Until I moved to New York, I had no idea what hedge fund people generally did, or how much of their work and skillset was similar to what investigative journalists did, especially when it came to looking at public records and lawsuits. Indeed, the litany of alleged mishaps and deaths that short-sellers found while investigating American Addiction Centers -- including the man in the lead anecdote -- could easily be the core of an investigative project. e.g. what's described under the subhed, "Open Beds and 'Closing a Sale'"
> Mr. Drose returned to Kingsford’s offices in Atlanta, took over a glass-enclosed conference room, and made piles of documents related to each death. None of the deaths had been disclosed to investors when the stock of American Addiction Centers began trading publicly.
> The dead included Shaun Reyna, an alcoholic, who killed himself with a shaving razor in one of the company’s treatment houses. Mr. Reyna’s widow said in a 2014 lawsuit that the staff had ignored signs that her husband was suffering withdrawal symptoms that required urgent medical care. The case is expected to go to trial early in 2018.
> There was also Gregory Thomas, who hanged himself from a bridge one block from the company’s main office in Temecula in November 2010. He had been brought to the office by a company employee, but never went through with the treatment...*
> But the circumstances of Mr. Benefield’s death, as detailed in a lawsuit his wife brought in 2011, stood out.