Now, it is nothing new for companies to assert that the bad news circulating about them is based on rumors from profit-motivated short sellers. But the Deer Consumer Products takes this common gripe quite a bit further. The company asserts that the supposed analyst, Alfred Little, whose reports are the source of the rumors and are relied on in the complaint is “a fictitious character” whose phony identity is “a disguise used by one or more illegal short sellers in the short sale scheme.” The purported reports of Alfred Little were “published in collusion with short sellers” to “intentionally create fear in the general public to drive down DEER’s share price.”
