Viceroy Research LLC is an international investigative financial research group registered in Delaware, United States. It was founded by a British short seller Fraser John Perring together with Australian partners Aiden Lau and Gabriel Bernarde in 2016. Perring and Viceroy have stirred considerable media interest because of their reports on firms like Wirecard. Of late, Viceroy has been known to bet against companies like Tesla, or Grenke.
In 2021, the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has fined Viceroy R50 million for damaging remarks that the short-selling firm made about South Africa's Capitec Bank.
In October 2021, it issued a damning report against Adler Real Estate for inflated valuations and undisclosed related party deals. KPMG probed the allegations and cleared the company of systemic fraud, but was unable to refute all of the claims. In May 2022, KPMG quit its contract. Adler eventually was unable to repay its debt. In April 2023, it won approval in court, against the opposition of some bondholders, to suspend coupon payments and extend maturities of bonds due in 2024.
In July 2023, Fraser John Perring reacted angrily to suggestions by an unknown tabloid newspaper that his support for "gay/queer charity" was "because I am secretly gay." Fraser threatened to "fucking destroy" anyone who repeated these allegations.
List of short attack reports
The following table displays the companies Viceroy Research has published reports about.
Controversies
Allegations
On 16 March 2023, a question was raised in the UK's House of Commons by Liam Byrne MP about Viceroy Research involvement in a short-selling attack on Babcock International (involved with build and maintenance of UK's nuclear submarines) and Fraser John Perring's links and frequent trips to Moscow: "Can we have a debate in Government time on the activities of short-selling attack group Viceroy Research and its leader Fraser Perring? I am told that it is working hand in glove with Boatman Capital, which launched the short-selling attack on Babcock International while it was overhauling our nuclear submarines. Mr Perring is a not infrequent visitor to Moscow, and is now targeting Home REIT, which provides homelessness services, including to homeless veterans. We must ensure that short-selling groups are not another weapon in Putin's arsenal. Where there are links between short-selling attack groups and the Kremlin, we need to know."
In 2023, it was alleged that Jonathon Lourie, founder of Cheyne Capital, provided the financial backing to Viceroy Research as well as tipping Viceroy on companies to target. In 2022, allegations were made against Viceroy Research as part of continued investigations into Viceroy's short attack against Capitec (for which Viceroy had already been fined for misleading reports) that Viceroy was paid R10M for production of its reports into Capitec. In 2022, allegations were made that Viceroy Research pushed a short and distort attack against cryptocurrency Tether.
Legal cases
Medical Properties Trust, Inc. v. Viceroy Research LLC (2023): MPT filed a lawsuit against Viceroy Research in federal court, alleging that Viceroy had defamed the company by publishing false and misleading statements about its business practices. In June 2023, Medical Properties Trust won a preliminary ruling in its defamation lawsuit over an alleged “short and distort” scheme by Viceroy Research. Adler Group SE v. Viceroy Research LLC (2022): Adler Group filed a lawsuit against Viceroy Research in German court, alleging that Viceroy had defamed the company by publishing false and misleading statements about its financial condition. The lawsuit was settled in 2022, with Viceroy agreeing to pay Adler Group an undisclosed sum. GNC Holdings, Inc. v. Viceroy Research LLC (2019): GNC Holdings filed a lawsuit against Viceroy Research in federal court, alleging that Viceroy had defamed the company by publishing false and misleading statements about its business practices. The lawsuit was settled in 2019, with Viceroy agreeing to pay GNC Holdings an undisclosed sum.