So a hedge fund can short an infinite number of shares of a company, indefinitely, and never cover the short sale?
Are there examples of this? It seems like it would be so profitable that it would eventually move up to larger and larger companies. Is this a new phenomenon?
Unfortunately I know of one painful example that I own stock in: Medis Technologies, a fuel cell manufacturer that actually makes a fairly good consumer product just entering the market.
The naked short sellers have been a particularly unpleasant eye-opening experience. Here is their related letter to the SEC regarding naked short selling of their stock.