NEW YORK (Reuters) – Prominent activist short seller Andrew Left will face trial in September 2025 over allegations he committed fraud, after his lawyers and U.S. prosecutors agreed to push back the case.
Federal judge in Los Angeles Terry Hatter set Left’s trial for Sept. 30, 2025, in a court document filed on Wednesday. The trial was originally slated for later this month.
The Justice Department and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in July accused Left of manipulating the market and defrauding investors with misleading claims about his positions in multiple stocks, including Nvidia and Tesla.
Left, who has pleaded not guilty, has for more than a decade been among the most prominent of a cohort of “short activists” who say they bet against public companies on the basis they are over-valued or engaging in outright fraud.
The federal authorities said Left used his social media platform and cable news appearances to promote what he said were his long or short trades, only to quickly reverse his positions, making as much as $20 million in the process.
(Reporting by Chris Prentice in New York; Editing by Mark Porter)
