The Bear Cave #335

New Activist Reports, Recent Resignations, and Tweets of the Week

Jul 19, 2026

Welcome to The Bear Cave! Our last premium articles were “Problems at StepStone (STEP)” and “Problems at DraftKings (DKNG) #4” and our next special investigation for paid readers comes out Thursday, August 6.

New Activist Reports

White Diamond Research published on RTB Digital (NASDAQ: RTB — $222 million), an AI and crypto-focused enterprise media platform. White Diamond alleged the company is “a distressed payments shell with legacy fraud baggage” and “up 300% over the past month on hype and momentum, but [with] no metrics for revenue projections.” White Diamond also cited a history of failed ventures and pivots by the company and the potential for upcoming dilution.

Recent Resignations

Notable executive departures disclosed in the past week include:

CFO of Harmony Biosciences (NASDAQ: HRMY — $1.96 billion) “is stepping down effective as of July 16, 2026 to pursue other career opportunities” after just three months.
CFO of Pentair (NYSE: PNR — $10.1 billion) “elected to resign effective as of July 10, 2026 to pursue another opportunity at a private company” after just five months.
CFO of CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP — $12.2 billion) “is resigning to pursue another opportunity outside the company’s industry” after a little over two years. In April, Mr. Nana Banerjee, resigned from the board after less than two months. The real estate analytics company is down ~65% over the last year, partly over fears AI will disrupt its business.
CFO of Energy Vault Holdings (NYSE: NRGV — $549 million) “will be transitioning from his role to pursue other opportunities” after a little over two years. The company builds gravity-based energy storage towers, has had four CFOs over the last five years, and is down 70% since its February 2022 SPAC merger. In July 2022, The Bear Cave said the company was one of “The Five Worst SPAC Deals Still Above $5.”
Mr. Miles E. Everson, board member and former CFO of Fermi (NASDAQ: FRMI — $3.86 billion), resigned after three months “due to a disagreement with the company regarding its governance practices and the company’s failure to provide required Board and committee minutes after a number of requests.” The letter stated, in part:
“For the avoidance of doubt, I am not resigning for personal reasons, due to time constraints, or as part of an ordinary-course Board transition. I am resigning because I disagree with the company’s failure to provide directors with required Board and committee minutes and related governance records necessary for informed Board service. Please ensure that any public disclosure concerning my resignation accurately describes the circumstances set forth in this letter. I do not consent to any disclosure suggesting that my resignation is unrelated to the governance concerns described above.”
In April, Fuzzy Panda Research alleged the AI data center infrastructure company had ineffective leadership, no credible plans to build data centers, and upcoming insider selling.
Chief Accounting Officer of Asana (NYSE: ASAN — $1.77 billion) resigned after just five months. In addition, the company’s CFO resigned after one and a half years in March and the company’s Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel departed in December 2025.

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

News of the Week

“They Call Her ‘the Assassin’ on Wall Street—and She Has a New Target” (WSJ)

“Fahmi Quadir had the kind of career any short seller would envy: a record of bringing down companies like the fintech giant Wirecard, a fearsome nickname—‘the assassin’—and two Netflix documentaries highlighting her work uncovering corporate malfeasance.
Now, she’s walking away from it all. After a decade spent driving stocks lower, Quadir has decided she wants to do the opposite—help push them up.”

“Martin Shkreli Is Back, Shorting Stocks and Taking On Everyone” (Bloomberg)

“Indeed, Shkreli’s increased online presence has coincided with Donald Trump’s return to power, and his short calls, in particular, have moved a number of stocks, sometimes by 40% or more in a single day. A pardon, which he talked up to his 500,000-plus X followers in the lead up to what was expected to be a wave of Fourth of July pardons, could get him back into the game after he was banned for life from the pharmaceuticals industry and barred from working in certain securities roles.”