Jonathan Shapiro’s a senior reporter at the Australian Financial Review. While he writes about a range of subjects from banking to hedge funds to private equity, he’s renown for stories that uncover dishonesty and the crafty schemes of listed companies—for which, he’s won several awards.

Our conversation begins with Jonathan telling the story of Blue Sky Alternative, a fund manager that came unstuck following the release of a short sellers research report. From there, we roll into a very detailed discussion about about Jonathan’s investigative work on Big Un.

Without saying too much, Big was a video marketing company listed on the Australian stock market and a top performer in 2017. But as you’ll soon hear, Jonathan discovered much of it was smoke and mirrors…

Jonathan Shapiro speaks with Aaron Fifield at Fairfax Media, Sydney: Watch on YouTube

Links and resources mentioned:

• Glaucus Research: Blue Sky Alternative Investments Ltd. (ASX: BLA)
• How bright is the Blue Sky fund manager model?
• Glaucus targets Blue Sky Alternative Investments as next Australian short
• Inside the long guerrilla strike by Blue Sky shorts
• Behind the most unbelievable stock run of 2017 at Big Un Limited
• Big Un investors turn dark after ‘life changing’ losses
• Darwin’s theory of sporting evolution
• Platinum study of sporting success uncovers hidden dynasties
• Daydream believer
• Jonathan Shapiro [AFR]
• @JohnnyShap [Twitter]