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This was posted on Reddit:

The Hindenburg Research Mirage: Wall Street Collusion, Market Manipulation, and the Use of Unverified Sources in attempt to slander Lordstown Motors

Initial Disclosure: After extensive research, I believe that Hindenburg Research, Morgan Stanley, and others on Wall Street/CNBC have engaged in stock market manipulation.

This report represents my opinion, and I encourage every reader to do their own due diligence. I also have a long position in $RIDE.

Lordstown’s Pre-Orders

Lordstown Motors has always emphasized that they’ve had non-binding pre-orders. Many other EV companies take non-binding pre-orders as well – this has become common in the industry.

When Cramer interviewed CEO Steve Burns last year, it was known that these weren’t binding orders – they were simply letters of intent. During this interview, the words “non-binding” were actually shown on the screen.

Steve Burns mentions in that interview that many of the letters of intent were signed by CEOs. I still believe that to be true. The day following the report, one of the CEO’s that was attacked in Hindenburg’s piece came forward to defend his 14,000 order and went on to say he intends to fill all 14,000 orders.

Now, with the SEC requesting to look into Hindenburg’s accusations, one could imagine that Steve Burns and his PR team have to be careful about what they say to the public until the investigation is completed and they clear their name.

But now, after Hindenburg’s recent report, Cramer, Phil LeBeau, and others on Wall Street/CNBC are engaging in rhetoric to attempt to further slander Lordstown. They are acting as if Lordstown told investors they had 100,000 binding orders (which they have never said).

I believe these Wall Street crooks along with Hindenburg are involved in a targeted and coordinated attack (which I will explain in a minute).

Final point on Lordstown

I was talking to a friend who also owns the stock about a month ago – we were discussing how even if 50,000 of those 100,000 pre-orders came to fruition, that would still be roughly ~ $2.5B in revenue; we knew these weren’t binding orders as it was made very clear to the public. I invested in this company due to the large market opportunity, their advanced technology/product, and their partnerships with GM and Camping World; not because they had “x” amount of pre-orders.

Lordstown obviously feels that they do, in fact, have an extremely high demand for their truck; evidence of this was from Lordstown’s investor call yesterday – where they mentioned they decided to increase their investment in re-tooling their facility this year so they can increase their production targets for 2022.

Why would they do that if they didn’t actually have the demand that they have been reiterating?

Now, onto Wall Street & Hindenburg: Timeline of Events

I am very suspicious of this attack on Lordstown Motors, and I believe it was a planned, targeted, and coordinated attack to manipulate the stock. Here’s why:

On February 10th, I read an article about a Lordstown development mule that caught fire during a test drive. I saw this article the day it was released and was naturally a bit worried. But, I’ve seen this type of stuff happen to companies like Tesla and Ford; plus, Lordstown mentioned that it was a result of human error – this was a human-made prototype, and the Betas that are currently being produced are being welded by robots (Betas are basically 97% of the actual finished product – so these will be a much more accurate depiction of the final vehicle).

On February 11th, Lordstown Motors stock rallied up to $30.75 despite the news that had been released about the vehicle catching fire. This brought the stock near its all-time high of $31.80.

On February 12th, Morgan Stanley analyst, Adam Jonas, initiated coverage on Lordstown Motors stock and gave an $18 price target (which was a street-low at the time). In his report, he cited concerns with their hub-motor technology.

On March 12th, Hindenburg Research announced they had a short position in $RIDE and released their hit-piece. This was during a “quiet-period” for Lordstown as it was just 5 days before Lordstown’s annual investor call. Interesting timing.

On March 17th, Lordstown Motors had their annual investor call. But instead of a normal investor call, they had to announce that Hindenburg’s allegations had caused the SEC to look into them. It has been pretty apparent that Lordstown is being careful around the subject of pre-orders ever since Hindenburg’s report. I believe this is due to the SEC inquiring about these pre-orders.

During the investor call, Adam Jonas, the Morgan Stanley analyst, asked a question during the Q&A session at the end about their hub-motor technology that he had previously cited concerns about. He was asking about the spare tire that their trucks have, and he tried pointing out the burden/cost that it would be to store the spare tire/hub motor somewhere in the vehicle. Steve Burns answered that the spare tire in the vehicle doesn’t even have a hub motor, and that the vehicle is able to run on 3, 2, or even 1 hub motors if needed.

So let me get this straight – the “analyst” that cited concerns about their technology back in February doesn’t even understand how the technology works?

The morning, March 18th, a couple of firms updated their price targets on Lordstown Motors. Goldman Sachs adjusted their price target to $29 and BTIG adjusted their price target to $40.

But then, something weird happened

Also in the morning, March 18th, CNBC shared that Morgan Stanley lowered their price target from $18 to $12 in an article that contained Phil LeBeau’s interview with Steve Burns. I imagine this was a very highly viewed article since it contained clips from the interview. I included a screenshot as well so CNBC doesn’t see this and go edit it.

After this article was released and Morgan Stanley lowered their price target, the stock started to get drilled. Eventually, it closed down 14% for the day.

Then, after my work day ended and the market closed, I noticed that Morgan Stanley had gone and raised their price target from $12 to $18.

Wait what?

So which is it? $12 or $18? Why was it lowered to $12 in the morning, but then increased back to $18 once the stock was done getting slaughtered?

I find this very odd. Seems to me like this price target change could have been coordinated, and the shorts were been greedy and wanted to make some extra money.

In summary:

It wouldn’t be the first or even second time that Morgan Stanley has manipulated the stock market. In fact, I found numerous other articles of fines they’ve paid in the past for similar offenses, so it’s obvious they do this type of stuff all of the time. Corruption.

I definitely think Morgan Stanley is involved here. Hindenburg (obviously) is involved here, and maybe even additional folks that have visibility into CNBC and Wall Street.

I also find it very suspicious that Phil LeBeau of CNBC is having conversations with Nathan Anderson behind closed-doors. Are there other companies or firms talking to Nathan Anderson behind closed doors? Are Hindenburg’s attacks coordinated with other hedge funds or institutions?

I believe this was all a coordinated attack to bring down the price of $RIDE stock – for some, it was to close out their short positions and profit. For others, I think they wanted to lower the price to start a position in the stock at a lower price.

Myself and a group of 4 others are looking into all of the details more closely in the coming weeks. I recommend others do their own research as well. Something is not right here.

In conclusion:

If the SEC or some other private committee were to go and look at the trades, text messages, and collaboration/coordination of Hindenburg, Morgan Stanley, and other folks on Wall Street/CNBC that occurred in relation to Lordstown Motors in the past 2 months, I believe they would eventually find that the stock was manipulated.

The SEC has inquired about Lordstown Motors – but I think the real crooks here are Hindenburg, Morgan Stanley, and all of the others that were actually involved in this targeted attack.

Hindenburg cites many “former employees” in their report – who are these former employees? Were they paid to say the things they said? Was it only Hindenburg who had a vested interest in the stock price going down? Or were others in on this?

The list of questions I have goes on.

All I’m asking is that this investigation goes both ways – if the SEC is going to look into Lordstown, all of the folks who had a vested interest in the stock going down need to be investigated as well.

Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/lordstownmotors/comments/m86vbt/the_hindenburg_research_mirage_wall_street/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf