Barstool Sports founder and President Dave Portnoy on Friday ripped trading app Robinhood as “flat-out criminal” for restricting purchases of GameStop shares on its platform.
Portnoy said on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Company” that Robinhood “basically stole money from their own clients.”
“[T]hey intentionally cratered a bunch of stocks … by not letting people buy it — only selling it,” Portnoy told host Stuart Varney. “There was only one outcome — crater the stock. They basically stole money from their own clients. They knew that was going to happen to help the hedge funds basically cover. Is there proof of that? If they do the investigation right, I’m sure there will be. But, you know, it’s one to say we’re worried and you freeze the market and you can’t buy or sell and the people liquidate what it is, fine. But to intentionally crater the stock at the expense of your customers, well, that’s criminal in my mind. Flat-out criminal.”
Varney suggested Robinhood could have had a liquidity issue, so the company could have been looking out for the interest of its investors.
Portnoy pointed out that CEO Vladimir Tenev recently said in an interview that the company had no liquidity issues.
“How many criminals and crooks have raised their hand and said, ‘We committed a crime and did something.’ In the history of crimes, none, until they get caught. So then, what is it? His answer is basically he was protecting his own clients, but not because of a liquidity issue. He didn’t want them to get hurt. That is essentially what he’s saying. And that’s full of crap,” Portnoy declared.
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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