#015 Activist Short-Seller Dan David On 'The China Hustle' And Uncovering Frauds

Activist short-seller Dan David, the founder of Wolfpack Research and host of the “I Hung Up On Warren Buffett” podcast, joins Julia La Roche on today’s episode. Dan is best known for uncovering frauds in Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges.

In this episode, Julia and Dan discuss his journey from being a long-only investor to an activist short-seller exposing frauds. Dan delves into his process of uncovering fraudulent companies, from deploying a tea salesperson to inquire how many employees were at a plant to posting video cameras to monitor truck traffic. Dan also details the involvement of the U.S. banks and law firms in these frauds that impacted millions of everyday Americans’ retirement and investment accounts.

Dan, who has been sued for $250 million, breaks the merits of short-selling and the importance of Freedom of Speech. He also shares what he's focused on today. 

0:00 Intro/ journey into short-selling

3:55 Carson Block’s Orient Paper short report

5:22 The pervasiveness of Chinese stock frauds

7:28 How U.S. banks, law firms enabled stock fraud

9:30 Why frauds targeted U.S. investors

11:08 U.S. banks involvement

13:31 Thousands of people involved

14:20 How the fraud worked

17:16 An example of uncovering a fraud

22:19 Thoughts on “The China Hustle” film

26:00 Sino-Forest fraud

28:00 Orient Paper

30:40 Why we “won this round”

33:10 Sohn Conference in Hong Kong

35:50 U.S./China geopolitical tensions

40:30 Short-selling

46:00 Freedom of Speech 

49:22 Hanging up on Buffett

56:12 Opportunities today