The Bear Cave #274

New Activist Reports, Recent Resignations, SEC FOIA Logs, and Tweets of the Week

May 18, 2025

Welcome to The Bear Cave! Our last premium articles were “Problems at 100 Long-Term Underperformers” and “Problems at Two Paper Products Companies” and our next special investigation comes out Thursday, June 5.

New Activist Reports

Jehoshaphat Research published on Main Street Capital (NYSE: MAIN — $4.92 billion), a Houston-based business development company that invests in lower-mid-market debt and equity with a focus on the oil and gas sector. Jehoshaphat alleged Main Street is “systematically inflating the fair values of its investment portfolio” and that “[Net Asset Value] and [Earnings Per Share] are inflated by about 40%.” Jehoshaphat also raised concerns about recent insider selling, whether the dividend is sustainable, and the company’s relationship with its auditor, Grant Thornton.

Bleecker Street Research published on Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ: AUR — $11.9 billion), a self-driving truck software company. Bleecker Street alleged that Aurora’s key partners are “unready for commercialization” and wrote that its “business case seems to exist in PowerPoint slides rather than reality.” Bleecker Street also raised concerns about high levels of insider selling and recent executive departures.

White Diamond Research published on Aytu Biopharma (NASDAQ: AYTU — $13 million), a pharmaceutical company focused on ADHD treatments. White Diamond alleged that starting in September 2025, the company’s ADHD portfolio “will be completely replaced by generics from Teva.”

Recent Resignations

Notable executive departures disclosed in the past week include:

CEO of Cannae Holdings (NYSE: CNNE — $1.16 billion), 80-year-old prolific businessman William P. Foley II, “would transition from his roles as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Investment Officer and Chairman of the Board effective immediately” after a little over one year as CEO and seven years as Chairman. The Las Vegas-based holding company is overseen by a 10-person board with an average age of 70.
CFO of Chewy (NYSE: CHWY — $17.3 billion) resigned after a little over one year “to return to the semiconductor industry as a Chief Executive Officer.” In July 2024, the company’s Chief Accounting Officer, Stacy Bowman, departed on short notice after over nine years.
CFO of Sensata Technologies (NYSE: ST — $3.97 billion) resigned after one and a half years “to pursue other opportunities.” In April 2024, the company’s CEO departed after four years and the company’s Chief Accounting Officer departed in February 2024. In addition, in October 2024, the company received an SEC comment letter regarding its “step-up depreciation and amortization,” “restructuring related and other adjustment [costs],” and its decision to change the functional currency of its Chinese subsidiary from the U.S. Dollar to the Chinese Yuan.
CEO of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH — $265 billion) “decided to step down as CEO for personal reasons” after a little over four years. Following his resignation, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department “is investigating UnitedHealth Group for possible criminal Medicare fraud.” The company’s Board Chair and CEO from 2006-2017, Stephen J. Hemsley, took over as CEO and purchased $25 million in stock following the Wall Street Journal report.
CFO of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO — $253 billion) retired after four and a half years. In May 2024, August 2024, and January 2025, Cisco was on the SEC’s B7A FOIA exemption list, indicating a potential undisclosed long-running SEC investigation.
CEO of NWTN Inc (NASDAQ: NWTN — $546 million) resigned with four days’ notice after nine and a half years. In December 2024, three board members resigned and cited “concerns regarding corporate governance practices, transparency in communications, and challenges related to financial leadership.” In August 2024, the company’s CFO resigned after just five months “for personal reasons” following the resignation of the predecessor CFO, who resigned in April 2024 after just two months. In January 2025, the company switched auditors from Marcum Asia to ASSENTSURE PAC. According to PCAOB records, the specific audit partner responsible for NWTN, Mr. Su Chun Keat, has served as audit engagement partner for ten other public companies, all of which fell over 95% from their peaks or were delisted. The UAE-based electric vehicle company is down ~80% since its November 2022 SPAC merger.
CEO and Board Chair of Luminar Technologies (NASDAQ: LAZR — $214 million), 30-year-old Austin Russell, resigned “following a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics inquiry by the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors.” Mr. Russell will remain on the board and notably spent $83 million on an 18-bedroom mansion that later burned down in the January 2025 LA wildfires. The company’s Chief Legal Officer also “entered into a transition and separation agreement” in December 2024. The LiDAR sensor company is down ~95% since its December 2020 SPAC merger.

Data for this section is provided by VerityData from VerityPlatform.com

Potential Undisclosed SEC Inquiries

The SEC recently released its April 2025 FOIA Logs, which are publicly accessible CSV files with copies of all the FOIA requests the SEC received that month and all requests met with a B7A exemption, which can often indicate an undisclosed SEC inquiry.

Six notable companies on the April 2025 B7A list include:

Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU — $10.5 billion), a smart TV streaming device and advertising company.
Chevron (NYSE: CVX — $248 billion), the energy company also issued two SEC comment letter responses in August 2024 and November 2024 largely concerning “an after-tax loss of $1.9 billion related to abandonment and decommissioning obligations from previously sold oil and gas production assets.”
Conduent (NASDAQ: CNDT — $364 million), a business services outsourcing company that is down ~85% since its December 2016 spinoff from Xerox.
Medallion Financial (NASDAQ: MFIN — $212 million), a specialty finance bank that makes RV/consumer loans and has a history of lending against taxi medallions. It has a 90-year-old CEO/Chairman, was previously charged by the SEC for “Engaging in Fraudulent Schemes to Boost Stock Price,” and was featured in The Bear Cave’s “100 Long-Term Underperformers” list.
Summit Hotel Properties (NYSE: INN — $503 million), a REIT focused on upscale hotels. The REIT has a total return with dividends reinvested of -19% since its February 2011 IPO vs +482% for the S&P 500.
Granite Point Mortgage Trust (NYSE: GPMT — $120 million), a commercial real estate finance company with a total return of -73% since its June 2017 IPO vs +177% for the S&P 500.

In addition, the SEC indicated it had investigative activity into the “Tuah The Moon Foundation and OverHere Limited,” issuers of the Hawk Tuah ($HAWK) memecoin.

You can find the SEC’s full B7A list on FOIAsearch.com. In addition, you can now sign up for free email alerts anytime your companies/watchlist are subject to SEC FOIA activity or B7A undisclosed investigative activity. Go to FOIAsearch.com and sign up to get free, fast, and incredibly useful custom email alerts.