Prominent Short Seller Andrew Left Convicted of Securities Fraud for Social Media Manipulation

Andrew Left, founder of Citron Research, was convicted of securities fraud by a federal jury in Los Angeles on June 1, 2026, for using social media to manipulate stock prices and generate $20 million in illicit profits from 2018 to 2023. Left was found guilty on 13 of 17 counts, including one count of running a securities fraud scheme and multiple counts tied to individual stocks. He remains free on bail pending sentencing in August 2026, when he faces years in prison. The verdict marks a win for the Justice Department in a white-collar case that scrutinized when opinion statements cross into market manipulation. Prosecutors argued Left's tweets on X (formerly Twitter) gave false impressions about his trading intentions, citing instances such as a 2019 post calling Roku Inc. "uninvestible" while he secretly profited $700,000 from a short position that day. Left testified he believed his statements were truthful and saw no law barring him from trading immediately after publication. The case is U.S. v. Left, 24-cr-456.