Another reason not to call your company “Hindenburg”

More than a month after Hindenburg Research accused India’s Adani Group of “brazen stock and accounting fraud”, the Danish sound engineering company, also known as Hindenburg, says it is facing death threats.

After the sensational short seller report was released on Jan. 24, Chris Mottes, CEO of Danish company Hindenburg, said he noticed a lot of web traffic from India and started getting random messages that didn’t make sense.

“I started getting emails that weren’t related to the audio engineering system at all…. It wasn’t the kind of reaction we usually get to our software,” adds Motts. “But then we got reports that if I ever went to India, I would be killed.”

“You bastards, bastards, idiots, mindless people with dog shit in your mouth,” read one message, typical of hundreds received by the firm. “You will not be spared. Our Adani will rise again.. You will be destroyed.. Your employees will leave you forever.. Soon the end of your company.”

The Hindenburg Report accused billionaire Gautam Adani and his huge conglomerate of using shell companies to inflate the value of the company’s shares. A few days after the release of the report, the Adani Group lost $100 billion in market capitalization.

Mottes says that neither he nor his staff even knew of the existence of New York-based Hindenburg Research until Hindenburg Research published its report several years ago that budding electric vehicle company Nikola Motors was lying to investors.

On the positive side, Motts said the website’s traffic had doubled, his inbox was flooded with job applications, and he had more followers on Facebook and Twitter. Some investors who missed the Adani Group even sent letters of thanks to Mottes.

“We got rich on Adani,” wrote one grateful short seller.