Activist short-seller Dan David, the founder of Wolfpack Research and host of the “I Hung Up On Warren Buffett” podcast, joins Julia La Roche on today’s episode. Dan is best known for uncovering frauds in Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges.
In this episode, Julia and Dan discuss his journey from being a long-only investor to an activist short-seller exposing frauds. Dan delves into his process of uncovering fraudulent companies, from deploying a tea salesperson to inquire how many employees were at a plant to posting video cameras to monitor truck traffic. Dan also details the involvement of the U.S. banks and law firms in these frauds that impacted millions of everyday Americans’ retirement and investment accounts.
Dan, who has been sued for $250 million, breaks the merits of short-selling and the importance of Freedom of Speech. He also shares what he's focused on today.
0:00 Intro/ journey into short-selling
3:55 Carson Block’s Orient Paper short report
5:22 The pervasiveness of Chinese stock frauds
7:28 How U.S. banks, law firms enabled stock fraud
9:30 Why frauds targeted U.S. investors
11:08 U.S. banks involvement
13:31 Thousands of people involved
14:20 How the fraud worked
17:16 An example of uncovering a fraud
22:19 Thoughts on “The China Hustle” film
26:00 Sino-Forest fraud
28:00 Orient Paper
30:40 Why we “won this round”
33:10 Sohn Conference in Hong Kong
35:50 U.S./China geopolitical tensions
40:30 Short-selling
46:00 Freedom of Speech
49:22 Hanging up on Buffett
56:12 Opportunities today
