If you have knowledge of an unreported event that could affect a company's stock price, then you can short the stock and do your best to promote the story through social media, hoping it makes the stock dip long enough for you to make some money.
> Aurelius Value, a short-seller, highlighted the lawsuit in a report Thursday, saying the allegations could disrupt AeroVironment’s relationship with government agencies.
Maybe I should have been more specific in my question: I wanted to know if the parent commenter was asserting that the allegation itself is false/spurious.
This article should never have been published by Bloomberg based on Aurelius Value previous attacks. Either the Bloomberg article was auto generated from seeking alpha scrap, the reporters are incompetent, or the listed reporters have a relationship with Aurelius Value.
Now about the case:
The court filing is behind a paywall, but the case is listed as civil suit for unlawful termination. The case is NOT a criminal case nor is the case related to "smuggling a bomb" on a civilian flight. You can file anything in court. It's only a filing with a case number. There has been no judgement, trial, or any hearings listed other than it being entered into the court record. Also, there is a thing called FOIA that would backup up some of these incredible claims that a real research firm would request. So yeah it's a well planned and timed Short Sell Attack.
No one said this case was criminal. And yes, it is related to smuggling explosive materials onto a plane. And no, you can't "file anything in court" without risking a countersuit.