[5] However, at least one event study indicates that if Bass had in fact pursued such a strategy, he could not have profited, because his "petitions for inter partes review ... did not consistently produce statistically significant negative returns in the patent holders' share prices.
[14][15][16] On June 14, 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bass is facing regulatory scrutiny from SEC investigators for potential market manipulation—an issue that appears to stem from a controversial trade, executed in late-2015, in which Bass' fund built a short position against the stock price of a publicly traded REIT, United Development Funding (UDF), then accused the REIT of being a Ponzi scheme.
[20][21] His father, Charles Bass, was a tourism executive whose career managing the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel and the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau.
[31] Before founding Hayman Capital Management in 2005, Bass briefly worked at Prudential Securities from 1992 to 1994 before joining Bear Stearns in 1994.
[32] At Bear Stearns, he rose through the ranks rapidly, becoming a senior managing director at the age of 28 – among the youngest in the firm's history to carry such a title.
[35][36] The flagship fund had a successful year in 2007 and gained 212% based on the subprime mortgage meltdown bet that brought fame to Bass.
This investment thesis was expressed by purchasing credit default swaps against the securitizations he deemed to be most unstable, which essentially was a manner of shorting the bonds using synthetic instruments.
In December 2007, after a wave of foreclosures had swept across the US, Bass was featured on Bloomberg TV as making a fortune betting against these subprime securities.
[51] He went as far as predicting that 2012 would be a "doomsday year" for Europe and spoke of a looming breakup of the Eurozone, which, he declared, would lead to defaults in Japan and the United States.
"[52] Since 2012, Bass has also predicted a "full blown crisis" in Japan describing its approach to financing debt as a Ponzi scheme similar to Bernie Madoff's investment scam.
[53][54] Renren, Inc., a Chinese company headquartered in the Chaoyang District, Beijing, China invested $80 million in Hayman's Japan Macro Opportunities Offshore Partners, LP, a Cayman Islands exempted limited partnership, between November 2011 and January 2014.
Roche stated, "people still fail to understand that a nation with monetary sovereignty that is the supplier of currency in a floating exchange rate system never has a problem funding itself.
"[58] In May 2012, Business Insider agreed, faulting Bass's analysis, since debt-to-GDP ratios do not reflect the interest rate or credit risk of a nation.
[61] In a speech reported on January 1, 2014, he assured the audience of his confidence that the next few years would be rife with turmoil, including the eruption of major wars.
[63] Coming to the defense of GM, Bass said on CNBC that of the 13 passengers who had died owing to the defect, 12 "either weren’t wearing their seat belt or were under the influence of alcohol.
"[64] Starting in July 2015, Bass made a multiyear bet against the Chinese yuan based on a predicted banking collapse in China.
[69] While serving on the Board of UTIMCO in 2018, Bass helped create a set of guidelines compelling its external managers to divest from companies with ties to entities sanctioned by the United States.
"[75] Bass' Dallas-based fund, Hayman Capital Management LP, bought Argentina's international bond at 55 cents on the dollar after prices dropped on concern the country would default.
[77][78] In 2014, Renren, Inc., a Chinese company headquartered in the Chaoyang District, Beijing, China invested $30 million in Bass' pharmaceutical strategy through Hayman Credes Offshore Fund, LP, registered as a Cayman Islands exempted limited partnership and claiming Hayman Offshore Management as its General Partner.
[55] Renren reported Hayman Credes Offshore Fund, LP in its SEC filings from 2014 through April 2016 as a principal component of the company's "long-term investments" portfolio.
[7] In 2015, Bass organized the Coalition For Affordable Drugs (CFAD) to challenge patent validity through the Inter partes review (IPR) process.
[85] In June 2015, Celgene received permission from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to file a motion seeking sanctions against the CFAD for allegedly abusing the patent-review process.
The Wall Street Journal noted that this development was “being closely watched because it raises the possibility that patent officials may put an end” to Bass's patent-challenge scheme.
[86] In October 2016, Bass prevailed in the case, with USPTO invalidating the two Celgene Corp patents related to its cancer drugs Revlimid, Pomalyst, and Thalomid at issue.
Barricading people into their own homes, arresting the hero doctors of Wuhan, then ordering the rank and file back to work on Monday?
[94] Bass chastised Nike CEO John Donahoe in particular for remarks made during the company's results call with Wall Street analysts.
It is difficult, according to Bass, to strike a balance between keeping in President Xi Jinping's good graces economically while becoming more active on societal concerns in the United States.
[94] As U.S. corporations will not stop seeking "the pot of gold" that is access to China's economy, Washington policymakers must demonstrate "leadership" in the face of Beijing's human rights transgressions, according to Bass.