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For seven years, Barry Honig’s name was dragged through the mud by short sellers who called the companies he backed frauds, scams, and stock schemes. The media repeated those claims without question. Now the U.S. government has confirmed what Honig always said: it was a coordinated lie.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>What Is a ‘Short-and-Distort’ Scheme?<\/b><\/p>\n Most people have heard of ‘pump and dump’ \u2014 where someone hypes a stock to drive the price up, then sells. A ‘short-and-distort’ is the opposite. Short sellers bet that a stock will fall, then deliberately spread false negative information to make that happen. It’s illegal. And it’s exactly what the SEC and DOJ found was happening.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>What Exactly Did the Government Find?<\/b><\/p>\n In June 2024, the SEC charged Anson Funds Management \u2014 a $2.9 billion hedge fund \u2014 with running a secret scheme from 2018 to 2023. Here’s how it worked, in plain terms:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0PolarityTE: A Real Company Destroyed by Lies<\/span><\/p>\n One of the targets was PolarityTE \u2014 a biotech company that had developed SkinTE, a revolutionary product that used a patient’s own skin to heal wounds. Barry Honig and his family entities were the second-largest shareholders, owning nearly 10% of the company.<\/span><\/p>\n In June 2018, Citron Research published a report with a headline screaming ‘FRAUD’ in all capitals. The report claimed PolarityTE’s patent was dead \u2014 that the USPTO had permanently rejected it and the company had hidden the news.<\/span><\/p>\n Both claims were false.<\/span><\/p>\n A USPTO ‘final rejection’ is a technical term \u2014 it’s a step in the process, not the end of the road. Applicants who continue forward receive a patent roughly 70% of the time. PolarityTE did exactly that, and in February 2021, the USPTO granted the patent. The company was never hiding anything \u2014 the patent process simply wasn’t over.<\/span><\/p>\n The false narrative about PolarityTE’s patents was demonstrably false \u2014 demonstrated by the USPTO allowing its patent, and the class action lawsuit ultimately was dismissed. \u2014 Honig v. Anson Funds, First Amended Complaint<\/span><\/p>\n But the damage was already done. The stock crashed over 40% on the day of the first attack. Institutional investors fled. PolarityTE lost its financing, declared bankruptcy in 2023, and its shares went to zero. Honig and his family lost millions.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a07 Years of Fake News \u2014 Now Confirmed<\/b><\/p>\n For years, Barry Honig’s name appeared in articles that treated short-seller reports as gospel truth. Those reports called him a ‘stock promoter’ for ‘failed companies’ \u2014 language Citron used to smear anyone connected to its targets. The media amplified the attacks without checking whether the underlying claims were true.<\/span><\/p>\n As the new lawsuit filed in May 2026 states, the defendants ‘made false and disparaging statements about PolarityTE and Plaintiffs’ business… with knowledge that they were false or with no reasonable grounds for believing them to be true.’<\/span><\/p>\n Honig’s RIOT Blockchain investment \u2014 another Citron target \u2014 was cleared by the SEC in 2020. RIOT Platforms today is worth billions. MARA Holdings, another company Honig helped build, is also a multi-billion dollar enterprise. The ‘frauds’ turned out to be real companies.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>Now It’s Left Who Faces Justice<\/b><\/p>\n In July 2024, the Department of Justice indicted Andrew Left on 19 criminal counts \u2014 including securities fraud and lying to federal investigators. He faces up to 365 years in prison. His trial is currently scheduled for 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n The indictment describes the scheme in detail, including a ‘Hedge Fund A’ that secretly paid Left through a third-party intermediary \u2014 matching precisely what the SEC found about Anson Funds.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0Ryan Choi, Left’s partner who executed trades at Citron Capital, settled with the SEC and paid over $1.8 million. Anson itself paid $2.25 million in penalties. Hindenburg Research \u2014 another short seller connected to the broader network \u2014 shut down while investigations were ongoing.<\/span><\/p>\n The Bottom Line<\/span><\/p>\n Barry Honig didn’t need to wait for a trial to be vindicated. The SEC already confirmed the scheme was real. The DOJ already confirmed PolarityTE was a named target. The patent was already granted. The class action lawsuit was already dismissed.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0What took seven years wasn’t the truth \u2014 it was the government catching up to it.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n The Andrew Left trial may finally put a face and a prison sentence on what was done. But the record is already clear: Barry Honig was the victim of a coordinated, government-confirmed fake news campaign \u2014 and the perpetrators are now the ones facing accountability.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For seven years, Barry Honig\u2019s name was dragged through the mud by short sellers who called the companies he backed frauds, scams, and stock schemes. The media repeated those claims without question. Now the U.S. government has confirmed what Honig always said: it was a coordinated lie. \u00a0What Is a \u2018Short-and-Distort\u2019 Scheme? Most people have… Continue Reading \n