When the SEC issued its cease-and-desist order against Anson Funds Management LP and Anson Advisors Inc. on June 11, 2024, it didn’t just fine a hedge fund. It formally confirmed — on the public record — that a coordinated, multi-year market manipulation scheme operated from at least 2018 through 2023, targeting public companies and their shareholders. Barry Honig, who lost millions as a result of two of those attacks, now seeks civil redress in a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Texas.

This article walks through what the regulatory record shows, what the indictment adds, and what the civil complaint filed May 6, 2026 — Honig v. Anson Funds Management LP et al., Case No. 3:26-cv-01167-S — alleges as a result.

The SEC’s Findings: A Confirmed Scheme, Not a Theory

The SEC’s administrative order (Inv. Adv. Act Rel. No. 6622) is the foundation of the case against Anson. The order found that Anson Funds and Anson Advisors, co-advisers of the Anson Investments Master Fund (AIMF), willfully violated multiple provisions of the Investment Advisers Act:

Section 206(4) and Rule 206(4)-8 — anti-fraud provisions applicable to investment advisers managing pooled vehicles;

Sections 204 and Rule 204-2 — recordkeeping obligations;

Rule 206(4)-7 — compliance procedures.

The operative finding: Anson’s Private Placement Memorandum described a short-selling strategy but materially omitted that the strategy involved (a) coordinating with activist short publishers; (b) trading around those publications; and (c) compensating publishers with a share of AIMF’s trading profits in exchange for advance access to their work.

‘From at least 2018 through 2023, the Private Placement Memorandum for Anson Investments Master Fund described a short position investment strategy… but omitted that AIMF’s investment strategy involved working with activist short publishers and trading in the target securities, including around the time the reports were issued by activist short publishers, and paying a portion of AIMF’s trading profits to the short publishers.’ — SEC Order, Rel. No. 6622, June 11, 2024

The SEC found that Anson’s share of profits paid to ‘Individual A’ (identified in the civil complaint as Andrew Left of Citron Research) exceeded $1.1 million in connection with just two target securities. Critically, those payments were not made directly. Anson routed them through a third-party intermediary — identified in the civil complaint as Kurt Feshbach of Falcon Research — using invoices for purported ‘research services’ that were never performed. Anson then recorded these payments on its books as payments to Falcon for research, in violation of the Advisers Act’s books-and-records requirements.

The DOJ Indictment: Criminal Charges That Mirror the SEC Findings

On July 25, 2024, a federal grand jury in the Central District of California returned a 19-count indictment against Andrew Left (United States v. Andrew Left, No. 2:24-cr-00456-TJH), charging him with one count of engaging in a securities fraud scheme, 17 counts of securities fraud, and one count of making false statements to federal investigators.

The indictment references a ‘Hedge Fund A’ that paid Left through ‘Individual F’ via a third-party intermediary — language that maps directly onto Anson and Feshbach as identified in the civil complaint. Left is alleged to have shared planned negative publications with Hedge Fund A in advance, allowing the fund to establish short positions before reports were released, then cover those positions after prices declined — generating millions in trading profits that were then shared with Left.

The DOJ’s theory of criminality: Left’s publications were not independent research but paid promotional attacks. His representations to investors that Citron had ‘never been compensated by a third party to publish research’ were, the government alleges, simply false. In August 2019, Left made precisely that claim publicly. The indictment characterizes this as a material misrepresentation to investors who relied on Citron’s purported independence.

The indictment also expressly names PolarityTE as one of the companies targeted by the scheme — providing a direct evidentiary foundation for the civil claims now pending in Dallas.

III. The PolarityTE Attacks: False Claims, Real Damage

The civil complaint describes two coordinated Citron Research attacks on PolarityTE in 2018, both of which the plaintiffs allege were orchestrated by Anson and executed through Left:

Attack 1 — June 25, 2018: Citron published a report entitled ‘Citron Exposes History of FRAUD Behind PolarityTE.’ The central claim: PolarityTE’s patent application was ‘dead on arrival’ following a USPTO rejection notice. The report called the situation ‘not only securities fraud, but… criminal and not just civil fraud.’

The legal and factual problem: A USPTO ‘final rejection’ is a term of art, not a terminal event. Under 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.113 and 1.114, an applicant receiving a final office action has six months to file a Request for Continued Examination (RCE), amend the application, or submit new evidence. Statistics bear out that applicants who continue prosecution after a final rejection receive a patent approximately 70% of the time. PolarityTE filed an RCE, continued prosecution, and was ultimately granted Patent No. US 10,92,001 B2 in February 2021 — two and a half years after Citron declared the application dead. The class action lawsuit premised on the patent narrative was subsequently dismissed.

Attack 2 — October 18, 2018: A second Citron report, ‘PolarityTE: This Game Is Over! Price Target -$2,’ recycled the patent misrepresentation and introduced a new attack: a standard FDA Form 483 ‘inspectional observations’ letter, which the report characterized as proof that the FDA had ‘proven’ PolarityTE was a ‘stock scheme.’ The FDA Form 483, by its express terms, ‘does not represent a final Agency determination regarding [the company’s] compliance.’ The FDA took no further regulatory action.

Market impact: The first attack caused a single-day decline exceeding 33%, and nearly 50% within a week. The second attack caused an additional 17% decline. Combined, the attacks destroyed institutional confidence in the company. Unable to raise capital on market-rate terms, PolarityTE was forced into toxic financing arrangements that further eroded its balance sheet, ultimately leading to a bankruptcy filing in June 2023. Shares went to zero.

The Civil Claims: What Honig Is Seeking

Filed in the Northern District of Texas (which has jurisdiction given Anson Funds’ Texas domicile), the First Amended Complaint asserts five causes of action under Texas law:

1. Business Disparagement — False and malicious statements that caused economic harm to Honig’s investment interests in PolarityTE.
2. Tortious Interference — Honig held preferred convertible shares in PolarityTE under publicly disclosed contracts; Defendants’ manipulation of PolarityTE’s stock price directly affected the conversion formula in those contracts, impairing their value.
3. Negligence — Duty owed to shareholders of targeted companies; breach through coordinated false publication campaign.
4. Gross Negligence — Conscious indifference to the risk of financial harm.
5. Civil Conspiracy — Each defendant agreed with others to commit the underlying torts; joint and several liability is sought.

Vicarious liability is also pled: Kassam and Puri’s conduct occurred within the scope of their roles at Anson; Anson is liable under respondeat superior.

On the statute of limitations, the complaint invokes the discovery rule: the scheme’s existence was not publicly knowable until the DOJ indictment and SEC enforcement action were announced in July 2024. The complaint alleges Honig could not, through reasonable diligence, have identified the concealed coordination between Anson, Left, and Choi before that date.

The Broader Accountability Picture

This is not a case where a plaintiff is challenging opinions or subjective analysis. The SEC order, the DOJ indictment, and the settling defendants’ own payments have already established the factual core of the scheme on the public record. Choi paid over $1.8 million to settle SEC charges and is cooperating with the DOJ prosecution. Anson paid $2.25 million in civil penalties and is cooperating. Left faces 19 criminal counts and potential decades in prison.

What the civil litigation in Dallas adds is accountability to the shareholders who were neither named parties in the SEC action nor compensated by Anson’s penalty payments. The SEC’s enforcement mandate is systemic deterrence; civil litigation is the mechanism by which individual victims — including Honig, whose entities held nearly 10% of PolarityTE at the time of the attacks — seek to recover actual losses.

The broader significance: the Left trial, currently scheduled for 2026, will expose the full architecture of a short-and-distort infrastructure that operated for five years across more than a dozen public companies. For the companies and shareholders who were targeted — and for the market integrity principles at stake — that trial represents the most consequential public reckoning yet with the mechanics of coordinated market manipulation.

Seven years is a long time to wait for the record to be set straight. The record is now being set.

BARCELONA — At just 18 years and 237 days old, Lamine Yamal has already reached a career milestone that took Cristiano Ronaldo until age 21 and Lionel Messi until age 20: 100 senior goal contributions for club and country. The Barcelona and Spain sensation continues to rewrite football’s record books at a pace that defies logic, cementing his status as one of the greatest teenage talents the game has ever seen.

Yamal’s latest landmark came during Barcelona’s dominant 2025-26 campaign, where the winger has dazzled with blistering pace, visionary passing and clinical finishing. His 100th combined goal or assist arrived far quicker than either of the modern greats achieved at the same stage, sparking fresh debates about his trajectory compared to Ronaldo and Messi.

A prodigy rewriting the script

Born in 2007 in Rocafonda, Yamal made his Barcelona first-team debut at 15 years and 290 days old — already the youngest in club history. By 18, he has eclipsed multiple Ronaldo benchmarks, including becoming the youngest player to score 20 goals in a single La Liga season for Barcelona, surpassing Brazilian Ronaldo’s mark from the 1996-97 campaign.

In the Champions League, Yamal became the youngest player ever to reach 20 goal contributions (goals plus assists), achieving the feat in just 32 matches at 18 years and 275 days. Ronaldo and Messi required significantly more time and games to hit similar numbers at comparable ages.

His performances this season have been nothing short of spectacular. Yamal has terrorized defenses with trademark dribbles, precise crosses and growing goal threat. A recent hat-trick against Villarreal not only delivered a statement win but also broke a 92-year La Liga record for the youngest player to score a first senior treble.

Comparisons to Ronaldo and Messi

At the same age, Ronaldo was a promising but raw talent at Sporting Lisbon and early Manchester United, showing flashes of brilliance but lacking the consistent output Yamal now delivers. Messi, while exceptional, needed more time to reach triple-digit goal contributions. Yamal’s numbers at 18 already rival or surpass what both legends produced in their early 20s.

Statistics paint a staggering picture. Yamal has accumulated his 100 G/A in far fewer matches than Ronaldo (who reached it around age 21) and Messi. His dribble success rate, chance creation and big-game performances have drawn inevitable comparisons, though Yamal himself remains humble, crediting teammates and coaches for his rapid rise.

Barcelona’s reliance and future

Under Hansi Flick, Yamal has flourished in a fluid attacking system that maximizes his creativity. Barcelona’s La Liga title push this season has been powered significantly by the teenager, who many view as the club’s next generational superstar following in the footsteps of Messi.

His contract runs until 2030 with a massive release clause, but interest from Europe’s elite — particularly Real Madrid — remains a constant backdrop. For now, Yamal insists his focus is solely on Barcelona and winning more silverware.

International stardom

On the international stage, Yamal was instrumental in Spain’s Euro 2024 triumph and continues shining for La Roja. His ability to perform at the highest level as a teenager has drawn praise from legends including Ronaldo and Messi themselves, who have publicly applauded the youngster’s talent.

What makes Yamal special

Beyond raw statistics, Yamal’s fearlessness, technical brilliance and football intelligence set him apart. His low center of gravity, explosive acceleration and ambidextrous finishing make him a nightmare for defenders. Coaches describe him as a “once-in-a-generation” talent with the maturity of a veteran.

Off the pitch, Yamal maintains a grounded demeanor despite global fame. His rapid ascent from La Masia to world stardom serves as inspiration for young players worldwide.

Broader impact on football

Yamal’s records fuel debates about player development, the intensity of modern schedules and expectations placed on young stars. His success validates Barcelona’s famed academy system while highlighting how exceptional talent can accelerate timelines once thought impossible.

As the 2025-26 season nears its climax, Yamal shows no signs of slowing. With Barcelona chasing domestic and European glory, the teenager remains central to their ambitions. His journey is only beginning, yet he has already surpassed benchmarks set by two of football’s greatest icons.

Legacy in the making

Whether Yamal ultimately challenges Messi and Ronaldo’s all-time records remains to be seen. What is undeniable is his current dominance and the joy he brings to fans. At 18, he has achieved what most players dream of in entire careers.

The football world watches with bated breath as Lamine Yamal continues his extraordinary ascent — a teenager already making history and redefining what’s possible in the beautiful game.

A new specialist finance platform aimed squarely at the UK’s construction and manufacturing sectors has launched in a bid to ease one of the most persistent headaches facing small business owners: getting the bank to say yes.

SME Funded, founded by construction mergers and acquisitions specialist Bradley Lay, has positioned itself as the country’s first genuine one-stop shop for funding in these two capital-hungry industries. The platform combines access to more than 130 lenders with its own deployable capital, promising faster decisions and more flexible terms than the traditional high street route.

The timing is pointed. British SMEs have spent the past two years navigating tighter lending criteria, lengthening approval times and a noticeable retreat from small business banking by the major clearers. The Federation of Small Businesses has repeatedly warned that funding bottlenecks are throttling growth at precisely the moment the country needs it most, while construction insolvencies remain stubbornly high and manufacturers wrestle with input cost volatility.

Lay, who knows the construction sector intimately after helping scale a business from £12 million to more than £150 million in revenue before exiting in 2022, is blunt about the problem he is trying to solve.

“SMEs are the backbone of the UK economy, yet when it comes to finance, they’re often underserved,” he said. “Traditional lenders are slow, restrictive and risk averse. When businesses are growing, they hold them back, and when they’re under pressure, they step away. We built SME Funded to change that. This is about giving business owners real access to capital, quickly, intelligently and without unnecessary barriers.”

The product range is deliberately broad: business loans, asset and equipment finance, bridging and property finance, motor finance and software finance, each structured around the individual borrower rather than slotted into a generic template. The pitch is that working capital, growth funding and trading lifelines should look different for a Midlands precision engineer than they do for a London-based subcontractor, and the platform is built around that distinction.

What separates SME Funded from the broker pack, the company argues, is service. Rather than acting as a matchmaker and walking away, the team takes what it calls a “white-glove” approach, structuring deals, positioning the borrower’s story to lenders and managing the process end to end. A three-step application aims to get business owners from enquiry to funds in days rather than weeks.

The team has already worked with more than 600 UK business owners, an experience base that informs both the platform’s design and its sector focus. A spokesperson for the firm said: “Too many strong businesses are held back by slow processes, rigid criteria and a lack of understanding from traditional lenders. Our role goes beyond simply finding a lender. We structure funding properly, tell the right story and manage the entire process, so our clients can focus on running and growing their business.”

Lay’s pedigree adds weight to the proposition. As co-founder of Peak Capital Group and founder of TrueNorth Capital Group, he has led strategic acquisitions across the UK and European construction markets and has advised more than 100 SME owners on growth, financial strategy and exit planning. Having sat on both sides of the deal table, he understands what lenders actually want to see and where SMEs typically fall short in presenting it.

With the economic outlook still uncertain and high street appetite for SME lending showing few signs of recovery, SME Funded is betting that a sector-specialist, capital-backed platform can carve out meaningful share. If the company delivers on its promise of speed, certainty and proper deal structuring, it may have identified one of the more compelling gaps in Britain’s small business finance market.

Amy Ingham

Amy is a newly qualified journalist specialising in business journalism at Business Matters with responsibility for news content for what is now the UK’s largest print and online source of current business news.