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The article draws a parallel between what Chanos (or the guy who worked for Chanos) did to Fairfax and what Chanos is doing now i.e. trying to tank the stock wi
by chrisbennet 8y ago
The article draws a parallel between what Chanos (or the guy who worked for Chanos) did to Fairfax and what Chanos is doing now i.e. trying to tank the stock with unethically:
”Incredibly, over the next three years was stories of harassment of Fairfax workers, the CEO Prem Watsa, his wife, even his pastor. While this was happening Fairfax was besieged by accusations of fraud sent to rating agencies, regulators, even Fairfax's own business partners. Nearly all of these troubles could be traced back to Spyro Contogouris, a man hired by Chanos, Loeb, and Sender to "bring down Fairfax". Contogouris’s strategy would be to sink Fairfax by “closing access to the capital markets”—cutting off its access to funding by undermining its reputation. This was old-school Sun Tzu stuff, isolate-and-destroy tactics, “attacking by stratagem”: General Contogouris would cut off his enemy’s supply lines by, among other things, sullying the firm’s standing with ratings agencies and shareholders and others in a group he termed “FoF,” for “Friends of Fairfax.” He wanted to “get them where they eat,” cutting off their credit lines, particularly going after their ratings by agencies like A. M. Best. All this Contogouris promised to Chanos, Loeb, Sender, and others from the start. He pledged to “get the message of what I think is a massive fraud to these long term value holders” by creating a “crisis of confidence” that would frighten investors and “shake them out of the stock.”