(Mark Wilson’s post from The FINDLAW on 21 March 2019.)
Michael Lewis Didn't Defame Wing Chau in 'The Big
Short': Michael Lewis' nonfiction book The Big Short, published in 2011,
chronicled the 2008 financial crisis as seen through the eyes of some of the
people involved in it, including the hedge fund managers who
"shorted" (bet against) the market.
In one chapter of the book, Steven Eisman, one of
Lewis' sources, meets Wing Chau, the owner of an investment firm that managed
collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). CDOs were investments comprised of
portions of thousands of subprime mortgages; they were a key vector for the
financial collapse.
Chau sued for defamation based on 26 discrete statements in Lewis' book. The statements range from Eisman's opinion that Chau was a "sucker" for buying CDOs, to statements that Chau was knowingly selling junk investments, to representations that he was making huge sums of money betting against the market.