The third day after the SEC closed the case, CNBC studio, 10 a. m. sharp.
Morgan Brennan sat in the host's high chair, the morning's market data scrolling on the curved screen in front of him.
Tesla call's stock price rose slightly in pre-market trading, and Nvidia continued to climb steadily amid expectations for growth in Data Center's business.
The director's countdown voice came from her earphones - "Three, two, one, enter."
"Welcome back, this is CNBC Morning Business.
Today we are honored to invite Mr. Carson Bullock, the founder of Muddy Waters Research.
As we all know, the SEC officially issued a closing letter regarding the source of funds for Era Vanguard on Wednesday.
It was confirmed that Era Vanguard's initial source of funds was legal and compliant, and the previous reports submitted by Muddy Waters and Citron were dismissed.
Carson, thank you for coming to our show."
Cut to Carson Bullock.
He was sitting in Meeting Room at Muddy Waters's headquarters. On the bookshelf behind him were neatly arranged hardcover collections of Muddy Waters's previous Short Selling reports--
The report on Luckin Coffee was placed in the most conspicuous position, and the title on the spine was embossed in gold letters. It was the most proud of his career.
He was wearing a dark blue suit jacket and no tie, and his expression was more cautious than usual during interviews.
Before coming, his public relations consultant suggested that he use ambiguous formulas to get around the problem, and he agreed happily at one point.
But when he was looking through the attachments of Era Vanguard alone in the morning, he finally decided that he couldn't use clichés.
That file has been lying in EDGAR System for several days. Anyone can download it, and anyone who is interested can find the loopholes in it.
He looked for it but couldn't find it.
"Morgan, thank you for the invitation.
First of all, I want to say that we have noticed the SEC's closing letter and the statement that the Muddy Waters report was rejected."
Morgan Brennan leaned forward slightly,
The tone of the questioning was just the right balance between professional questioning and personal curiosity.
It's like asking questions for the whole world:
"Carson, when you gave us an exclusive interview at the end of May, you clearly questioned the compliance of Era Vanguard's funding source.
You used the wording 'bypassing traditional banking regulatory transparency requirements'.
Now the SEC has given the opposite conclusion - Era Vanguard has disclosed the complete Bitcoin transaction record,
From the first statement to the last cross-border transfer voucher, everything is attached to the public file.
Are you surprised by this conclusion?"
Bullock looked at his slightly delayed reflection on the curved screen opposite, and the trace in the reflection that was uncertain whether it was the curtains or the shaking traces of the afternoon sun.
In an interview a few months ago, his tone was calm and sharp--
At that time, everyone was still on his side, and every reason for Short Selling was like a nail on the stock price of Tesla.
What is scrolling on the screen now is the reality that Tesla is approaching 300 US Dollar after rebounding for days.
"I admit - we underestimated the financial transparency of Era Vanguard."
When he said this, the camera captured his Adam's apple rolling slightly.
Those sharp and aggressive eyes did not dodge at this moment, facing the camera directly,
"My team and I have read the attachment Era Vanguard submitted to the SEC repeatedly.
From institutional account statements at Coinbase and Bitfinex to bank cross-border transfer vouchers,
From the transaction-by-transaction record of Bitcoin position opening to the tax compliance certificate after liquidation--
This document is the most complete statement of the source of funds we have ever seen submitted by a private offshore fund."
Morgan Brennan waited for him for a few seconds, as if to confirm whether he had finished the sentence.
Then he continued to pull out the page of manuscript that had been on the table for a long time but no one dared to post it for him:
"Carson, so you admit to the accusations Muddy Waters made against Era Vanguard in May--
You said they 'Fund Path bypassed traditional banking regulatory transparency requirements' - is it wrong?"
Bullock uncrossed his fingers and spread his hands on the table, as if saying goodbye to an inference that had been stubborn for too long.
The corners of his mouth moved slightly, not a bitter smile, nor self-deprecation.
It's the candor that an analyst has to accept after seeing truly reliable data and processes.
"We made that judgment based on the information available at the time."
He slowed down his speaking speed, as if he was clarifying every punctuation again,
"Era Vanguard's Buying Pressure's scale in May and June was very large, but the corresponding source of funds could not be found in public information channels.
As a Short Selling institution, our responsibility is to discover risks that have been ignored by the market.
There are two types of risks: one is hidden in public information, and the other is missing from public information.
Era Vanguard's source of funds belongs to the second type - it's not that they are hiding something, it's that we couldn't see it at the time.
Now the SEC has dug it out for everyone. As for the hundreds of pages of transaction details--
I admit, their compliance awareness exceeded my expectations."
"So Muddy Waters has now officially withdrawn its previous doubts about the source of Era Vanguard's funds?"
"It's not taking it back." Bullock thought for a while,
"It's a correction. The doubt itself is reasonable, but the conclusion is wrong.
Without sufficient information, we judge that there are compliance risks in the source of funds.
Now that the information has been fully disclosed, the basis for this judgment no longer exists."
Morgan paused for a moment and the camera zoomed in.
She then asked, Carson, I want to know if you have actually read every page of the attachment.
Bullock replied that he was still reviewing the details of several cross-border transfers last night.
From Hong Kong HSBC to Cayman Islands, which accounts are passed through, what handling fees are attached, and how each transaction corresponds to the starting point of opening a position Bitcoin.
He checked them all page by page.
As an investigative veteran like him, he certainly knew that those more than two hundred pages of documents only needed a few key pieces of evidence to seal the conclusion.
Then he paused and added in a tone that no one thought he would use in a public interview -
He was not talking about his opponents, he was saying that if he himself had to answer the same question one day, he might not be able to come up with such a complete set of things.
Shortly after the interview ended, CNBC quickly pushed the clip on its official website and social media, with a very straightforward title -
"Muddy Waters admits its mistake: We underestimated Era Vanguard's financial transparency".
The sentence in the verbatim manuscript is enlarged and bolded:
"This is the most complete source of funding statement for a private offshore fund."
At the same time, the host was still discussing the entire incident with guests in the studio.
Analysts have focused on the fact that the SEC rejected the Muddy Waters and Citron reports.
Some people say that this investigation not only did not shake the foundation of Era Vanguard,
Instead, it gave it a global regulatory credibility endorsement.
Meanwhile, there was no fire in the fireplace in the Explorers Club.
White-Haired Old Man is sitting on a leather chair, with the tablet in front of him frozen on the verbatim page of Bullock's interview.
He picked up the Whisky cup and took a sip. When he put the cup down, the sound of ice cubes clattering was particularly clear in the empty room.
"Bullock admits it." He leaned on the back of the chair,
"It's not about bowing to Era Vanguard - it's about bowing to those statements."
He raised his head and looked around at the remaining old faces in the room, then looked back.
I picked up Remote Control and turned off the tablet screen, and the whole room fell into silence.
No one asked him what to do next.