In Gone Woman, a girl meticulously constructs a false id to destroy her husband’s life. The media believes each phrase. The general public convicts him earlier than any trial. He had no thought the entice was being set. Sound acquainted?
Barry Honig didn’t disappear. However for seven years, a model of him was invented — a cartoon villain of Wall Avenue — and that invented character was broadcast throughout monetary media, Twitter, and cable information. The general public convicted the character. The actual individual was left making an attempt to show a unfavorable.
Now, because of a federal indictment, SEC enforcement actions, and a brand new civil lawsuit filed in Could 2026, the individuals who wrote that false character are themselves those going through justice. The plot has flipped.
A notice on context: In 2019, Honig settled separate SEC fees associated to 3 unrelated microcap shares, accepting a penny inventory bar with out admitting or denying wrongdoing. That case is distinct from PolarityTE. Within the PolarityTE matter — the topic of this text — Honig was a shareholder victimized by a scheme the U.S. authorities has now formally confirmed and prosecuted.
The Setup: Somebody Wrote the Script
In Gone Woman, ‘Superb Amy’ is a personality created to be believed — crafted with simply sufficient element, simply sufficient emotion, simply sufficient obvious proof to really feel utterly actual. The viewers doesn’t query it as a result of the story is advised so confidently.
That’s precisely what Citron Analysis did. Andrew Left didn’t simply write unfavorable inventory stories. He wrote in a method designed to really feel like an exposé — sensationalist, pressing, ethical. His stories known as firms ‘FRAUD’ in capital letters. They used phrases like ‘the SEC ought to instantly HALT this inventory’ and ‘buyers have been warned.’ They included dramatic worth targets far under present buying and selling ranges.
And crucially — he offered all of it as unbiased, unbiased analysis. In August 2019, Left claimed publicly that Citron had ‘by no means been compensated by a 3rd occasion to publish analysis.’
That was a lie. The DOJ says so. The SEC proved it.
The Hidden Screenwriters: Anson Funds
In Gone Woman, the husband doesn’t know who’s pulling the strings. Neither did Honig.
Behind Citron Analysis sat Anson Funds Administration — a $2.9 billion hedge fund primarily based in Dallas, run by Moez Kassam. The SEC confirmed in its June 2024 order that from no less than 2018 to 2023, Anson secretly paid Left to publish assaults on firms Anson was already shorting. The cost path was intentionally buried: cash flowed from Anson to a 3rd occasion known as Falcon Analysis, utilizing faux invoices for ‘analysis providers’ that had been by no means carried out, then forwarded on to Left.
The SEC discovered that Anson hid the truth that its technique concerned working with activist brief publishers, buying and selling across the time stories had been issued, and paying a portion of fund income to these publishers in alternate for advance entry to their work. — SEC Order, Rel. No. 6622, June 11, 2024
Right here’s how the cycle labored: Anson would brief a inventory. Citron would publish the assault. The inventory would crash. Anson would cowl its place and acquire hundreds of thousands. Left would get his reduce. And the corporate — and its harmless shareholders — can be left in ruins.
PolarityTE was a type of firms. Barry Honig and his household entities owned almost 10% of PolarityTE on the time of the assaults. That they had no thought who was writing the script.
The ‘Lifeless Patent’ That Wasn’t Lifeless
Each nice false narrative wants a smoking gun — a single ‘truth’ so damning that nobody bothers to verify whether or not it’s really true.
Citron’s smoking gun was the patent. In June 2018, they revealed a report screaming that PolarityTE’s patent utility had been rejected by the USPTO — ‘useless on arrival,’ with ‘odds within the low single digits’ of restoration. The report accused administration of hiding this from buyers and known as the state of affairs ‘not solely securities fraud, however legal fraud.’
There was only one drawback: the patent wasn’t useless.
A USPTO ‘closing rejection’ is a authorized time period of artwork — a procedural step within the course of, not a loss of life sentence. Firms that obtain them and preserve pursuing their utility get a patent roughly 70% of the time. PolarityTE did precisely that. In February 2021 — almost three years after Citron declared it useless — the USPTO granted PolarityTE its patent.
The category motion lawsuit filed in opposition to PolarityTE on the premise of Citron’s patent claims? Dismissed.
However the inventory was already destroyed. As soon as the false story is believed, the reality arrives too late.
The Media Performs Its Function
In Gone Woman, the media turns into a personality in its personal proper — amplifying and shaping public notion earlier than any details are established. The accused’s guilt is assumed. Each assertion he makes is filtered via suspicion.
Left had over 100,000 Twitter followers. His stories had been picked up by monetary media, repeated on CNBC, and cited in mainstream articles. The DOJ alleges he boasted to colleagues that he might ‘destroy’ firms with a single tweet, and {that a} Enterprise Insider article famous he might ‘ship a inventory tumbling with a single tweet’ — a quote Left himself repeated.
He was proper. And for firms and buyers like Honig who had been focused, that wasn’t a boast. It was a weapon.
The Twist: The Script Writers Get Caught
In Gone Woman, the twist arrives late. The one who appeared to be the sufferer seems to be the architect of the destruction.
In July 2024, Andrew Left was charged in a 19-count indictment by the U.S. Division of Justice — 1 rely of partaking in a securities fraud scheme, 17 counts of securities fraud, and 1 rely of creating false statements to federal investigators. The DOJ says his scheme generated no less than $16 million in illicit income throughout 21 focused firms over a interval working from 2018 to 2023. His trial is now scheduled for Could 11, 2026 in Los Angeles federal courtroom.
The SEC, in a parallel civil motion, put the revenue determine larger — alleging a $20 million scheme focusing on 23 firms. The SEC’s most penalty publicity, added throughout all counts, runs to a whole lot of years in jail if convicted.
Anson Funds paid $2.25 million in penalties to the SEC. Ryan Choi — Left’s accomplice who executed trades at Citron Capital — paid over $1.8 million to settle SEC fees. Hindenburg Analysis, one other brief vendor related to the broader community, shut down its operations whereas investigations had been ongoing.
And PolarityTE was named explicitly within the DOJ indictment as one of many firms focused by the scheme.
Seven Years Later: The Actual Story
Barry Honig’s RIOT Blockchain funding — one other Citron goal — was cleared by the SEC in 2020, when the company’s Denver Regional Workplace closed its investigation and acknowledged it didn’t intend to suggest enforcement motion. RIOT Platforms is at this time price billions. MARA Holdings, one other firm Honig helped construct, is equally valued. The ‘frauds’ Citron screamed about turned out to be actual companies with actual property.
In Could 2026, Honig filed a civil lawsuit in Dallas federal courtroom in opposition to Anson Funds, Moez Kassam, Sunny Puri, and Ryan Choi. The grievance lays out — in 32 pages, backed by the SEC order and DOJ indictment — precisely what was completed, the way it was hid, and what it value.
In Gone Woman, the film ends ambiguously. The reality is understood, however full accountability is elusive.
This story continues to be being written. However for the primary time in seven years, the individuals holding the pen are those looking for justice — not those who manufactured the lie.
The scheme generated hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in illicit income for its perpetrators, whereas inflicting billions of {dollars} in losses upon the focused firms and people firms’ harmless shareholders. — Honig v. Anson Funds, First Amended Grievance
