A Georgia-based technology and investment firm must defend claims that it duped two early stockholders into investing a combined $5 million in the venture, a Delaware magistrate judge ruled on Tuesday.

U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Mary Pat Thynge of the District of Delaware said that Tara Scott and Wilson Carter had supported claims that Vantage Corp. and a director, Brian Askew, had skirted Georgia securities laws and beached their fiduciary duties in order to secure the investments in early 2016.

Vantage moved to dismiss the suit in late June, arguing, in part, that the complaint raised allegations of fraud and thus should be subject to heightened pleading requirements. The defendants also said that the supposed misrepresentations occurred before Scott and Carter had invested in the firm, when there was no fiduciary relationship in place.