Whitney Tilson, who runs $90 million Kase Capital, is speaking about his Lumber Liquidators short right now at Baruch College in New York City.
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Tilson is showing his slides that he gave at the Robin Hood Investors Conference in November 2014. That's when he first went public with his short thesis. The event was closed to press.
Tilson said the first red flag for him was the drastic increase in the company's gross margin.
In early March, "60 Minutes" and Anderson Cooper ran a disturbing report about Lumber Liquidators-America's largest specialty retailer of hardwood floors. The report found that Lumber Liquidators appears to be selling laminate flooring from China with levels of formaldehyde that's higher than what's permitted under California law. High levels of formaldehyde have a number of health concerns.
Lumber Liquidators said "60 Minutes" got it wrong and used an improper testing method.
Tilson was the one who flagged this story for "60 Minutes."
Shares of Lumber Liquidators are down more than 36% since the "60 Minutes" report aired about six weeks ago.
Tilson is known for being a primarily long-only "value investor." Lumber Liquidators is his biggest position. Tilson said earlier during the talk that he hadn't bought a new long since September. He said there are a number short ideas out there though.