This MiMedx scandal seems to be finally closing but as the victors attempt to write history consider the following possibilities that have become blurred :
1. MiMedx management did not attack Cohodes first.
Cohodes. Viceroy and Aurelius all began a well planned and timed attack on the company using social media on the same day, within minutes of each other. This was before there was any short seller commentary on MiMedx website. So it is impossible to accept Cohodes' claim that MiMedx came after him first
2. Cohodes did not likely find the fraud but he likes to take credit.
Aurelius Value's entire business plan seems to center on scanning legal databases like PACER for whistleblower cases against public companies.
A smart strategy.
This is likely what happened here.
Once they find a potential case they likely contact the whistleblowers and get more information.
Once convinced, likely after seeing material non-public information like photos or recordings from the whistleblowers, they then proceed with their plan of attack. Likely taking a short position via stock or options then producing their "bombshell" reports.
If anyone bought stock or options based on inside information - from current or former employees - it should likely be inquired about for insider trading.
Any employee, whistleblower or not, that has left a company but shares proprietary information that is used to make money on a publicly traded stock could be involved in insider trading. The whistleblower is a potential accomplice if not careful.
Recall that Cohodes was so happy with Aurelius Value he named his dog after him.
Also if this is all about fighting FRAUD not MAKING MONEY then it begs the question - Why do they only go after public companies that have STOCK AND OPTIONS ?
3. Cohodes and Fraser Perring had a relationship prior to the MiMedx incident.
Aurelius Value possibly partnered with Viceroy THROUGH Cohodes to help drive the distortion campaign. It is always more convincing to have MORE THAN ONE RESEARCH opinion to help convince the public.
Doesn't seem ODD that two "independent" and "anonymous" research firms located literally across the globe from each other had just magically discovered MiMedx at the SAME TIME and published their reports within minutes of each other ?
Why after seemingly only going after European, South African or Australian companies - how did Viceroy - A British guy and two guys with full time jobs living in Australia - discover a small biomedical company in Atlanta, Georgia ?
Then as the reports are published magically Cohodes chimes in on Twitter at almost the same time.
Aurelius and Viceroy do the HARD PART - Cohodes just uses his bullhorn to broadcast it and then take the credit.
Effective but way too OBVIOUS.
4. Donald Trump of Georgia.
Cohodes seems friendly with a "journalist" named Linnette Lopez that apparently HATES Donald Trump (look at her Twitter feed if in doubt)
Is it possible that Lopez was happy to help take down someone that had helped Trump get elected ?
Is this how the "Donald Trump of Georgia" article was born ?
Had anyone ever referred to Petit as Trump of Georgia in any publication or article before Lopez ?
5. Petit did not ORDER the FBI to Cohodes house for "no reason".
Cohodes made what apparently Petit considered THREATENING tweets to a public company CEO FIRST.
Cohodes loves to play the poor pitiful me game but if HE HAD NEVER made the tweets threatening Petit the FBI would not have been asked to visit him and ask him to stop making tweets that could be interpreted as violent or life threatening.
Send a tweet threatening to bury Elon Musk under a prison. See what happens.
6. Cohodes flaunted his connection to Viceroy while Viceroy were still anonymous - posting a photo of him with Perring but not identifying him.
Also a Viceroy employee was anonymously publishing "research reports" attacking a CLIENT of the place where he was EMPLOYED. Apparently he "guessed" they were having financial issues since he worked for a financial company that helped out companies with cash flow problems. Co-workers never discuss work do they?
That's not possible INSIDER INFORMATION is it?
7. As much as Cohodes pretends to be a "bully hater" he and his followers are some of the biggest CYBERBULLIES you will ever see.
They like to publish personal information about investors. doctors and even MiMedx customers. They will post pictures of family members, vacation photos etc.
They will literally group attack anyone that they feel is a threat to their distortion story and attempt to silence them on social media using veiled threats. They are massive bullies.
8. Short and Distort.
You can scream fire in a movie theatre is there is a real fire.
In this case Petit and Taylor clearly stuffed a minor amount of the company's sales and inflated them to show Wall Street the company was growing every quarter.
Was this wrong? Absolutely.
Was this ILLEGAL ? Yes. 100%
Was this STUPID ? YES. Incredibly. Just incredibly stupid.
Was the AMOUNT they stuffed material as a percentage of sales even MATERIAL ?
Does almost every public company push sales people to boost sales the last week/day/hour of the quarter?
Probably. It's the curse of Wall Street and the games played by their analysts to meet QUARTERLY sales and revenue expectations.
So yes they clearly channel stuffed.
Did it mean the Mimedx products don't work or the entire Mimedx company was 100% fraud as Cohodes often claims?
This process s called DISTORTION. Using fear and "just you wait and see what's next" and many Alinsky type tactics. The distorters make incredible claims that never materialize but they can spook institutional investors away. Once you do that its a retail only stock that is ripe for manipulation due to low volumes unless you are a household name.
You can't like a match in a movie theatre and scream fire. That's a distortion. Yes there is the presence of FIRE. No it is not a real threat. The people RUNNING will get trampled and more damage is caused by the panic than the actual THREAT of fire.
--------------------------------------
In short (pardon the pun)
Aurelius probably brought to Cohodes a company that's CEO was heavily tied to Republican party and he had enough compelling information from the whisteblowers, that the company had been engaged in channel stuffing and fired those that wouldn't play along.
That of course is wrong, is despicable and should be punished.
Nobody should be forced to do things they don't want or feel are illegal to keep their job so they can feed their kids and keep a roof overhead.
Period.
Cohodes then orchestrated a beautiful symphony of distortion using all his tools
- Aurelius
- Viceroy
- the TRUE victims (aka the whistleblowers) that gave him ALL THE DIRT
- his social media presence
- Periscope
- friendly journalists at well regarded publications
- podcasters buddies to help build this story up and make him look like a victim and a hero perpetuating the fable
Cohodes is a master of gaslighting.
A master.
His useful idiots on social media play right along for him.
All desperately trying to please the master.
This story has most of the deadly sins. pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.
There are no real winners here.
Everybody here was a loser even if you made millions shorting this stock it was all based on distortions of the truth.
Mental wounds that won't ever heal.
Trust lost forever.
Careers killed.
Marriages crushed.
Reputations trashed.
Families destroyed.
Lifetime friendships obliterated.
Children forced to relocate away from friends and families.
All over a small quarterly stock price increase and a meaningless consistent quarterly growth award.
Pride. Greed. Envy.
Very sad. Very stupid.
As Cohodes continues his MiMedx revenge tour on social media complete with axes, threats and rattling bats it's sad to see someone go out on such a sour note.
Money clearly doesn't buy happiness. Nor does revenge. Not even close.
Hopefully we can ALL learn from other's mistakes so we don't REPEAT them ourselves.
1. MiMedx management did not attack Cohodes first.
Cohodes. Viceroy and Aurelius all began a well planned and timed attack on the company using social media on the same day, within minutes of each other. This was before there was any short seller commentary on MiMedx website. So it is impossible to accept Cohodes' claim that MiMedx came after him first
2. Cohodes did not likely find the fraud but he likes to take credit.
Aurelius Value's entire business plan seems to center on scanning legal databases like PACER for whistleblower cases against public companies.
A smart strategy.
This is likely what happened here.
Once they find a potential case they likely contact the whistleblowers and get more information.
Once convinced, likely after seeing material non-public information like photos or recordings from the whistleblowers, they then proceed with their plan of attack. Likely taking a short position via stock or options then producing their "bombshell" reports.
If anyone bought stock or options based on inside information - from current or former employees - it should likely be inquired about for insider trading.
Any employee, whistleblower or not, that has left a company but shares proprietary information that is used to make money on a publicly traded stock could be involved in insider trading. The whistleblower is a potential accomplice if not careful.
Recall that Cohodes was so happy with Aurelius Value he named his dog after him.
Also if this is all about fighting FRAUD not MAKING MONEY then it begs the question - Why do they only go after public companies that have STOCK AND OPTIONS ?
3. Cohodes and Fraser Perring had a relationship prior to the MiMedx incident.
Aurelius Value possibly partnered with Viceroy THROUGH Cohodes to help drive the distortion campaign. It is always more convincing to have MORE THAN ONE RESEARCH opinion to help convince the public.
Doesn't seem ODD that two "independent" and "anonymous" research firms located literally across the globe from each other had just magically discovered MiMedx at the SAME TIME and published their reports within minutes of each other ?
Why after seemingly only going after European, South African or Australian companies - how did Viceroy - A British guy and two guys with full time jobs living in Australia - discover a small biomedical company in Atlanta, Georgia ?
Then as the reports are published magically Cohodes chimes in on Twitter at almost the same time.
Aurelius and Viceroy do the HARD PART - Cohodes just uses his bullhorn to broadcast it and then take the credit.
Effective but way too OBVIOUS.
4. Donald Trump of Georgia.
Cohodes seems friendly with a "journalist" named Linnette Lopez that apparently HATES Donald Trump (look at her Twitter feed if in doubt)
Is it possible that Lopez was happy to help take down someone that had helped Trump get elected ?
Is this how the "Donald Trump of Georgia" article was born ?
Had anyone ever referred to Petit as Trump of Georgia in any publication or article before Lopez ?
5. Petit did not ORDER the FBI to Cohodes house for "no reason".
Cohodes made what apparently Petit considered THREATENING tweets to a public company CEO FIRST.
Cohodes loves to play the poor pitiful me game but if HE HAD NEVER made the tweets threatening Petit the FBI would not have been asked to visit him and ask him to stop making tweets that could be interpreted as violent or life threatening.
Send a tweet threatening to bury Elon Musk under a prison. See what happens.
6. Cohodes flaunted his connection to Viceroy while Viceroy were still anonymous - posting a photo of him with Perring but not identifying him.
Also a Viceroy employee was anonymously publishing "research reports" attacking a CLIENT of the place where he was EMPLOYED. Apparently he "guessed" they were having financial issues since he worked for a financial company that helped out companies with cash flow problems. Co-workers never discuss work do they?
That's not possible INSIDER INFORMATION is it?
7. As much as Cohodes pretends to be a "bully hater" he and his followers are some of the biggest CYBERBULLIES you will ever see.
They like to publish personal information about investors. doctors and even MiMedx customers. They will post pictures of family members, vacation photos etc.
They will literally group attack anyone that they feel is a threat to their distortion story and attempt to silence them on social media using veiled threats. They are massive bullies.
8. Short and Distort.
You can scream fire in a movie theatre is there is a real fire.
In this case Petit and Taylor clearly stuffed a minor amount of the company's sales and inflated them to show Wall Street the company was growing every quarter.
Was this wrong? Absolutely.
Was this ILLEGAL ? Yes. 100%
Was this STUPID ? YES. Incredibly. Just incredibly stupid.
Was the AMOUNT they stuffed material as a percentage of sales even MATERIAL ?
Does almost every public company push sales people to boost sales the last week/day/hour of the quarter?
Probably. It's the curse of Wall Street and the games played by their analysts to meet QUARTERLY sales and revenue expectations.
So yes they clearly channel stuffed.
Did it mean the Mimedx products don't work or the entire Mimedx company was 100% fraud as Cohodes often claims?
This process s called DISTORTION. Using fear and "just you wait and see what's next" and many Alinsky type tactics. The distorters make incredible claims that never materialize but they can spook institutional investors away. Once you do that its a retail only stock that is ripe for manipulation due to low volumes unless you are a household name.
You can't like a match in a movie theatre and scream fire. That's a distortion. Yes there is the presence of FIRE. No it is not a real threat. The people RUNNING will get trampled and more damage is caused by the panic than the actual THREAT of fire.
--------------------------------------
In short (pardon the pun)
Aurelius probably brought to Cohodes a company that's CEO was heavily tied to Republican party and he had enough compelling information from the whisteblowers, that the company had been engaged in channel stuffing and fired those that wouldn't play along.
That of course is wrong, is despicable and should be punished.
Nobody should be forced to do things they don't want or feel are illegal to keep their job so they can feed their kids and keep a roof overhead.
Period.
Cohodes then orchestrated a beautiful symphony of distortion using all his tools
- Aurelius
- Viceroy
- the TRUE victims (aka the whistleblowers) that gave him ALL THE DIRT
- his social media presence
- Periscope
- friendly journalists at well regarded publications
- podcasters buddies to help build this story up and make him look like a victim and a hero perpetuating the fable
Cohodes is a master of gaslighting.
A master.
His useful idiots on social media play right along for him.
All desperately trying to please the master.
This story has most of the deadly sins. pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.
There are no real winners here.
Everybody here was a loser even if you made millions shorting this stock it was all based on distortions of the truth.
Mental wounds that won't ever heal.
Trust lost forever.
Careers killed.
Marriages crushed.
Reputations trashed.
Families destroyed.
Lifetime friendships obliterated.
Children forced to relocate away from friends and families.
All over a small quarterly stock price increase and a meaningless consistent quarterly growth award.
Pride. Greed. Envy.
Very sad. Very stupid.
As Cohodes continues his MiMedx revenge tour on social media complete with axes, threats and rattling bats it's sad to see someone go out on such a sour note.
Money clearly doesn't buy happiness. Nor does revenge. Not even close.
Hopefully we can ALL learn from other's mistakes so we don't REPEAT them ourselves.