Not a lawyer but my understanding is that finding something legitimately wrong with a company, shorting the stock, publicizing it, and profiting is okay if you're right? The problem was they got it wrong.
There have been already quite a few people pointing out that the process you describe is legal. Yes, that might be true. People are not arguing against that.
IANAL, but it still seems as if they are attempting to manipulate the market for their personal gain, with coordinated sensationalist stories and gross exaggeration. Market manipulation is a thing and people have been sentenced for it in the past [1] (edit: just learned this is called "securities fraud" in the US?).
The widespread "It is in the rule-book so you can't call him out for it!"-attitude on hackernews, e.g. defending Shkreli (yet, he also has been found guilty of fraud - guess what: still illegal), is hideous IMO.
IANAL, but it still seems as if they are attempting to manipulate the market for their personal gain, with coordinated sensationalist stories and gross exaggeration. Market manipulation is a thing and people have been sentenced for it in the past [1] (edit: just learned this is called "securities fraud" in the US?).
The widespread "It is in the rule-book so you can't call him out for it!"-attitude on hackernews, e.g. defending Shkreli (yet, he also has been found guilty of fraud - guess what: still illegal), is hideous IMO.
[1] http://archive.fortune.com/2010/06/07/news/international/mar...