Short seller Andrew Left charged with fraud by prosecutors, SEC

• Federal prosecutors criminally charged the well-known short seller Andrew Left with securities fraud related to allegedly using his public platform to illegally profit from manipulating stock market activity.
• Left and his firm Citron Capital also were separately charged in a civil fraud action by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused them of "engaging in a $20 million multi-year scheme to defraud followers by publishing false and misleading statements regarding his supposed stock trading recommendations."

Federal prosecutors have criminally charged the well-known short seller Andrew Left with securities fraud related to allegedly using his public platform to illegally profit from manipulating stock market activity.

Left and his firm Citron Capital also were separately charged in a civil fraud action by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused them of "engaging in a $20 million multi-year scheme to defraud followers by publishing false and misleading statements regarding his supposed stock trading recommendations."

Left, a 54-year-old resident of Boca Raton, Florida, is expected to be arraigned in the next several weeks in Los Angeles federal court, where he's charged in a 19-count criminal indictment, the U.S. Attorney's Office in L.A. said in a statement.

He declined to comment on the indictment and SEC complaint.

- Additional reporting by CNBC's Rohan Goswami

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