Nate Anderson, the founder of US-based short seller Hindenburg Research, whose scathing report on Adani group in January 2023 triggered a $150 billion rout in group shares, said he has made the decision to disband his research team. In a letter, he said the plan has been to wind up after his team finishes the pipeline of ideas that they were working on.
“And as of the last Ponzi cases we just completed and are sharing with regulators, that day is today,” he said.
Anderson said there is not one specific reason behind his decision to wind up the research firm — no particular threat, no health issue, and no big personal issue.
He said someone once told him that at a certain point a successful career becomes a selfish act. Early on, he said, he felt he needed to prove some things to himself. But the intensity and focus has come at the cost of missing a lot of the rest of the world and the people Anderson said he cares about. “I now view Hindenburg as a chapter in my life, not a central thing that defines me,” he said.
Anderson said over the next six months, he plans to work on a series of materials and videos to open-source every aspect of his model and how his team conducts its investigations.
In the note, Anderson said his team of 11 worked extremely hard, with a focus on precision and letting the evidence dictate words. Sometimes this meant taking big swings and taking on fights that are much bigger than any of us as individuals.
“Fraud, corruption, and negativity often seem overwhelming. Early on, a sense of justice was usually elusive. When it happened, it was tremendously fulfilling. It kept us going when we needed it,” he said.
“And boy did we have an impact, eventually— more than I imagined was possible at the outset. Nearly 100 individuals have been charged civilly or criminally by regulators at least in part through our work, including billionaires and oligarchs. We shook some empires that we felt needed shaking,” he said without naming anyone.