A high-profile British parliamentarian has told the Parliament that the business group ‘Viceroy Research’ and its leader Fraser John Perring have links with the Russian state and President Putin.
The Labour MP Liam Byrne while participating in the Business Question time demanded that there should be a proper debate in the Parliament regarding the Russian links of the Viceroy Research and its chief executive Fraser Perring.
Directing his questions to Tom Tugendhat MBE, the Minister for Security, the Labour MP said a debate in the parliament was necessary “on the activities of short-selling attack group Viceroy Research and its leader Fraser Perring”.
Liam Byrne said he had been told that Viceroy Research “works hand in glove with Boatman Capital, which launched the short-selling attack on Babcock International while it was overhauling our nuclear submarines”.
Liam Byrne raised questions about visits of Fraser Perring to Russia on a frequent basis. He said, “Mr John Fraser Perring is a not infrequent visitor to Moscow, and is now targeting Home REIT, which provides homelessness services, including to homeless veterans. We must ensure that short-selling groups are not another weapon in Putin’s arsenal. Where there are links between short-selling attack groups and the Kremlins, we need to know.”
Viceroy’s methods and ethics have long been called into question over several years. They have been the subject of allegations of plagiarism in the past and successfully sued for fake and defamatory statements. Commissioned by Business Leadership South Africa, Intellidex had reported that Viceroy’s Steinhoff report was substantially plagiarised from a report produced by hedge fund Portsea Asset Management. The Intellidex report had said that Viceroy’s reporting varies wildly in quality and credibility and appears to interweave false statements into purported facts.
In two major litigation cases in the US and in South Africa, Fraser Perring was accused of conspiring to manipulate stock price, making false, defamatory, deceptive and misleading statements, impersonating personnel and creating fake whistleblowing accounts.
In 2021, the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) fined Viceroy Research LLC and its partners Aiden Lau, Fraser John Perring and Gabriel Bernarde R50 million ($3.5 million fine) for damaging and false remarks that the short-selling firm made about South Africa’s Capitec Bank (SA’s then fourth-most valuable bank). The remarks triggered a 25% slump in Capitec’s share price in January 2018, wiping out almost R10 billion in value. According to the judgment, Viceroy had an agreement with a hedge fund, Oasis, which made an estimated profit of R82 million amid the panic selling. The share of Viceroy in the profit from short positions taken by Oasis on Capitec was estimated by the authority to be close to $744 482 (R10 million at the time), shared equally among the partners.
After Viceroy published a report into MPW, JP Morgan reported they had poor quality of research and a lack of understanding of the financial and other details of the businesses they attacked.
Viceroy Research and Fraser Perring have also been dealing extensively with certain nationalist party leaning factions to control media in the Republic of Malta. They have produced reports in association with the nationalist party leaning media houses to launch targeted attacks against business groups and persons for their own agenda.
