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by Mike Caswell

A U.S. federal judge has ruled the case against activist short-seller Andrew Left, accused of a two-year scheme to manipulate several Canadian and U.S. listings, can proceed. Mr. Left had asked the judge to dismiss the case, saying that his conduct involved uncovering corporate fraud and betting against overvalued stocks. Prosecutors, however, said that Mr. Left was a repeat manipulator who ran a "garden-variety pump-and-dump scheme."

The ruling comes as part of a case in which prosecutors claim that Mr. Left, 54, misused his investment publication, Citron Research, to generate $20-million in trading profits. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) He frequently traded against his own recommendations, taking advantage of unsuspecting investors who followed his advice, the government says. The stocks that he targeted included TSX Venture Exchange listings Cronos Group Inc. and Namaste Technologies Inc.

The judge's decision, contained in an order handed down on Dec. 29, 2025, comes after Mr. Left had complained that he was a victim of "selective prosecution." He said that the government charged him because people on Wall Street pushed regulators and lawmakers to "go after" him. He further claimed to have personally uncovered some of the largest corporate frauds in history. He had asked that the judge dismiss the case before it went to trial.

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