Careful who you call a "sleaze bag" the man's a lawyer - Soren Aandahl is a former mergers and acquisitions lawyer whose interest in short-selling was first piqued by the Enron scandal of 2001. While studying at Harvard Law School, he worked for the US Justice Department taskforce prosecuting the executives behind the Enron collapse. His time as an M&A lawyer gave him an insight into the art of due diligence.
"Mr Aandahl believes the short-selling community plays a key role in the market, weeding out unscrupulous operators that auditors fail to pick up. “Auditors aren’t the gatekeepers that people think they are, and people have a real false sense of confidence.
“All around the world you see that’s just not the case, they’re not paid to go in and find fraud; they’re paid to audit and consolidate a set of books they’re given.
“That’s why it’s important there are short-sellers in markets like Australia and the US.
“A vocal short-selling community is really good for transparency because people know they can invest with more confidence knowing there’s at least part of the market that’s holding companies accountable.”
