rebuttal comes shortly after disclosure of a federal probe of icahns investment arm icahn enterprises lp on wednesday issued a firm rebuttal against a shortselling report accusing it of inflating asset values that has shaved some 6 billion off the companys market capitalization in a few weeks time hindenburg research founded by nathan anderson would be more aptly named blitzkrieg research given its tactics of wantonly destroying property and harming innocent civilians said carl icahn chairman of the iep board in a statement andersons modus operandi is to launch disinformation campaigns to distort companies images damage their reputations and bleed the hardearned savings of individual investors but unlike many of its victims we will not stand by idly we intend to take all appropriate steps to protect our unit holders and fight back said icahn the rebuttal came just after iep on wednesday disclosed a federal probe into its corporate governance and other issues in its 10q filing with the securities and exchange commission iep said the us attorneys office for the southern district of new york contacted it on may 3 seeking information relating to corporate governance capitalization securities offerings dividends valuation marketing materials due diligence and other materials we are cooperating with the request and are providing documents in response to the voluntary request for information the company said in the filing for more icahns investment company discloses federal investigation  and earnings call yields zero questions in his rebuttal of the hindenburg report icahn acknowledged that the investment segment has underperformed in recent years which he blamed on its bearish view of the market and large net short position we recently have taken steps to reduce the short positions in our hedge book and concentrate for the most part on activism which has served us so well in the past we believe our existing portfolio has considerable upside potential over the coming years he said past activist campaigns by icahns company have generated billions of dollars for shareholders and helped boards and ceos capture untapped value icahn argued citing reynolds netflix nflx forest labs apple aapl cvr energy cvi herbalife hlf ebay ebay tropicana cheniere lng and occidental oxy as examples we expect that over time ieps iep performance will speak for itself we have a strong balance sheet with 19 billion of cash and 4 billion of additional liquidity and stand ready to take advantage of all opportunities said the statement iep which is 84 owned by icahn and his son brett offers exposure to icahns personal portfolio of public and private companies including petroleum refineries carparts makers foodpackaging companies and real estate its unit holders are mostly retail investors which means the marketcap loss prompted by the report has hurt those retail investors said icahn icahn also took issue with the reports intimation that ieps net asset value or nav premium which sets it apart from peers is unjustified hindenburg compared iep with both dan loebs third point which operates a similar publicly traded investment vehicle and trades at a 14 discount to its nav and bill ackmans pershing square which trades at a 35 discount the comparison of iep to closedend funds as peers  said icahn is a perfect example of comparing apples to oranges both the loeb and ackman funds charge fees including management and carried interest but iep charges no fees and does not pay a salary or any other form of compensation to icahn himself one of the more controversial parts of the hindenburg report was the issue of a margin loan that icahn took against his stake in iep the personal indebtedness had been fully disclosed by icahn in securities filings but few on wall street seemed to take notice also readwhat we know about carl icahns margin loan it was first disclosed in a footnote in the february 2022 10k to the disclosure that icahn owned 257 million units of icahn enterprises the company said 168 million of those units had been pledged as collateral to secure certain personal indebtedness the filing didnt mention the purpose of the loan nor where the proceeds were directed but it did indicate that icahn had sufficient additional assets to satisfy any obligations pursuant to these loans without recourse to the depositary units on wednesday icahn said he and his affiliates are current and in full compliance with all personal loans this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal