Investing

A Short Seller's Life Upended: Carson Block Questions Future

The Muddy Waters founder expresses confidence he’s done nothing wrong while under the cloud of a sweeping US inquiry examining bearish investors

Illustration by Félix Decombat

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Carson Block was on a Delta flight to New York when he felt blood pooling on his seat.

It’s a tale the famous, filter-free founder of trading firm Muddy Waters Capital launches into to make a point about misdoings among short sellers, the subject of a vast probe by the US Justice Department. It describes a trip to unveil a big trade when the whole thing goes sideways because of a suspected information leak. And it gets darker as he goes. “Graphic story time,” he warns at the outset.