The Bear Cave #333
New Activist Reports, Recent Resignations, and Tweets of the Week
Welcome to The Bear Cave! Our last premium article was “Problems at StepStone (STEP)” and our next special investigation for paid readers comes out Thursday, July 16.
The Bear Cave is now owned by Hunterbrook Media. Readers will continue to receive two original deep-dive paywalled investigations in The Bear Cave each month, along with select Hunterbrook stories featuring additional content and analysis in The Bear Cave.
New Activist Reports
The Bear Cave published an investigation in collaboration with Hunterbrook Media on StepStone Group (NASDAQ: STEP — $4.91 billion), a global private equity and private markets company. The investigation alleged StepStone’s growth has come, in part, from charging fees on unrealized private-asset gains and highlighted:
“Due to an ill-timed contract, StepStone must buy out the profits interests tied to that retail arm held by CH Equity Partners LLC, an entity controlled by SPW executives. Since April 1, CH Equity Partners LLC has the right to lock in a giant personal payday, using a formula tied to the private wealth arm’s paper marks. StepStone’s liability is now estimated at about $2.3 billion.”
Culper Research published on Tarsus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: TARS — $2.82 billion), a biopharmaceutical company focused on eye care. Culper alleged that Tarsus donates millions of dollars “to a nominally independent blepharitis fund” that primarily subsidizes the copays of its expensive XDEMVY eyedrop medication, potentially in violation of anti-kickback laws. Culper wrote:
“The blepharitis fund claims to offer grants for over a dozen treatments, but mathematically, [Tarsus’s] XDEMVY is the only drug capable of meeting the fund’s disclosed $680 to $750 average grant size - the vast majority, if not entirety of the fund is going to XDEMVY patients.”
Culper concluded:
“We are short [Tarsus] and think shares are headed lower as the company draws AKS/DoJ scrutiny, XDEMVY revenues peak well below $2B, and 2026 results continue to disappoint.”
Fugazi Research published on Redwire (NYSE: RDW — $2.70 billion), a space equipment manufacturing company. Fugazi wrote:
“Since late 2025, Redwire has relied heavily on the equity markets to fund its operations, authorizing more than $1.1 billion of at-the-market equity issuance while common shares outstanding have nearly tripled in roughly fifteen months. Operating cash flow remains negative, and recent increases in cash have been driven by equity issuance rather than internally generated cash flow.”
Recent Resignations
Notable executive departures disclosed in the past week include:
CFO of Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID — $2.37 billion) “will leave the company after a transition period” after one and a half years. Last week, the company’s Chief Operating Officer, who previously served as interim CEO, “departed following the elimination of the Chief Operating Officer position” after two and a half years. The electric vehicle company has had three CEOs and three CFO departures in the last five years and has fallen ~95% since its July 2021 SPAC merger.
CFO of Papa John’s (NASDAQ: PZZA — $1.18 billion) resigned after nearly three years to become CFO of American Eagle (NYSE: AEO — $2.76 billion) and “is not entitled to any severance benefits as a result of his departure.” Papa John’s has had five CEOs and six CFOs in the last ten years.
CFO of Freedom Holding Corp (NASDAQ: FRHC — $9.94 billion) resigned with immediate effect after 17 years and was replaced by the 37-year-old incoming CFO, Mr. Valeriy Kim.
Chief Revenue Officer of Five9 (NASDAQ: FIVN — $1.79 billion) departed with immediate effect eleven months after being promoted into that role. The company’s Vice President of Product Engineering and Chief Technology Officer both resigned in June as well. In September 2024, The Bear Cave called the company “a major AI loser” and it has since fallen ~20%.
Mr. Sean McNealy, board member of Abacus Global Management (NYSE: ABX — $1.14 billion), resigned with immediate effect after three years. In June 2025, Morpheus Research alleged Abacus engaged in “a scheme to systematically overvalue its assets, reminiscent of past life settlements blowups.” The stock has since doubled.
Data for this section is provided by VerityData from VerityPlatform.com
News of the Week
“Short-seller Carson Block: a fugitive CEO, Libyan spies, and $50B fraud” (Summation with Auren Hoffman)
“SEC Investigation Updates: June 29, 2026” (Disclosure Insight)
“AppLovin (NASDAQ: APP — $177 billion) management and board failed investors here. The Bloomberg story was the perfect opportunity to disclose this investigation. Instead, we now must call out the company over an undisclosed SEC probe and add it to our Watch List where you will see regular updates until resolved.”
Tweets of the Week
Until next week,
The Bear Cave