Moez Kassam – Probed by DOJ and SEC for Corruption (Update 2024)
Moez Kassam is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Anson Funds, a company being probed by the DOJ for insider trading and corruption.
Anson Funds tripped assets under management within 4 years. In each of the last 2 years, the company has generated returns of around 45%.
Certainly, these numbers are extremely lucrative and they caused the Department of Justice and the SEC to take interest.
Moez Kassam is a hedge fund manager. He claims Anson is a relatively conservative long-short company.
However, it has been in at least 5 legal battles so far. All of them alleged the company was deceptive.
Moez Kassam’s Anson Funds have received allegations of insider trading.
People with knowledge of its operations reveal that the firm bets that shares of cannabis companies would fall and later, participates in their secondary stock offerings. Such sales trigger price drops.
Furthermore, Moez Kassam and Anson Funds have worked with several prominent researchers who have been the focus of investigations in the US.
Before you trust Moez Kassam with your money, it would be best to go through the following points. Here, you’ll learn about his recent controversies and why investors have lost trust in him and Anson Funds:
When Bloomberg Exposed the Shady Operations of Moez Kassam:
Earlier this year, Bloomberg had published a detailed write-up on Moez and his firm, Anson Funds.
(Source)
It points out how the yearly returns of Moez’s firm was 3 times more than the annual returns of other long-short funds.
Furthermore, it highlights how Moez Kassam has created a philanthropic image and a robust network.
In fact, Toronto Life had done a photo-spread on his 3-day wedding celebration. He also has over 5000 followers on his Instagram profile (MunchingMoez) where he shares snippets of his luxurious lifestyle.
Moreover, the article mentions the various lawsuits Moez’s firm has faced. The plaintiffs of these lawsuits include short-selling researchers, the company they short-sell and even a company shareholder.
Receiving Allegations of Spreading Misinformation:
In 2015, Nobilis Health Corp filed a lawsuit against Moez Kassam and Anson Funds for launching a “short assault” against the firm.
Nobilis CEO said he had personally met with Anson representatives who were interested in investing.
However, a few months later, a blog post popped up online criticizing the company. The man behind the post was a portfolio manager working under Moez.
Anson defended the article in court saying it only used publicly available information. Moreover, they filed a countersuit against Noblis claiming their lawsuit had caused defamation.
The case’s docket reveals they have sorted out the dispute.
Still, companies have begun taking bearish research quite seriously. They immediately take the critics to court.
However, multiple hedge funds have built relationships with 3rd party researchers to resolve this issue. Firms like Anson Funds pay researchers to publish bearish articles on companies.
Short sellers think of this as a usual business tactic while critics call it conspiring to take down companies.
Moez Kassam has Worked Secretly with Researchers:
(Source)
Moez Kassam’s hedge fund has worked with multiple researchers who have been at the focus of US investigators.
These include Ben Axler (Spruce Point) and Andrew Left (Citron).
Recently, Anon had filed a lawsuit against Robet Doxtator, another independent researcher. The lawsuit alleged defamation saying Robert had posted several posts attacking their trading strategies.
He denied the allegations and revealed that the firm owed him for sharing with them a bearish report on General Electric Co. in 2019.
In August 2019, Harry Markopolos had published research on the company causing its share price to drop. According to court documents, Moez Kassam’s firm said it had received diligence from Robert in that period.
However, court documents don’t suggest Harry Markopolos had worked with Moez and Anson Funds.
Robert said Moez Kassam had promised him to give 15% of the profits they make on the trade. Court documents reveal Anson Funds made over $121,000, so they owed him $18,000.
This lawsuit hasn’t reached a conclusion.
The Shady Bet of Moez Kassam:
Bloomberg’s article on Anson Funds reveals that Moez’s self-proclaimed “genius” trade has attracted a lot of controversy as well.
The hedge fund had begun betting on Genius Brands in 2017. Genius Brands is a children’s television programming company.
Later, in an interview, Moez Kassam revealed that he believed in the company’s production quality.
Then, the hedge fund increased its stake in the firm. However, Genius Brands filed a lawsuit against them. There, they reveal that Anson Funds was among the investors who paid 21 cents a share with a promise not to sell for several months.
At the same time, other investors had acquired stock with a lockup duration of 18 months.
A few weeks later, Genius Brands’ share price sky-rocketed, going beyond $11.
According to the lawsuit by Genius Brands, Anson and others made over $100 million on the stock’s climb. In response, Moez Kassam has asked the court to dismiss the case.
Other investors haven’t been this lucky. Currently, the stock is back to its usual value of around $1.
Anson Funds is Facing a $450-million Lawsuit in Canada:
Moez Kassam’s troubles don’t end there.
In 2017, Catalyst Capital Group Inc. filed a lawsuit against Anson Funds Canada for launching a ‘manipulative’ shorting campaign.
According to the lawsuit, plaintiffs claim Anson had targeted Catalyst’s subsidiary Callidus Capital Corp. Also, the lawsuit claims Moez Kassam and his associates worked as “Wolfpack Conspirators”.
They filed the lawsuit in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice.
Also, the lawsuit claims they targeted Callidus with a shorting strategy where they coordinated several borrowers who defaulted on their loans to Callidus and began fighting to prevent the firm from collecting.
Callidus alleged Anson Funds was using news media to enhance their shorting campaign.
Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges the conspirators spread rumors in the industry that Catalyst and Callidus were the subject of OSC whistleblower complaints to reduce public confidence in the firm.
However, there were no such complaints.
Yet, Anson Funds sent this story to media outlets who published the same in 2017.
Moez Kassam Reddit: What the Victims are Saying:
The dubious business tactics of Anson Funds and Moez Kassam have caused lot of outrage. There is a dedicated Reddit community where victims of Moez Kassam and his firm share their experiences.
There, you will find discussions about Anson Funds corruption and the SEC probe against them.
I found multiple posts revealing how Moez Kassam and the firm ruined companies.
Here, the post talks about the multiple companies which faced “short selling attacks” from Anson Funds.
It reveals Moez has caused Zenabis, Aphria, Facedrive, Genius Brands and Tilray to suffer substantially.
The post says Moez gives a lot of cash to small scale businesses only to short them horribly after their IPO.
Furthermore, the reddit post claims Moez Kassam and Anson Funds use insider information to spread misinformation about their targets.
It highlights Moez had made a lot of profits by undercutting the management at APHA. He leaked insider information about the firm and announced they will be shorting it.
This caused people to crash the stock. When the stock jumped back up again, Moez made a lot of money.
Surely, there are a ton of more posts on the subreddit. It’s called BurnedByAnson. You can check it out to see more posts about how Anson Funds has impacted people’s lives negatively.
Conclusion
Currently, Moez Kassam promotes himself as a philanthropist. He runs the Moez Kassam and Marissa Kassam Foundation. It claims to help children and immigrant communities.
While every philanthropic effort is welcome, it seems Moez is using his foundation to distract people from his shady professional history.
After reviewing how Anson Funds and Moez operate, I don’t think it would be wise to trust them.
Moreover, he is now the focus of a detailed DOJ and SEC investigation.
There are a ton of examples of fraudsters who used insider trading to get rich but had to pay millions in penalties. For example, Hanif Lalani is a telecom exec who had to pay millions after the authorities caught him red-handed.
Similarly, Ben Strebinger Vancouver is another fraudster who had to pay $1.5-million for running a penny stock scheme.
Due to these points, beware of Moez Kassam.
look at all the stories and scams for Moez and the Anson Found Foundation. https://marketfrauds.to/
Never trust this man related to any of the ventures, he isn’t reliable regarding their business deals.
This man is running the firm for making thousands of dollars after scamming their investors. Moez Kassam can’t be trusted with your money, although after getting involved in some cases it is very important to provide them with the punishment.
The company can’t be trusted after making any mistakes after investing with this company though avoid the answer but will follow the governments
In my personal experience, I have got all my savings with this company but the intentions of the company were different, their main business is to take secret information and make users fool around after making the perfect test.
I have seen the reviews for this company in the review section, people have abused them in such languages which can’t be explained here, these are the real scammers and will never make you profit.
Now it is time to expose all their fraudulent schemes and make the investors aware of their fraudulent schemes. And also make them realize their mistake after punishing them and sending them behind the bars.
Avoid taking any of the business deals from the company, we need to avoid investing with them.
People like him are proceeding with their scams but are not wondering about the after results, none of the politicians can save him from the punishment.
This man has got several contacts who are going to save him from all the misshapen-like punishments which he has avoided after paying the officials and also is having several contacts to avoid the punishments.
It is very strange to observe crimes happening in the US or Canada and criminals not getting charged for their crimes. Anson funds are full of scams like insider trading and charges of corruption and many more which are to be exposed yet.
When I was researching the scams related to insider trading I found that now it has become a business for many millionaires because they hire several small writers and make them post negative information related to the rival company which leads the firm to lose on big margins. The information can be related to the decreasing value of the shares or about how the company is going to change its policies which leads to misinformation among the users.
Now, this is a real example of being jealous at the highest, making others suffer because of your fake information. Nowadays the business of defamation is at its peak, there are many firms like Anson funds, spreading fake information as well as delicate data to the public.
Throw him in jail!
His properties should be seized and audited immediately. Stock market manipulation, insider trading, fraud… there are a ton of crimes he has committed over the last decade.
Where are the authorities now?
The way Nobilis tackled Moez’s firm was the perfect example of the phrase an eye for an eye, here Moez was trying to act smart but none of his tactics worked.
Never trust blindly fake pieces of information provided by firms like Anson Funds because the owners of these firms are the most greedy people alive on this planet. They will never regret the fact that they defamed several companies through fake allegations and many of them aren’t present in the market currently.
He needs to be held answerable for a lot of things.
First of all, the victims of Tilray and all the other companies’ collapse, what would he do about them. He made his fortune off of the deliberate collapse of multiple companies which he caused himself.
There should be some repercussions for this sort of criminal activity. The man is a white-collared criminal. I’m surprised at how he is still allowed to run Anson Funds.
The way Nobilis tackled Moez’s firm was the perfect example of the phrase an eye for an eye, here Moez was trying to act smart but none of his tactics worked.
Anson Funds will have to pay at least $100 million in fines. The company has been involved in too many shady dealings.
If the company isn’t held responsible for its criminal dealings, I will lose all faith in the justice system. I know white collar criminals don’t get any serious punishment but the least the court can do is fine it heavily for destroying the livelihoods of so many people.
This is a true example of why you should not trust every single piece of information provided on the internet, as not everything posted on the internet is true.
I owe Anson Funds for taking away my job and ruining my livelihood. Most of the people who used to work with me know what Moez Kassam did to our company. Nothing has been done. No action has been taken against him or his vicious company. The man is a vulture, a scavenger and I hope he goes to jail.
Zenabis, Tilray, Genius Brands, I know these are all unknown names for most people but know that, many mid-cap companies are like that. There are actual people working in these companies so when they collapse, hundreds of people lose their jobs. Plus, the only reason these companies are collapsing is because of the stock market manipulation Anson Funds performs.
Lmao, this guy is giving interviews out there acting like he has done nothing wrong. He is a crook and it’s so obvious how he is trying to clear his name.
The lawsuit will ruin them. I know it in my heart. The number of people who have had to switch jobs and suffer because of the insider trading Moez Kassam does, is staggering. He will have to pay for his crimes eventually. There is only so much you can do to avoid the inevitable. Even the politicians know they can’t safeguard the interests of a crook like him for too long otherwise the people will turn on them. I bet Moez is making a ton of donations everywhere to save himself from serious sentences.
I feel sorry for all the victims of this terrible capitalist organization. There are a ton of criminals like Moez Kassam but nothing is ever done because they are too powerful. Criminals like him are extremely wealthy and they use all of that money to bribe politicians and authorities. Although he has hundreds of victims, I don’t think they will ever get the justice they deserve.
My wife used to work at Aphria. She lost her job after he caused the company’s stock to plummet. It was unprecedented. We are ordinary people, we don’t keep a close watch on Wall Street or anything of that sort. So when I learned that Anson Funds was responsible for the downfall of that company, I was mad.
The layoff was a pretty big deal. My wife was able to find a job eventually but we had to exhaust our savings during the time she was looking for that new job. It’s not possible these days to survive on just one salary. With 2 kids, we can’t risk losing our jobs like this.
Still, we were fortunate enough to get some employment. Many of her friends weren’t able to find another job for months. People like Kassam make me realize that the world is truly unfair.
People can go this cheap to make a profit, after all making someone lose on big margins, this incident explains the true meaning of the line that “ knowledge is power” but misusing it for your profit is nothing but cheapness. Moez Kassam is truly a despicable person.
I lost my only source of income because of Anson funds and Moez Kassam. This man is a true sociopath. He doesn’t care about
The way he was targeting small-scale businessmen is a brutal way to make them suffer, in the article one of the reviews claimed that many of the companies are even wiped out of existence . After knowing the reality of this criminal still, the government is not putting him behind the bars.
Anson Funds is responsible for taking away jobs from innocent people. Moez Kassam should be ashamed of what he does. They target small companies and ruin them with their targeted campaigns.
From the article, it is clear that if you are trading with Anson Funds there is a chance you may have to face fake allegations from the company and be part of a scam like Nobilis Health Corp. Moez Kassam has broken the hearts of many of his partners, by betraying them in various ways.
One more thing to keep in mind is that the company’s earnings and profit are touching the target of 45% which is higher as compared to other firms. This point is more than enough to make them answer about the secret ways of making a profit.
What an irony, this brutal scammer became a philanthropist after scamming and making a lot of money through his nefarious firm Anson funds. The psychology behind this is to burn all the past crimes by donating and helping the needy but this is not the way to reach god.