In Gone Girl, a woman meticulously constructs a false identity to destroy her husband’s life. The media believes every word. The public condemns him before any trial. He had no idea the trap was being sprung. Sound familiar?
Barry Honig has not disappeared. But for seven years, a version of him was invented – a Wall Street cartoon villain – and this invented character was broadcast in the financial media, on Twitter and on cable. The public condemned the character. The real person had to try to prove otherwise.
Now, thanks to a federal indictment, SEC enforcement actions, and a new civil action filed in May 2026, the people who wrote this false character are themselves the ones facing justice. The plot has changed.
A note on background: In 2019, Honig settled separate charges with the SEC related to three unrelated microcap stocks, accepting a penny stock bar without admitting or denying wrongdoing. This case is distinct from PolarityTE. In the PolarityTE case – the subject of this article – Honig was a shareholder victim of a scheme that the US government has now formally confirmed and prosecuted.
The setup: someone wrote the script
In Gone Girl, “Amazing Amy” is a character created to be believed – designed with just enough detail, just enough emotion, just enough apparent evidence to seem completely real. The audience doesn’t question it because the story is told with great confidence.
This is exactly what Citron Research did. Andrew Left didn’t just write negative stock reports. He wrote in a style designed to resemble an expose – sensationalist, urgent, moral. His reports called the companies “FRAUD” in all caps. They used phrases like “the SEC should STOP this stock immediately” and “investors have been warned.” They included dramatic price targets, well below current trading levels.
And most importantly, he presented all of this as independent and unbiased research. In August 2019, Left publicly asserted that Citron had “never been compensated by a third party to publish research.”
It was a lie. The DOJ says so. The SEC proved it.
The hidden screenwriters: Anson Funds
In Gone Girl, the husband doesn’t know who’s pulling the strings. Neither does Honig.
Behind Citron Research was Anson Funds Management, a $2.9 billion Dallas-based hedge fund led by Moez Kassam. The SEC confirmed in its June 2024 order that between at least 2018 and 2023, Anson secretly paid the left to publish attacks on companies that Anson was already shorting. The payment trail was deliberately buried: money flowed from Anson to a third party called Falcon Research, using false invoices for “research services” that were never provided, then passed on to Left.
The SEC found that Anson hid the fact that his strategy involved working with activist publishers, trading at the time the reports were published, and paying a portion of the fund’s profits to these publishers in exchange for early access to their work. — SEC Order, Rel. No. 6622, June 11, 2024
Here’s how the cycle worked: Anson sold a stock short. Citron would publish the attack. The stock would collapse. Anson would cover his position and collect millions. The left would have its share. And the company – and its innocent shareholders – would be left in ruins.
PolarityTE was one such company. Barry Honig and its family entities owned nearly 10% of PolarityTE at the time of the attacks. They had no idea who wrote the script.
The “dead patent” that was not dead
Every false grand narrative needs irrefutable proof – a single “fact” so overwhelming that no one bothers to verify whether it is actually true.
Citron’s irrefutable proof was the patent. In June 2018, they published a glaring report that PolarityTE’s patent application had been rejected by the USPTO – “dead on arrival”, with “chances of recovery in the single digits”. The report accused management of hiding this from investors and called the situation “not only securities fraud, but also criminal fraud.”
There was only one problem: the patent wasn’t dead.
A USPTO “final rejection” is a legal term – a procedural step in the process, not a death sentence. Companies that receive them and pursue their application obtain a patent in about 70% of cases. PolarityTE has done just that. In February 2021 – almost three years after Citron declared it dead – the USPTO granted PolarityTE its patent.
The class action lawsuit filed against PolarityTE based on Citron’s patent claims? Rejected.
But the stock was already destroyed. Once you believe the false story, the truth comes too late.
The media plays its role
In Gone Girl, the media becomes a character in its own right, amplifying and shaping public perception before the facts are established. The guilt of the accused is presumed. Each of his statements is filtered by suspicion.
Left had over 100,000 followers on Twitter. His reporting has been picked up by financial media, picked up on CNBC and cited in mainstream articles. The DOJ alleges that he bragged to colleagues that he could “destroy” companies with a single tweet, and that a Business Insider article noted that he could “bring down a stock with a single tweet” — a quote he repeated.
He was right. And for companies and targeted investors like Honig, it wasn’t a brag. It was a weapon.
The Twist: the writers get caught
In Gone Girl, the twist comes late. The person who appeared to be the victim turns out to be the architect of the destruction.
In July 2024, Andrew Left was indicted on 19 counts by the U.S. Department of Justice: 1 count of engaging in a securities fraud scheme, 17 counts of securities fraud, and 1 count of making false statements to federal investigators. The DOJ claims his scheme generated at least $16 million in illicit profits across 21 targeted companies over a period from 2018 to 2023. His trial is now scheduled for May 11, 2026 in Los Angeles federal court.
The SEC, in a parallel civil action, increased the profit figure, alleging a $20 million scheme targeting 23 companies. The maximum penalty imposed by the SEC, added to all counts, amounts to hundreds of years in prison if convicted.
Anson Funds paid $2.25 million in penalties to the SEC. Ryan Choi – Left’s associate who executed trades at Citron Capital – paid more than $1.8 million to settle the SEC’s charges. Hindenburg Research, another short seller connected to the broader network, closed its doors while investigations were underway.
And PolarityTE was explicitly named in the DOJ indictment as one of the companies targeted by the scheme.
Seven years later: the real story
Barry Honig’s RIOT Blockchain investment — another Citron target — was cleared by the SEC in 2020, when the agency’s Denver regional office closed its investigation and said it did not intend to recommend enforcement action. RIOT Platforms is now worth billions. MARA Holdings, another company Honig helped create, enjoys a similar valuation. The “frauds” Citron cried about turned out to be real companies with real assets.
In May 2026, Honig filed a civil suit in federal court in Dallas against Anson Funds, Moez Kassam, Sunny Puri and Ryan Choi. The complaint lays out – in 32 pages, supported by the SEC order and the DOJ indictment – exactly what was done, how it was covered up and how much it cost.
In Gone Girl, the film ends ambiguously. The truth is known, but full accountability remains elusive.
This story is still being written. But for the first time in seven years, it is those who hold the pen who demand justice, and not those who fabricated the lie.
The scheme generated millions of dollars in illicit profits for its perpetrators, while inflicting billions of dollars in losses on the targeted companies and their innocent shareholders. — Honig v. Anson Funds, First Amended Complaint
