A hedge fund manager, who made his name betting against the share price of collapsed energy company Enron, has said that short sellers have been "completely, unjustifiably vilified" over the past year and that critics are creating policy on the practice without "one shred of evidence" that fund managers conspired to drive shares down.

Jim Chanos, founder of $4bn (€2.9bn) short selling fund Kynikos Associates - who was one of the first hedge funds to begin short selling Enron in November 2000 - has said that regulators' investigations did not provide "one shred of evidence" proving allegations of manipulative shorting by hedge funds.