Whole "Black Hole" thing a hoax - I listened to the recording about Aphria, read the articles and did some digging myself. Some interestingly wierd things happen when you listen to the recording of the interview:
#1 - no mention is made of the actual address of the warehouse building to which these "investigators" go. Was it an old building that was used and then after the acquisition, maybe they bought a bigger one or one nearer to newer corporate offices? The "investigators" don't mention this possibility at all. All the "investigators" say is basically "...we went to an old address that was used at some time in the past according to some paper we read that we won't tell you how old it was, and it looked like there was nobody there." Well, what piece of paper did you get the address off of? How old was it? Did they change warehouses? Did you bother to investigate that? No?....hmmmmm.
#2 - the "investigators" say that they couldn't find some people at an old supposed residence and that some other people were living in that residence - could it get any more vague? You'll notice the "investigators" didn't specify which buildings they went to, didn't say whether or not they researched whether or not any of the people they were looking for had moved and provided forwarding addresses...did they bother to investigate that, maybe check with the post office?
#3 - no names of the people the "investigators" talked to is given. So, the "investigators" talked to new people living in an old building, new people who hadn't heard of Aphria...neither has my next-door neighbor or the server at my local Starbucks.
#4 - Some of this is a regurgitation of old news from January and May of 2018. Some individual people in Aphria bought some shares of Nuuvera. People are allowed to do that - people are allowed to buy shares in companies they like. Doesn't matter if you're a CEO or a mailroom clerk, you can buy shares in any company you want. Later on, the company, Aphria, bought out Nuuvera, because the company, Aphria, liked Nuuvera's prospects and it fit in with what Aphria was trying to do, expansion-wise.
However, a short-seller, back in May, tried to claim that Aphria was doing insider-trading simply because 8 people who worked for Aphria owned shares of Nuuvera before Aphria bought it.
If people who work for Coke own some shares of Pepsi, and then Coke buys out Pepsi, will short-sellers start screaming "insider trading!"?
Now, another short-seller is trying to claim the same thing. Only this time, this short seller is trying to shore up his claims by saying that an old warehouse isn't being used anymore (happens all the time when companies buy out other companies), that people can't be found at old addresses (but doesn't say whether or not they moved, just that they're not at the old address anymore), and that the new people in the old place haven't heard of Aphria (just like my neighbor and coffee server).
There are other vague items in this short-sellers "investigative" piece, but unless these "investigators" can give out names, dates, and actually prove any misdeeds by the company, then the short-seller is just trying to draw negative attention so that he can make a ton of money by scaring other people into selling their stock.
For short-sellers to publish inflammatory articles that they know will scare investors and cause a sell-off is market manipulation and is illegal.