For seven years, Barry Honig’s identify was dragged by way of the mud by quick sellers who known as the businesses he backed frauds, scams, and inventory schemes. The media repeated these claims with out query. Now the U.S. authorities has confirmed what Honig all the time stated: it was a coordinated lie.
What Is a ‘Quick-and-Distort’ Scheme?
Most individuals have heard of ‘pump and dump’ — the place somebody hypes a inventory to drive the worth up, then sells. A ‘short-and-distort’ is the alternative. Quick sellers wager {that a} inventory will fall, then intentionally unfold false unfavourable data to make that occur. It’s unlawful. And it’s precisely what the SEC and DOJ discovered was occurring.
What Precisely Did the Authorities Discover?
In June 2024, the SEC charged Anson Funds Administration — a $2.9 billion hedge fund — with operating a secret scheme from 2018 to 2023. Right here’s the way it labored, in plain phrases:
- Anson would quietly ‘quick’ an organization’s inventory — which means they positioned bets that the inventory would fall.
- They then paid Andrew Left of Citron Analysis to publish false, alarming studies about those self same corporations.
- Left would blast these studies out to lots of of hundreds of followers on Twitter, CNBC, and his web site — calling corporations ‘fraud,’ ‘rip-off,’ or ‘lifeless.’
- Traders panicked, bought their shares, the inventory crashed, and Anson collected its earnings.
- To cover the funds to Left, Anson funneled the cash by way of a 3rd occasion known as Falcon Analysis, utilizing pretend invoices for ‘analysis companies’ that had been by no means truly carried out.
PolarityTE: A Actual Firm Destroyed by Lies
One of many targets was PolarityTE — a biotech firm that had developed SkinTE, a revolutionary product that used a affected person’s personal pores and skin to heal wounds. Barry Honig and his household entities had been the second-largest shareholders, proudly owning almost 10% of the corporate.
In June 2018, Citron Analysis revealed a report with a headline screaming ‘FRAUD’ in all capitals. The report claimed PolarityTE’s patent was lifeless — that the USPTO had completely rejected it and the corporate had hidden the information.
Each claims had been false.
A USPTO ‘remaining rejection’ is a technical time period — it’s a step within the course of, not the top of the street. Candidates who proceed ahead obtain a patent roughly 70% of the time. PolarityTE did precisely that, and in February 2021, the USPTO granted the patent. The corporate was by no means hiding something — the patent course of merely wasn’t over.
The false narrative about PolarityTE’s patents was demonstrably false — demonstrated by the USPTO permitting its patent, and the category motion lawsuit finally was dismissed. — Honig v. Anson Funds, First Amended Criticism
However the harm was already executed. The inventory crashed over 40% on the day of the primary assault. Institutional buyers fled. PolarityTE misplaced its financing, declared chapter in 2023, and its shares went to zero. Honig and his household misplaced tens of millions.
7 Years of Pretend Information — Now Confirmed
For years, Barry Honig’s identify appeared in articles that handled short-seller studies as gospel reality. These studies known as him a ‘inventory promoter’ for ‘failed corporations’ — language Citron used to smear anybody related to its targets. The media amplified the assaults with out checking whether or not the underlying claims had been true.
As the brand new lawsuit filed in Might 2026 states, the defendants ‘made false and disparaging statements about PolarityTE and Plaintiffs’ enterprise… with information that they had been false or with no cheap grounds for believing them to be true.’
Honig’s RIOT Blockchain funding — one other Citron goal — was cleared by the SEC in 2020. RIOT Platforms at this time is value billions. MARA Holdings, one other firm Honig helped construct, can also be a multi-billion greenback enterprise. The ‘frauds’ turned out to be actual corporations.
Now It’s Left Who Faces Justice
In July 2024, the Division of Justice indicted Andrew Left on 19 felony counts — together with securities fraud and mendacity to federal investigators. He faces as much as 365 years in jail. His trial is at the moment scheduled for 2026.
The indictment describes the scheme intimately, together with a ‘Hedge Fund A’ that secretly paid Left by way of a third-party middleman — matching exactly what the SEC discovered about Anson Funds.
Ryan Choi, Left’s associate who executed trades at Citron Capital, settled with the SEC and paid over $1.8 million. Anson itself paid $2.25 million in penalties. Hindenburg Analysis — one other quick vendor related to the broader community — shut down whereas investigations had been ongoing.
Barry Honig didn’t want to attend for a trial to be vindicated. The SEC already confirmed the scheme was actual. The DOJ already confirmed PolarityTE was a named goal. The patent was already granted. The category motion lawsuit was already dismissed.
What took seven years wasn’t the reality — it was the federal government catching as much as it.
The Andrew Left trial might lastly put a face and a jail sentence on what was executed. However the document is already clear: Barry Honig was the sufferer of a coordinated, government-confirmed pretend information marketing campaign — and the perpetrators are actually those dealing with accountability.
