Left Pitched Short Sales to ‘Take Candy’ From Retail Investors

Citron Research founder Andrew Left coordinated with hedge funds on stocks he planned to short and bragged his “hot voice” with retail investors meant they could “take candy from a baby,” according to emails presented at his criminal trial on US securities fraud charges.

In August 2018, Left told Sunny Puri at Anson Advisors Inc. that smaller retail stocks were best for taking short positions and recommended doing so with Canadian cannabis distributor Cronos Group Inc., according to messages the FBI collected from Left’s iPhone and Telegram account that were shown to jurors Thursday in Los Angeles federal court.