The judge of the National Court José Luis Calama has admitted a complaint from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office for investigate Gotham Cityto General Industrial Partners LLP (GIP) and several of its directors for releasing “biased and misleading” information to the financial market about the credibility of Grifols, a company that was also accused without evidence of manipulating its accounts.
The objective of releasing this information would be to induce investors to sell the shares of this pharmaceutical companywhich is listed on the Spanish stock market and is part of the Ibex, causing a drop in price that would generate a profit for the two companies denounced. The facts are set out in a complaint filed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office for a possible crime against the market and consumers.
Specifically, the magistrate considers that a crime classified in article 284.1.2 of the Penal Code could have been committed.
In the case analyzed, the car collects the messages published by Gotham between January 8 and 9, 2024 on the social network Twitter, currently X, where it included a report on Grifols that drastically concluded that the pharmaceutical company’s shares were worth zero euros. As a consequence of this report, on the same day, January 9, Grifols shares reached losses of 3,814 million euros.
In that same document, the judge adds, Gotham reported that it is a subsidiary of General Industrial Partners LP and that it maintained a “short” position in Grifolsgreater than 0.5% of the share capital. After the publication of the Gotham report, its short position was drastically reduced to 0.06%.
Operate in “short positions”, explains Calama, involves selling shares that you do not own and that you have borrowedto sell them advantageously, having to subsequently buy in order to return the borrowed shares.
The profit lies in the difference between the sale price of the shares and the purchase price (or repurchase of what was sold). This operation, the order indicates, meant a capital gain of more than 9.4 million euros for General Industrial Partners.
The magistrate considers that the requirements to investigate the crime related to the market are met and consumers as it is “a dissemination of news or rumors about a commercial company, in this case about Grifols SA, which would contain totally or partially false economic data with the potential to alter or preserve the trading price of said company, and, Furthermore, the losses and profits occurred within the scope of operation of the false data disseminated.”
Calama offers Grifols the possibility of presenting itself as aggrieved and requires it to present a copy of the lawsuit that it filed for these events before the District Court of New York, as well as its extension, which the magistrate has heard from the media.
Additionally, ask Grifols if it has filed a complaint regarding these events with the American and British organizations that are responsible for supervising the securities and financial markets in these countries.
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