WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wall Street hedge fund managers, the chief executives of Robinhood and Reddit, and a YouTube streamer known as Roaring Kitty were grilled on Thursday by U.S. lawmakers about the Reddit rally in shares of GameStop Corp.<\/p>\n
Some of Wall Street\u2019s most powerful players, including billionaire Republican mega-donor and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, defended their businesses as lawmakers probed how Reddit users trading on retail platforms squeezed hedge funds that had bet against shares of the video game retailer and other companies.<\/p>\n
Griffin appeared before the Democratic-led House finance panel alongside Robinhood CEO Vlad\u202f Tenev, Melvin Capital CEO Gabriel \u202fPlotkin, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and Keith Gill, a Reddit user and YouTube streamer known as Roaring Kitty who promoted his investment in GameStop.<\/p>\n
The five men have been at the center of the saga, which roiled Wall Street in January, prompting probes by several federal and state agencies.<\/p>\n
Representative Maxine Waters, the committee chair, is a well-known critic of Wall Street, while Republicans on the panel also sought to burnish their consumer-protection credentials, making for a fiery virtual hearing. Tenev and Griffin faced particularly tough questions from both sides during an often chaotic discussion featuring echoes, feedback and background noise.<\/p>\n
Waters, who in January called hedge funds \u201cunethical,\u201d bore down on Tenev and Griffin, frequently talking over the executives and cutting them off.<\/p>\n
In prepared opening testimony, the witnesses generally acknowledged the GameStop saga was unprecedented, but they all said there was no foul play on their part.<\/p>\n
Graphic: GameStop’s rise and fall GameStop’s rise and fall –<\/p>\n
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