Abacus Global Management Sues Coventry and its Chairman Alan Buerger for Defamation and Anticompetitive Conduct
Coventry and Chairman Alan Buerger Engaged in Years-Long Campaign to Systematically Disseminate False and Misleading Information About the Publicly-Traded Company
Coventry and Buerger Found a Key Partner and Megaphone for its Defamatory Statements: Short Seller Morpheus Research
ORLANDO, Fla., July 01, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Abacus Global Management, Inc. ("Abacus" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:ABL), a leader in the alternative asset management space, today provided the following statement:
Coventry First LLC, parent company of life settlements provider Coventry Direct ("Coventry"), and its Chairman Alan Buerger engaged in a concentrated effort to manipulate market sentiment about its biggest competitor, Abacus Global Management, through a systematic campaign to disseminate false and misleading statements about Abacus to regulators, auditors, market analysts, customers, investors and the public, causing confusion, concern, and financial injury to Abacus, its clients, and its shareholders, according to a lawsuit filed last night by Abacus in Florida's Ninth Circuit Court.
The lawsuit alleges that a short report published by Morpheus Research on June 4, 2025 was Coventry's latest attack on Abacus. Coventry will be responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages should Abacus prove that Morpheus was acting as Coventry and Buerger's willing partner and megaphone for the same defamatory statements Coventry was circulating about Abacus' valuation methodology, statements regulators and market makers had ignored for months.
The lawsuit details a multi-year effort by Coventry and its Chairman and founder, Alan Buerger, to cast doubt on Abacus' valuation practices and stock price. Unable to compete with Abacus' transparent pricing model and performance, Coventry and Buerger devised a scheme to undermine Abacus through false and misleading statements to convince the market that Abacus pays policyholders too much for their policies, causing an overvaluation of Abacus' assets. This is more than idle talk: they have tried to convince anyone who will listen that the biggest threat to Coventry's business is in fact illegitimate.
"This isn't about competitive practices or even good faith criticism of a competitor's business model – they clearly crossed the line into tortious interference and defamation," said Abacus Global Management CEO Jay Jackson. "They're losing market share to Abacus because we offer policyholders better terms and more transparent pricing, so instead of competing on product, they chose to try to manipulate markets by damaging Abacus' reputation, confusing its customers, and undermining investor confidence with false statements. We've built a successful business through our fierce commitment to transparency – and we are going to fight back."
The lawsuit details the fundamental flaw at the center of Coventry's false claims: Abacus buys policies from individuals and sells them to investors. When the policies are sold to investors, who conduct their own evaluation of the policies' value, the sale price consistently exceeds Abacus' valuations. In short, the market is thoroughly and indisputably corroborating the value of Abacus' assets and debunking Coventry's central premise.
"Coventry's core claim is that top-tier investors like KKR are overpaying for life insurance policies—policies they've purchased from Abacus repeatedly over many years," continued Abacus CEO Jackson. "Coventry essentially argues that they and Alan Buerger, with their less than sterling reputation, are more sophisticated investors than these major institutional firms. This claim is clearly absurd."
Coventry's claim "deliberately ignores Abacus' consistent and legally mandated disclosures that its publicly-traded balance sheet is valued ‘under the fair value method' – that is, market price," according to the filing.
To convince the market that Abacus is not properly valuing its policies, Coventry targeted one of the six life expectancy estimate organizations Abacus uses, Lapetus Solutions. Coventry, and in particular Buerger, have "intentionally made false and misleading statements about Lapetus" through "purportedly independent but paid studies" that claim to show Lapetus systematically underestimates life expectancy. Coventry spread these false claims "across a wide range of audiences, each deliberately chosen to inflict maximum harm on Abacus," including presenting its lies to: Abacus's auditor, Grant Thornton; TD Securities, a market analyst tracking Abacus' stock; the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and included the defamatory claims about Abacus in a lawsuit against the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation ("OIR").
Coventry claims Abacus is using Lapetus to value the policies it holds on its balance sheet, thereby inflating the value of each policy based on inaccurate life expectancy estimates. But as the lawsuit explains, quoting public filings, Abacus has repeatedly disclosed that it "does not use a life expectancy valuation model to value the policies," rendering the entire accusation meritless. Separately, Abacus uses Lapetus as one of six life expectancy provider inputs when determining the price it will pay seniors for their policies, and not to derive its balance sheet valuations. If Coventry is correct that Lapetus is underestimating life expectancy, then it means Abacus is simply overpaying senior citizens for their policies.
Abacus alleges that Coventry and Buerger recently "took these insinuations to the next level" when Buerger gave an interview, on the Tegus expert network platform, in which he accused Abacus of "manufactur[ing] earnings," said that its "stockholders…will be subordinated to the asset-backed debt, which is to say they will all be wiped out when this thing goes upside down," falsely repeating that Abacus, was "us[ing] Lapetus…primarily," and predicting, "it's just a matter of time before [Abacus] implodes."
The reality, found in the lawsuit filed today, is Abacus's financial statements and internal controls over financial reporting have been found "in compliance with GAAP by a respected public company auditor in every annual audit," that Abacus "has zero asset-backed debt" that can layer other investors in its capital structure, and that Abacus does not use Lapetus "to value the assets on its balance sheet, nor has it ever done so."
Coventry and Buerger also solicited "multiple short sellers to write a hit piece on Abacus, regurgitating the same false claims about Lapetus and Abacus's valuation" with at least one prominent short seller who turned them down, noting "that senior citizens are making too much money off of selling their insurance policies is not a compelling story."
But eventually, Coventry and Buerger found a willing partner and megaphone for its defamatory statements: short seller Morpheus Research.
Buerger's interview was released to investors for the first time on June 4, 2025, 90 minutes before markets opened. Three hours later, Morpheus Research issued a short report that quoted Buerger's most inflammatory accusations and heavily cited Coventry's "research" on Lapetus.
Within minutes, Abacus stock (NASDAQ:ABL) dropped more than 21%, erasing more than $200 million in market capitalization, based on well-trafficked lies.
The lawsuit alleges Morpheus was acting as Coventry's and Buerger's willing partner and megaphone for the same defamatory statements about the Abacus valuation methodology, which regulators and market makers had ignored for months. The short report from Morpheus "parrots the same or similar false and misleading statements that Coventry had previously peddled." As Morpheus acknowledges, one of its "sources" for the report includes "Abacus competitors," a.k.a. Coventry, and Morpheus timed the report to coincide with the release of Buerger's Tegus interview.
In the wake of Buerger's interview and the report from Morpheus Research, Abacus is fielding questions from investors "parroting the points Coventry has been shilling for over a year," and Buerger is "communicating directly with Abacus investors, and disseminating his misleading study of Lapetus."
The filing notes: "Coventry's relentless campaign against Abacus has caused substantial harm to the company and its shareholders. Coventry's false narrative attempts to project its own financial vulnerabilities onto Abacus, but the facts demonstrate otherwise. The market analysts who came to Abacus' defense after the short report recognize the truth: Abacus' transparent approach is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise beleaguered industry, and that explains its rapid rise."
Further, the lawsuit details how Coventry is "the poster child" for unsavory behavior in the industry, including:
- Bid-rigging charges from the New York Attorney General;
- Settling a multi-billion-dollar fraud case brought by AIG;
- A Florida Office of Insurance Regulation investigation and a subsequent consent order requiring Coventry to adopt a remedial business plan;
- A federal Court of Appeals characterized Coventry's policy origination practices as "illegal"; and how
- Coventry has been a leading player in Stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI), a practice widely viewed as illegal, and the SEC has noted the practice "may encourage fraud", and multiple states have banned the practice.
Abacus is represented in the lawsuit by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP. Abacus is seeking hundreds of millions in damages, some of which are still accruing, from the harms to its reputation, its customer base, and its relationships with current and potential investors.
The full filing can be read here.
Contacts:
Investor Relations
Robert F. Phillips – SVP Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs
[email protected]
(321) 290-1198
David Jackson – Director of IR/Capital Markets
[email protected]
(321) 299-0716
Abacus Global Management Public Relations
[email protected]
