Introduction
The Department of Justice is investigating Anson Funds for both insider trading and corruption, and Moez Kassam is the company’s founder as well as its Chief Investment Officer.
Within just four years, Anson Funds reached its goal for assets under management. Returns on investment of approximately 45% have been produced by the company for each of the past two years.
The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission were interested in this matter as a direct result of the enormously profitable nature of these figures.
He manages hedge funds under the name Moez Kassam. He asserts that Anson is a long-short corporation that is more on the traditional side.
However, as of yet, it has been involved in at least five different legal conflicts. Every one of them made the accusation that the company was dishonest.
There have been charges made against Moez Kassam’s Anson Funds about insider trading.
People who are familiar with the company’s operations have revealed that it initially bets that the share prices of cannabis companies will decrease and then subsequently takes part in the secondary stock offerings of those companies. Such sales induce price decreases.
In addition, Moez Kassam and Anson Funds have collaborated with a number of well-known scholars who are currently the subject of investigations in the United States.
It is in your best interest to read over the points that are listed below before entrusting Moez Kassam with your money. In this section, you will learn about the latest controversies involving him as well as the reasons why investors no longer trust him or Anson Funds:
When Bloomberg Exposed the Shady Operations of Moez Kassam:
A comprehensive write-up on Moez and his company, Anson Funds, was presented by Bloomberg in an earlier part of this year.
It makes the point that the annual returns that Moez’s company earned were three times higher than the annual returns that were earned by other long-short funds.
In addition to this, it sheds light on how Moez Kassam has constructed an image of philanthropy as well as a powerful network.
In point of fact, Toronto Life published a photo spread on the wedding celebration that lasted for three days. In addition to that, he has over 5,000 people following him on Instagram (under the handle MunchingMoez), where he posts pictures of the opulent life he leads.
In addition, the piece discusses the several cases that Moez’s company has been involved in. These lawsuits have been filed by a variety of parties, including academics who engage in short selling, the companies whose shares they short, and even a shareholder in one of the companies.
Receiving Allegations of Spreading Misinformation
Nobilis Health Corp. initiated legal action in 2015 against Moez Kassam and Anson Funds, accusing the defendants of conducting a “short assault” against the company.
It was reported by the CEO of Nobilis that he had a personal meeting with representatives from Anson who were interested in investing.
Nonetheless, a few months later, a blog post that was critical of the corporation appeared on the internet. The identity of the person behind the post has been revealed to be a portfolio manager working for Moez.
In the courtroom, Anson defended the piece by stating that it only used material that was readily available to the public. In addition to this, they initiated a counterclaim against Noblis, asserting that the latter’s litigation had resulted in slander.
The docket for the case shows that they have reached a resolution to the disagreement.
Despite this, businesses have started to take research that is bearish very seriously. They don’t waste any time and sue anybody who has criticized them.
However, in order to find a solution to this problem, a number of hedge funds have established working connections with researchers from third-party organizations. Firms such as Anson Funds will pay academics to write articles that are negative about the firms they invest in.
Short sellers consider this to be a standard business strategy, while detractors consider it to be a concerted effort to bring down organizations.
Moez Kassam has Worked Secretly with Researchers:
Moez Kassam’s hedge fund has collaborated with a number of researchers who are the focus of investigations being conducted by US authorities.
Ben Axler (Spruce Point) and Andrew Left (Citron) are two examples of these individuals.
Legal action had been taken against Robert Doxtator, an additional independent researcher, by Anon only recently. The lawsuit claimed that Robert had made multiple articles criticizing their trading tactics, and one of those posts constituted defamation.
He refuted the charges and disclosed that the company owed him money for providing them with a negative report about General Electric Company in 2019.
In the month of August 2019, Harry Markopolos published research on the company, which resulted in a decrease in the price of its shares. According to the records filed with the court, the company owned by Moez Kassam claimed that it had received diligence from Robert during that time period.
On the other hand, the court filings do not provide any evidence that Harry Markopolos was ever employed by Moez or Anson Funds.
According to Robert, Moez Kassam had assured him that he would receive 15% of the profits that they made from the trade. According to the court filings, Anson Funds made more than $121,000, which means they owe him $18,000.
This legal action has not yet resulted in a verdict or settlement.
The Shady Bet of Moez Kassam:
In the story that Bloomberg published on Anson Funds, it is revealed that Moez’s self-proclaimed “genius” trade has also generated a lot of controversy.
2017 marked the year when the hedge fund first placed bets on Genius Brands. Genius Brands is a company that creates programs for children’s television.
After some time had passed, during the course of an interview, Moez Kassam disclosed that he had faith in the caliber of the company’s output.
After then, the hedge fund expanded the percentage of the company that it owned. On the other hand, Genius Brands has initiated legal action against them. In that section, it is disclosed that Anson Funds was one of the investors that paid 21 cents per share with the agreement that they would not sell for several months.
At the same time, other investors had purchased shares that were subject to a lockup period that would last for 18 months.
After a few weeks had passed, the share price of Genius Brands skyrocketed, soaring well past $11.
According to the allegations stated in the lawsuit brought by Genius Brands, Anson, and other individuals profited more than one hundred million dollars off of the rise in stock price. As a countermeasure, Moez Kassam has submitted a motion to the court requesting that the matter be dropped.
Other investors have not had the same level of success. The share price has recently stabilized at roughly $1, which is consistent with its historical norm.
The problems that Moez Kassam is having do not end there.
Catalyst Capital Group Inc. initiated legal action in 2017 against Anson Funds Canada for what it deemed to be a “manipulative” shorting campaign, which led to the company being sued.
Plaintiffs claim that Anson targeted Callidus Capital Corp., which is a subsidiary of Catalyst. This is according to the lawsuit that was filed. In addition to this, the lawsuit asserts that Moez Kassam and the people associated with him were “Wolfpack Conspirators.”
They initiated the legal action at the Superior Court of Justice in the province of Ontario.
In addition to this, the lawsuit alleges that the defendants targeted Callidus with a shorting scheme, in which they coordinated many borrowers who defaulted on their loans to Callidus and began trying to prevent the company from collecting.
Callidus made the assertion that Anson Funds was bolstering their shorting campaign with the help of news media.
In addition, the lawsuit contends that the defendants conspired to lower public trust in the company by spreading allegations across the industry that Catalyst and Callidus were the subjects of whistleblower complaints filed with the OSC.
On the other hand, there were no complaints of this kind.
Despite this, Anson Funds distributed copies of this article to several media sources in 2017, all of which did so.
Moez Kassam Reddit: What the Victims are Saying:
Concern has been raised in response to some questionable business practices employed by Anson Funds and Moez Kassam. On the website Reddit, there is a group specifically for victims of Moez Kassam and the company he works for to discuss their ordeals.
There, you will find conversations about the SEC’s investigation of Anson Funds as well as their involvement in corrupt activities.
I discovered many posts that disclosed how Moez Kassam and the firm caused financial disaster to businesses.
Here, the post talks about the multiple companies which faced “short selling attacks” from Anson Funds.
It reveals Moez has caused Zenabis, Aphria, Facedrive, Genius Brands, and Tilray to suffer substantially.
The post says Moez gives a lot of cash to small scale businesses only to short them horribly after their IPO.
Furthermore, the Reddit post claims Moez Kassam and Anson Funds use insider information to spread misinformation about their targets
It brings to light the fact that Moez had raked in a significant amount of money by undercutting the management at APHA. He divulged confidential information about the company and made the announcement that they would be shorting the stock.
Because of this, panic ensued among investors. Moez made a lot of money as a result of the stock’s subsequent increase in price.
There is little doubt that there are a great number of other postings on the subreddit. It is known by the name BurnedByAnson. You can visit the site to read other entries regarding the bad effects that Anson Funds has had on the lives of other people.
Conclusion
Moez Kassam is currently marketing himself to the public as a philanthropist. The Moez Kassam and Marissa Kassam Foundation are under his direction. It asserts that it will assist children and communities of immigrants.
Despite the fact that charitable endeavors of any kind are to be applauded, it would appear that Moez is utilizing his foundation as a diversion from his questionable work past.
After looking at how Anson Funds and Moez do business, I do not believe it would be prudent to put your faith in any of them.
In addition to this, he is currently at the center of a comprehensive investigation being conducted by both the DOJ and the SEC.
There are numerous instances of con artists who engaged in insider trading in order to amass wealth but were forced to pay penalties totaling millions of dollars. For instance, the authorities caught telecom executive Hanif Lalani red-handed and forced him to pay millions of dollars in fines and restitution.
In a similar vein, Ben Strebinger Vancouver is yet another con artist who was fined $1.5 million for operating a Ponzi scam involving penny stocks.
Because of all of these reasons, you should avoid Moez Kassam.
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