Well-known stock trader and his L.A. firm are charged with fraud and market manipulation

Federal prosecutors and securities regulators in Los Angeles announced charges Friday against prominent stock analyst Andrew Left, alleging he made millions of dollars of ill-gotten gains by making public comments to manipulate the stock prices of companies such as Nvidia, Tesla and Facebook while also investing in the companies.

Left, formerly of Beverly Hills and now a Florida resident, traded on his reputation as a regular commentator on cable business news channels. He operated his business out of Los Angeles through his firm, Citron Research.

A 19-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles charged Left, 54, with securities fraud and lying to federal investigators. Left is expected to be arraigned in Los Angeles in the coming weeks, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

“Though Left represented to the public that his recommendations were to be trusted, behind the scenes, Left allegedly took contrary trading positions to reap quick profits off the stocks he either promoted or pilloried through Citron,” the Los Angeles U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.

In a parallel investigation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday announced a civil complaint against Left and his firm, saying that regulators uncovered alleged bait-and-switch tactics that netted them $20 million in illicit profits.

Left, reached by phone in Boca Raton, Fla., declined to comment, saying, “I’ll wait for my lawyer to wake up.”

His attorney, James Spertus of West Los Angeles, denied that Left made false statements. “He’s never once published an untrue fact,” he said.

“It’s just a defective theory on its face,” Spertus said of the allegations. “He doesn’t have a duty to disclose his private trading intentions.” Moreover, Spertus said, Left’s published reports contain detailed disclosures and disclaimers informing readers that he is trading in the stocks he writes about.

The indictment is the culmination of a three-year investigation by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and Washington. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office wouldn’t say whether the investigation extended more broadly to other short sellers. The tactics involved in short selling have been a subject of concern to market watchers and regulators. The trading strategy involves speculating in stocks in which investors borrow shares of a stock and hope to make a profit by betting the stock’s price will decline.