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Founded by Nate Anderson, CFA, CAIA, Utopiacapital Research specializes in forensic financial research. Our experience in the investment management industry spans over a decade, with a historical focus on equity, credit, and derivatives analysis.
While we use fundamental analysis to aid our investment decision-making, we believe the most impactful research results from uncovering hard-to-find information from atypical sources. In particular we often look for situations where companies may have any combination of:
- Accounting irregularities
- Bad actors in management or key service provider roles
- Undisclosed related-party transactions
- Illegal/unethical business or financial reporting practices
- Undisclosed regulatory, product, or financial issues
Track Record
2016: Hindenburg founder Nate Anderson submitted a whistleblower report to the SEC relating to RD Legal, a hedge fund that was later charged by the commission for allegedly making material misstatements to its investors. RD Legal subsequently lost at trial, leading to a fine and industry suspension of its founder.
2017 (November): We wrote an article about Pershing Gold (NASDAQ:PGLC) and identified a key individual behind a series of irregular company disclosures. That individual was later charged by the SEC as the “primary strategist” of a group alleged to have run multiple pump and dump schemes.
2017 (November): We wrote an article about $3 billion market cap Opko Health’s (NASDAQ:OPK) nefarious criminal connections as well as its slate of product failures and irregular disclosures. In late 2018 the company’s Chairman/CEO and the company itself were all charged with fraud by the SEC. They later settled the charges.
2017 (December): We wrote an article about PolarityTE’s (NASDAQ:PTE) sketchy origin story and irregular financial disclosures. The company’s CFO later resigned and was charged by the SEC in 2018 for allegedly participating in pump & dump schemes. The company later disclosed it too was under SEC investigation in March 2019 for those very connections.
2017 (December): We wrote a series of articles about Riot Blockchain’s (NASDAQ:RIOT) suspicious acquisitions that appeared designed to benefit insiders. Later in February 2018 CNBC ran an exposéthat corroborated and expounded on our findings. Riot’s then-CEO was charged with fraud by the SEC. The SEC is actively investigating Riot, and its former CEO is reportedly now under active criminal investigation.
2018 (March): We wrote an article showing that $2 billion market cap cannabis company Aphria (NYSE:APHA) made a highly irregular, overvalued acquisition that had hallmarks of insider self-dealing. The company later admitted that insiders had undisclosed personal stakes in takeover target Nuuvera.
2018 (December): We wrote an article identifying that Aphria (NYSE:APHA) made yet another series of highly irregular, overvalued acquisitions that had hallmarks of insider self-dealing. Once again, insiders later admitted to having undisclosed stakes in its own acquisitions, leading to the resignation of the company’s Chairman/CEO, a co-founder, and an executive/board shake-up. The company later wrote down the value of the questioned acquisitions 6 months later.
2018 (December): We wrote an article about irregular acquisitions and dealings between Liberty Health Sciences (CSE:LHS) and Aphria. Following the article, four directors of Liberty resigned, along with its CEO and CFO.
Why “Utopiacapital”?
We view the Hindenburg as the epitome of a totally man-made, totally avoidable disaster. Almost 100 people were loaded onto a balloon filled with the most flammable element in the universe. This was despite dozens of earlier hydrogen-based aircraft meeting with similar fates. Nonetheless, the operators of the Hindenburg forged ahead, adopting the oft-cited Wall Street maxim of “this time is different”.
We look for similar man-made disasters floating around in the market and aim to shed light on them before they lure in more unsuspecting victims.
Please send tips, feedback, or questions to info@utopiacap.com