Carson Block, the young hotshot short-seller who runs Muddy Waters Research, has become famous (or infamous) for shorting Chinese companies. He was a virtual unknown in Wall Street circles until his 2010 report on Orient Paper crippled the stock’s value.
Due to Carson's uncanny accuracy in developing targets to short, experts in the industry think he's much better than the SEC at catching fraudsters in the act. James Rickards, senior managing director of Tangent Capital Partners, has declared, “Block is in the intelligence business where you gather tidbits of information, you fuse them together, connect the dots and then you draw a conclusion. The SEC is much more like cops. First the crime is committed, and then they go to solve the crime. But Block is looking at the crime in progress.”
An ex-colleague describes Block as “an arrogant guy with an independent and somewhat restless streak,” and Carson admits to having “discipline problems” from an early age.
When researching potential targets, he’s been known to misrepresent himself, pretending to be a potential customer.
But a brash personality and questionable tactics haven’t held Carson back. He’s continued his take downs in China, attributing it to his ability to see “through appearances to a Chinese company’s true worth.”
Carson’s road to the top has had plenty of speed bumps. His early business ventures ended in failure, and he’s shuffled around at least four different jobs before opening Muddy Waters.
He's done it all in a shor 36 years, so there are plenty of chapters to be written in the Carson Block story. We'll be watching.
Carson was born in the small town of Summit, New Jersey
Summit has a population just over 20,000. Carson's father, Bill, ran a equity research firm called W.A.B. Capital (where Carson would later work), while his mother works as a real estate agent.
Source: W.A.B. Capital
In high school, Carson was more interested in partying than studying
Block graduated with a 1.4 GPA in his senior year, and says of his time at school, “I ranked either first or second in my senior year in terms of parties that I hosted. The police became a regular presence outside my father’s place.”
Source: CNBC
Block first traveled to Asia at the age of 15
An exchange program gave Block the opportunity to immerse himself in Asian culture by spending the summer of 1991 in Toyama, Japan.
Source: CNBC
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.