Debarred short seller with checkered past lobbied Education Department on for-profit colleges

"Before a jury found Manuel Asensio had illegally defamed a company whose demise he would profit from, and before securities regulators barred him from employment in the banking industry for the rest of his life, he used to take down companies with savage reports under the banner of his investment bank, Asensio & Company.

Then, as an “activist” short seller, he would compile damning research on a business, take a market bet its stock would go down, publish his report, and profit when it did go down."

The revelations also come on the heels of charges by Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn that Education Department officials were “tipping hedge funds” with inside information, allowing them to take trading positions ahead of the market. Doing so, Coburn said at a Senate hearing last week, “is highly unethical and if proven to be the case, some people ought to be going to jail in the Department of Education." "

[The Daily Caller]