“The Wolf Den” hosted by Dan David

Episode 19 - Sam Reynolds - Crypto, Digital Currency, and the future.

This week The Pack is joined by Sam Reynolds (On Twitter @thesamreynolds & @blockworks), a journalist with Blockworks based in Taipei. With Blockworks he covers digital assets and institutional investors in the world’s most exciting economies.
Prior to Blockworks he was an editor with Taipei-based Forkast News, where he covered blockchain throughout Asia. Sam also contributes to Wccftech, one of the largest technology news websites in the world. 
Sam takes us thorough the world of crypto, digital currencies like the e-yuan, and a bit of policy and politics.  
https://blockworks.co/ - Understand the crypto markets in just 5 minutes.

Episode 18 - Weird Guys: Investigator Derrick Snowdy

In this week's episode, Carson Block and Roddy Boyd  (@muddywatersre & @RodBoydILM  on Twitter) join the pack for a special forum to discuss private investigator Derrick Snowdy. 
Derrick has been the topic of recent articles by Institutional Investor Magazine & The Foundation for Financial Journalism. Sit back listen to Dan, Carson, and Roddy as they tell stories and give perspective on the inner workings of some of the top journalists and activist short sellers in the world.  
https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1rtgl72qyzdw4/Shadowy-Private-Investigator-Promised-Catalyst-Intel-on-Short-Sellers-But-Came-Up-Short-New-Legal-Documents-Reveal
https://ffj-online.org/2021/05/12/danny-guy-derrick-snowdy-and-the-strange-wars-of-confused-men/

Episode 17 - Root Insurance - Edwin Dorsey

This week, The Pack has a Bull vs Bear discussion on Root, Inc. (Nasdaq: ROOT) with Edwin Dorsey of “The Bear Cave”. ROOT is a provider of direct-to-consumer insurance products. Edwin Dorsey (@StockJabber on Twitter). Has published two reports on ROOT explaining why he believes they are not a viable long-term company. Even after a long-biased tweet & live stream from the “former” activist short seller Andrew Left, Edwin appears to be correct: ROOT’s stock is still down since his first publication.  Sit Back, relax, have a drink and enjoy this special release.
You can follow Edwin’s work and subscribe to Edwin’s email newsletter, “The Bear Cave” at https://thebearcave.substack.com/

Episode 16 - Roddy Boyd

This week The Pack visits with a friend of the show Roddy Boyd (@RodBoydILM on Twitter). Roddy is the Editor and founder of the Foundation for Financial Journalism. I think Roddy is among the few remaining investigative journalists on the planet. Before FFJ, he was a reporter for Fortune, NY Post, NY Sun, and Institutional Investor News. In 2011 he published “Fatal Risk – A cautionary Tale of AIG’s Corporate Suicide”, a McKinsey Business Book of the Year. In 2012, The Huffington Post named him “one of the most feared financial reporters in America.”  Roddy takes us through his upbringing, his early work, and events that shaped his career both personally and professionally. Sit back have a drink and enjoy!
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https://www.aa.org and https://www.nami.org/Home
3:15 Roddy’s background; growing up as the son of a hedge fund titan, being taught the importance of hard work, and graduating from Fordham University
10:18 Roddy’s aspiration of becoming a journalist which was enhanced after the Watergate hearings, putting his dreams on pause to pay the bills for his new family, and working his way up from being a desk clerk
19:20 Roddy’s attempt to get a job as a writer, landing a financial journalism gig at II and writing his biggest gets on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae which led him to the NY Sun and eventually the NY Post.  Writing about overstock.com
30:00 Going after Fairfax Financial, overstock suing Rocker Partners which led to a wave of attacks on short-sellers and eventually journalists.
40:02 Roddy getting subpoenaed from the SEC for his Fairfax reporting, taking the case to the state supreme court and ultimately fighting off the suit, and how Dan and Roddy became in contact over the wave of Chinese fraud.
 
49:10 Where were you the first time you heard about Ben Wei and Freedom of Speech?
 
52:20 The time Roddy visited the China Media Express office, witnessed Jeffrey Toobin-esque activities and a sleeping R&D department, and the subsequent stop on trading the next day from the NASDAQ.
1:00:35 Roddy’s work on Valeant and their ultimate demise, Bill Ackman’s hypocritical stance on Valeant after playing the moral high ground on Herbalife.
1:12:40  Roddy’s continuous work and personal sacrifice to help bring down Insys Pharmaceuticals, and ultimately being thanked personally by a senior DEA officer on the case.
1:20:00 How Roddy makes a living off of donations to the Foundation for Financial Journalism, doing honest work and still getting attacked for taking donations from short-sellers.
1:30:20 Roddy’s journey towards sobriety and the moments that made him realize he needed to make a change, how drinking often becomes a problem for journalists and people on Wall Street.  How Roddy has helped numerous people reach sobriety.

Episode 15 - Kurt Feshbach

This week, The Pack takes a trip back to the early days of short selling only to find out that, sadly, not much has changed. In 1970, Kurt Feshbach (@Kurt_Feshbach on Twitter) was a high school dropout, described in one article as a “typical SoCal surfer” sporting long hair, flipflops and a tank top. Based on appearance alone, nobody could have known that his small company in California, Feshbach Bros., was actually one of the most feared Activist Short Sellers in the world.  
Kurt takes us through his first trade (which netted him $5k) and through some of the biggest hits that, in 9 years, had Feshbach Bros. managing a billion dollars - for those keeping score, that’s an annualized return (IRR) of 232.4% - not bad for high school dropout. 
Kurt went to war with journalists and banks while balancing a complicated relationship with the SEC and other regulators. He was criticized at the time for using what many considered to be unorthodox investigation techniques but has now become standard practice for top-tier Activist Shorts.
Kurt now runs https://bindlepaper.com. The Bindle Paper is an independent boutique research firm which produces deep dive, single-stock short research for a discrete and limited group of institutional clients.
bin·dle pa·per: A clean piece of standard-size, folded paper used to contain trace evidence.
Sit back, grab a drink, and enjoy the trip through time, knowledge, and experience that Kurt imparts during our fascinating conversation.
“We're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive. It's pretty dense kids who haven't figured that out by the time they're ten.... Most kids can't afford to go to Harvard and be misinformed.”
― Kurt Vonnegut
1:05 Kurt talks about how he got started and the help he had from his partners and his father.
2:42 Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Hear the long list of companies whose executives ended up in prison after dealing with the Feshbach Bros. 
6:05 Kurt working on the sell side of Wall St, and meets a man that showed him the light, which led him to his first short idea.
12:26 A business is born; Kurt brings in his brothers and gets some seed money from a partner to start Feshbach Brothers.
15:03 Green energy was booming in the 1980’s - the problem was that most of them were frauds. Kurt made a killing exposing them, including one that claimed to create "clean" energy from human waste… turns out they were full of shit.
17:40 Kurt takes us through the process that they employed to obtain SEC filings via 1980’s technology.
28:06 Kurt talks about ZZZBest and Barry Minkow, one of the biggest and best shorts on his impressive track record, as well as a few others that were absolutely amazing finds.
34:55 All that swag, congressional hearings, and Robert Flaherty.
41:19 Picking through the trash, putting the puzzle together, and working with reporters to get your story out before the internet was invented.
48:48 How the market is essentially the same 40 years later, well except for the valuations...
58:57 Kurt addresses the "rumors" that Wells Fargo killed his business
1:06:38 The SEC and 20,000 pages of thermal paper.
1:19:39  The next big thing for Kurt: The Bindle Paper.

Episode 14 - Jordan Thomas

This week The Pack had the pleasure of speaking with Jordan Thomas. Jordan is widely recognized as being at the pinnacle of whistleblower law in the United States. He is currently serving as a partner and chair for the Whistleblower Representation Practice at Labaton Sucharow. Before that, he was a Naval judge, DOJ trial lawyer, and assistant director to the SEC.  At the SEC, he helped develop the original whistleblower program and laid the foundation for what it is today.
Jordan goes into great detail about what whistleblowers mean to the financial ecosystem and how their cases must be handled in order to best protect investors. He also describes how he sees the regulatory system progressing, and addresses what he believes the SEC must accomplish in order to better enforce its regulations.
Jordan is truly an expert on all aspects of financial regulation. Sit back, grab a drink, and enjoy the knowledge and experience that he imparts during our conversation.
1:34 Jordan breaks down his vast work experience and some of his accomplishments along the way.
4:00 Jordan’s pretty unique background and upbringing – how he found his path toward fighting corruption with strong influences from his father who was a judge, and mother who was a nun and school teacher.
10:23 Why is it that nobody gets prosecuted for fraud anymore? Jordan’s thoughts on using litigation as a deterrent.
23:49 Jordan addresses the regulatory gaps that he’d like to see corrected, and how Dodd-Frank still has a way to go.
30:30 If Jordan was in charge at the SEC - how the SEC should allocate its limited resources, and what he would do to increase the amount of trials.
41:10 Jordan’s reasoning for suing the SEC, and how the SEC moves the goalposts by changing the rules pertaining to whistleblowers and why that hurts their cause.
48:00 How fighting the good fight goes beyond wins and losses, the need for bringing more cases to trial, and how companies take advantage of the SEC’s lack of prosecution - such as Walmart’s FCPA violations.
55:22 Jordan’s thoughts on the increasingly pervasive fraud coming out of China and the difficulty in collecting from Chinese frauds. The difference between how corporations react to policy and enforcement - fines have become a slap on the wrist.
1:03:01 Jordan’s advice for investors: either be diligent or look into index funds. How one becomes a client of his practice, and why the SEC is skeptical of short sellers’ biases.

Episode 13 - Herb Greenberg

This week Dan and the Pack sit down with journalist, commentator, and investment researcher Herb Greenberg. Many listeners will recognize Herb from his work as a senior market commentator on CNBC, and also from his work at both TheStreet and MarketWatch.
 
Before his time on television, Herb got started in journalism writing for the Boca Raton News, the Chicago Tribune as a New York-based financial correspondent, and eventually landed his gig as a daily columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Currently, Herb and his partners run Pacific Square Research, a subscription-based research firm specializing in fundamental, investigative and forensic analysis.
 
Sit back, relax, and enjoy a conversation with veteran investigative financial journalist Herb Greenberg, as he dishes some great backstory about breaking some of the most memorable insider trading-stories, investigations, and SEC run-ins over his 40-year career

Episode 12 - Dr. Jessica Steier & Dr. Andrea Love - Covid Vaccines

The Pack takes a break from the world of finance and spends some time on focusing on what may be the most important and misunderstood topic in the world today: COVID-19 vaccines. 
Jessica Steier, DrPH, PMP and Andrea C. Love, Ph.D. take us from the origins of vaccination to the current global pandemic. Dr. Steier and Dr. Love have extensive experience in dealing with public health policies, as well as vaccines. Together they host the "Unbiased Science Podcast" - We encourage you to give their show a listen at  https://www.unbiasedscipod.com/.  
They help us understand why some people are apprehensive when it comes to vaccinations and dispel some of the rumors and misinformation surrounding the new COVID-19 vaccines. 
Get the truth, get the science and get vaccinated to help stop the spread of COVID-19.  
5:11 - The science and history behind vaccines and how mRNA vaccines are different from traditional vaccines.
16:40 - Addressing falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccines, why some people have mild adverse reactions to the vaccine, and how mRNA vaccines have developed over time.
24:23 - The different types of COVID-19 vaccines in the pipeline, why COVID-19 is more dangerous than the flu, and the long term disabling effects of the virus that are being overlooked.
34:02 - The different variants of COVID-19 that are emerging around the world, and whether or not the current vaccines will be effective against them.
39:33 - The importance of getting vaccinated, what the government needs to do in terms of distribution, and why some minority groups are especially suspicious of the vaccine.
 

Episode 11- Ambassador Dennis Shea

The Pack is joined this week by Ambassador Dennis Shea. Ambassador Dennis Shea was the Deputy United States Trade Representative and Chief of Mission, Geneva where he represented the United States as Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO).  Ambassador Shea takes us through his history serving on the U S China economic and security review commission. His time in Geneva where he became famous in China on Weibo, Chinas version of twitter.  Through the struggles at the WTO and some surprising allies as well as some allies that are more like frenemies. Ambassador Shea also talks about what his hopes are for the new administration and the future of the WTO.  Sit back and enjoy this special trip through the interworking's of the WTO and the challenges that the US faces.  
2:32 Ambassador Shea’s time serving on the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission and China’s ability to export a chill on freedom of speech in America.
7:56 How Ambassador Shea became a US representative to the World Trade Organization, the ways other countries in the WTO have failed to hold China accountable, and 
17:35 Where the WTO has failed in promoting free and fair trade, the issues of including China in the WTO, and Ambassador Shea’s three main issues with the WTO.
29:29 China’s demands for the WTO going forward, how China called themselves a “developing country” to get preferential treatment, and the need for allied countries to join the US in sanctioning China.
37:38 Jack Ma’s disappearance, the Kennedy Bill’s debacle with delisting Chinese Telecom companies, and Ambassador Shea’s term for these sorts of companies: Ostensibly Private but State Influenced Corporations (OPSIC)
45:06 Ambassador Shea’s ideal agenda for the WTO going forward under the Biden administration and his urgent plea for other countries to join the US in WTO reform.
53:07 What Ambassador Shea will be watching in the coming years and what events would be cause for concern for the US. 

Episode 10 - Anne Stevenson-Yang Joins The Pack to discuss the BTBT Bit Digital report.

Special guest Anne Stevenson-Yang, co-founder of J Capital Research Joins the  pack to discuss the BTBT Bit Digital report.

Episode 9 - Alibaba, Jack MA, Ant Financial Guest panel Herb Greenberg and Paul Gillis

In this episode the pack travels back to China in search of Jack Ma. We bring back  China accounting expert Professor Paul Gillis and new to the pack, Herb Greenberg.  We dive into the reasons why, and not for the first time, Jack Ma has been removed from the public.   We also get an in-depth look at how Alibaba became the giant it is and was able to crush its competitors in China.  Paul and Herb share some of the details from the IPO, red flags that created the ongoing SEC investigation and the problems that Jack may have created with Ant Financial.  
Enjoy this discussion from our panel of some of the worlds best in finance.  
2:22 What the hell is going on with Jack Ma
5:32 History of the Tech in China and Alibaba
8:20 China starts to Evolve and attempts to reign in some of the bigger companies 
10:16 Jack Ma gets his first billion and destroys EBAY
14:50 IPO's VIE's and are they really worth the paper they are printed on
18:30 Alibaba has some issues with their accounting and even MIT cant figure it out
28:00 The Ant Financial IPO
35:16 Trump now Biden and China what will happen
40:00 China, future frauds and will the SEC be a toothless tiger

Episode 8 - Professor Paul Gillis

In this episode The Pack continues it world tour speaking to the experts in the financial world.  We land in Beijing and visit with Professor Paul Gillis.  Paul is one of the foremost accounting experts in the world on China.  This former PWC partner and PCOAB advisory board member is the go-to guy for the US Government as well as Public and Private entities when they have questions on China and its accounting practices.   
Hear about Paul's life and how he ended up in China.  How accounting has evolved and how China's accounting practices have evolved.  We touch on current events and some future predictions.  
Sit back, have a drink, and enjoy a conversation with Dan and The Pack as they swap stories with the amazing Professor Paul Gillis.
2:28 Paul’s backstory as an aspiring Olympic skier and his entrance into accounting and joining PricewaterhouseCoopers in its early stages in China
14:55 Gillis’s problem with China’s high tax rates and incompetent enforcement, Alibaba’s dominate presence and the struggles facing Ant Group’s IPO
29:14 Hong Kong’s lack of market regulation and the dangers it poses to investors, Will Hong Kong will dissolve into China in 10-15 years?
40:01 How do you go on live Chinese state TV and balance your opinion, facts and not going to jail.
43:54 Students in China and Students in the US.  Rock Star Treatment 
48:23 Free speech in the US, China and working the system. 
50:08 How China utilizes AI on smartphones to contain COVID and the advantages of a totalitarian state in dealing with the virus
57:47 Paul’s take on the age of activist shorts and whether there is still fraud in China
1:07:30 The incredibly convoluted accounting practices in China and how Chinese law frees them from accountability to foreign investors