Shares of Mullen Automotive Inc. MULN rose 3.9% in premarket trading Wednesday, after the electric vehicle maker said it retained Christian Attar to combat illegal naked short-selling activities. The stock’s bounce comes after it closed Monday at a record low of 10.1 cents, despite the company reporting the week before that it recorded revenue for the first time and that it was in the best financial position in its history. Mullen said Wednesday that based on reports received from share-tracking company Shareholder Intelligence Services LLC, or ShareIntel, it believes the company’s stock may have been the target of a market manipulation scheme involving illegal bearish bets, or naked short selling. “Since our announcement on April 28, we have been actively investigating naked short selling and we now have enough intel to have the law firm actively investigate and, where justified, take action against any market manipulators using naked short selling, spoofing or other illegal acts,” said Chief Executive Officer David Michery. The stock has plummeted 96.0% over the past three months through Monday, while the Global X Autonomous and Electric Vehicles exchange-traded fund DRIV has rallied 15.7% and the S&P 500 SPX has advanced 8.9%.
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