Burford Capital New York Office. Courtesy photo.

Litigation funder Burford Capital is facing a shareholder class action lawsuit after it was accused of being insolvent and of doctoring its returns earlier this month.

The Rosen Law Firm is representing Burford securities investor Stephen Merz in the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Merz accuses the funder of misrepresenting or failing to disclose signs of adverse business conditions, citing Burford's annual reports going back to 2014 and a report released by Muddy Waters on Aug. 7.

The lawsuit regurgitates key charges levied in the Muddy Waters report, including that Burford has manipulated its metrics to conceal that the company is "arguably insolvent."

"Had plaintiff and the other members of the class been aware that the market price of Burford securities had been artificially and falsely inflated by defendants' misleading statements and by the material[ly] adverse information which defendants did not disclose, they would not have purchased Burford securities at the artificially inflated prices that they did, or at all," the Rosen Law Firm's Phillip Kim and Laurence Rosen wrote.

Burford declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. Kim and Rosen did not immediately respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.

The complaint asserts that the truth began to emerge after the Muddy Waters report was published, causing Burford's ordinary shares to dip 42% to $5.90 a share.

The following day, Burford called the the report "false and misleading," and jumped on a shareholder call to answer investors' questions about the allegations.

In addition to the company, the lawsuit names Burford chairman Peter Middleton, CEO Christopher Bogart, Chief Investment Officer Jonathan Molot and board director Charles Parkinson. Merz's lawyers allege that the individual defendants were aware or involved with the dissemination of false and misleading statements.

"The Individual defendants, who are the senior officers and/or directors of the company, had actual knowledge of the material omissions and/or the falsity of the material statements set forth above, and intended to deceive Plaintiff and the other members of the class, or, in the alternative, acted with reckless disregard for the truth when they failed to ascertain and disclose the true facts in the statements made by them or other Burford personnel to members of the investing public, including Plaintiff and the Class," the lawsuit said.

The complaint seeks damages, and counsel and expert fees.

The Rosen Law Firm has had a series of high-profile securities litigation wins and appointments. This month, the firm was tapped to investigate Uber shareholders' securities claims against the ride-hailing company and an investigation for shareholders of pharmaceutical company Novartis AG. In April, the firm secured a $250 million settlement for investors of online retailer Alibaba, as well as a $110 million settlement for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. Investors.

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