Fishy DOGE Dividend Story

CNN's Michael Smerconish interviewed James Fishback, CEO of Azoria Investments and creator of the DOGE dividend, Saturday morning.  Smerconish asked how the idea came to be:

...it came to me in a dream. I woke up, I called our head of research at Azoria. We met at Capitol Grill, we fleshed this thing out in two hours.

The story sounded fishy.  It turns out Fishback is/has been an outside DOGE advisor, according to Business Insider.  Their story (one month old) stated:

One day after Vivek Ramaswamy announced he is leaving the Department of Government Efficiency, James Fishback, co-founder and CEO of the investment firm Azoria, told Business Insider he's ready to fill the open role. 

 Fishback, a confidant of Ramaswamy, has said he's already worked as an outside advisor to DOGE.

Though he's based in Florida, Fishback said he plans to stay in Washington, DC for a few more days and will meet with employees in the White House.

This guy is a DOGE insider, not some investment guy who had a brilliant dream, i.e. received political manna from heaven.  

In the CNN interview Fishback displayed the same condescending, irritating style as Vivek Ramaswamy, the man he'd wanted to replace as DOGE co-head.  

Smerconish worked hard and was able to contain his guest.  However, it took this statement:

I don't want to be that guy. Do I have to silence your microphone so that I can respond to what you've said? Because there's so much fallacy in what you've just offered.

Fishback's reply:

Please don't (inaudible).

James Fishback's background information states he was "an investor with Greenlight Capital and founder of Azoria Investments."  

Newsweek reported:

Fishback was at Trump's Mar-a-Lago this past December to launch Azoria Meritocracy ETF, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) set to invest in S&P 500 companies that don't engage in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

Azoria's webpage is a white background with several questions and corresponding answers:

David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital hired James Fishback in 2021 as a Research Analyst.  Fishback was not "an investor" with Greenlight, he was an employee.  James held himself out as Greenlight's "Head of Macro."  The firm denies Fishback held this role.

Fishback left Greenlight to start a competing hedge fund, the subject of an employment agreement lawsuit from Greenlight and a countersuit from Fishback.  In December 2024 the judge ruled on a number of challenges from Fishback.

Greenlight's lawsuit characterizes Fishback as:

...demanding, overly aggressive, and tightly wound, or treated people around him like ‘personal servant[s].

The judge in the case let those words stand as the lawsuit proceeds.

Court's intention is to move this case forward with urgency, given the nature of the allegations and the claim that Fishback continues to wrongfully possess confidential information of Greenlight's.

I'll close with a few other findings.  Fishback's relationship with Vivek Ramaswamy can be seen in his X posts.   

Oddly, James' former employer Greenlight Capital took a stake in Roivant Sciences, a pharmaceutical firm founded by Ramaswamy.  That position is roughly a year old.

It's hard to know what is real and what isn't with James Fishback and the DOGE dividend, given it's hard to know what's real with James Fishback altogether.  

A court will determine if Fishback violated his employment agreement with Greenlight Capital.  That decision may point to the DOGE Dreamer's underlying character, which may help people discern reality in other potentially fishy areas.