million in 2023 for flipping public offerings after shorting the same stocks, and $2.25 million in 2024 over the Namaste payments. They didn’t fight.
They paid. And they pointed fingers.
Left, meanwhile, is going down swinging. His suit seeks damages and aims to gut the government’s false-statements charge before trial.
If he wins, it won’t just embarrass Anson—it could force prosecutors to rethink how much weight they give to testimony from cornered players in future cases.
For now, the message to Wall Street is brutal: trust no one. Not your research partner. Not your profit-sharing buddy. Not the guy who calls you after hours to plan the next kill.
In the world of short selling, the only rule is this: when the feds come, someone’s getting thrown overboard. And today, Andrew Left is making sure it’s not just him.
Also Read: Trump Now Hints at Cracking Down on Illegal Short Sellers
