Minkow's motives were brought into question by multiple news stories concluding that Minkow was shorting stock before he released a report on a public company. According to "The San Diego Union-Tribune," Minkow had engaged in this practice as early as 2006. Minkow's critics denounced this practice as unethical, if not illegal. At least one critic accused him of engaging in short and distort, a form of securities fraud which is a reversal of a pump and dump scheme. For instance, he accused Herbalife of a "laundry list" of issues, and Minkow had "correctly revealed that Herbalife's president had inflated his résumé." Herbalife paid Minkow $300,000, after which Minkow issued a press release withdrawing all accusations and contentions against Herbalife, and removed all the accusations from his website. Additionally, Minkow made $50,000 from shorting Herbalife stock. Minkow continued to profit from his short sales position due to sharp decreases in the reported company's stock price immediately after releasing a new report.