Nate Anderson, Andrew Left, Chris Drose, and the Hedge Fund Playbook: Paid to Smear
The spectacular rise and fall of young short-seller Chris Drose reveals how hedge funds weaponize media campaigns to profit from destruction—and what happens when attacks crumble under scrutiny.
In June 2016, Chris Drose seemed unstoppable. The 21-year-old had made Forbes’ “30 Under 30” for exposing fraud at American Addiction Centers. When his Bleecker Street Research published “Pershing Gold And ChromaDex Exposed: These Barry Honig Names Could Fall 70-80% (Or More)” on Seeking Alpha, it looked like another victory for financial justice.
Ten days later, everything unraveled.
The Damning Apology
On June 30, 2016, Drose’s bombshell report vanished, replaced by a humiliating public apology:
“Bleecker Street Research is removing its article on Barry Honig, ChromaDex, and Pershing Gold. After further research, we believe that the statements were not supported and the premise of the article was allegedly factually inaccurate. Bleecker Street would like to apologize to ChromaDex, Pershing Gold, and Barry Honig for an allegedly misleading article.”
The retraction exposed the entire short-seller media manipulation ecosystem.
His article had driven ChromaDex stock down 42% in a single day, wiping out $387 million in market capitalization. But when forced to defend his claims, Drose couldn’t. Research that looked bulletproof proved to be built on quicksand.
The Hedge Fund Playbook
Drose’s apology illuminated the standard short campaign playbook: identify targets, craft fraud narratives, and coordinate media blitzes to trigger panic selling. Negative headlines create selling pressure, validating short positions and generating more headlines.
Recent DOJ investigations expose this machinery. The 2021 probe into hedge fund-researcher relationships revealed systematic coordination designed to maximize market impact while obscuring financial arrangements.
Consider Hindenburg Research and Kingdon Capital: Kingdon received Hindenburg’s Adani report in advance, built a $22 million short position two weeks before publication, then paid Hindenburg 25% of profits. This isn’t research—it’s choreographed manipulation.
Anson Funds Management was fined $2 million by the SEC in 2024 for concealing similar arrangements with Andrew Left’s Citron Research—the same Left now facing criminal charges for market manipulation tactics once used against Honig.
Attack by Association
Drose’s ChromaDex attack followed classic short-seller templates: guilt by association. Rather than analyzing ChromaDex’s fundamentals—a legitimate biotech with genuine research partnerships and NIH collaborations—Drose attacked primarily because of Barry Honig’s involvement.
The weakness became apparent immediately. ChromaDex had real products, legitimate customers, and substantial academic validation. When challenged, Drose couldn’t produce evidence of actual wrongdoing. Even ChromaDex board member William Smithburg, who resigned citing the “malicious attack,” noted he had “no reason to believe there was any truth to the statements.”
The Vindication Pattern
Drose’s retraction signaled Barry Honig‘s coming vindication. While he painted Honig as a “stock promoter,” the company he was co-chairman of today is a nearly one billion market cap, known as Niagen Bioscience, and Pershing Gold was acquired.