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Early on the morning of May 31, San Francisco-based short-selling firm Muddy Waters LLC, best known in this country for the short report that toppled stock market darling Sino-Forest Corp. in 2011, posted a tantalizing message on the firm’s Twitter account.

“Good morning, Canada! MW is about to release a new short that we think is on its way to Zero,” the tweet read.

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A while later, traders at RBC Capital Markets in downtown Toronto were among those who watched their screens in shock as shares of a Canadian leasing company called Element Fleet Management, began to plunge, and continued to fall until they had lost around 40 per cent of their value.

There was only one problem: Element, despite social media speculation, wasn’t the company Muddy Waters was targeting.

“This was a case, almost, of mistaken identity,” says Greg Mills, head of global equities at RBC Capital Markets, noting that no other explanation for the decline of Element shares has ever been put forward. “It was a shock, it was very dramatic for a period of time.”