Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. Compliance Officer Quits; Shares Spike

Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LL) spiked slightly on Wednesday before falling back on news that its compliance officer Ray Cotton has quietly quit.The information may have been first ferreted out Wednesday by short-seller Whitney Tilson, who has been on a long campaign to discredit the building supplies retailer."The company's failure to disclose this information strikes me as a serious breach of disclosure rules," Tilson wrote in an opinion piece Tuesday for the Web site Seeking Alpha.The Toano, Virginia-based retailer, under multiple investigations related to its sale of Chinese-made flooring, hasn't announced Cotton's departure. Tilson pointed instead to Cotton's current LinkedIn page.https://www.linkedin.com/in/raycotton"At best, this is further evidence of a company in chaos and, at worst, one that is trying to hide something," Tilson said.Tilson has previously criticized Cook, calling him "unqualified" and predicting he would depart in the wake of recent resignations of Chief Executive Robert Lynch and Chief Financial Officer Daniel Terrell.http://www.tilsonfunds.com/LL.pdfTilson served as a source for a "60 Minutes" report in March that raised the issue of whether Lumber Liquidators laminate flooring met California air quality standards regarding formaldehyde emissions.Since then, the shares are off more than 60 percent.Lumber Liquidators appeared to gain about 3 percent on news of Cotton's departure, but traded recently at $21.98, down $0.03 cents.