Federal jury clears hedge fund and two executives of all claims following two-week trial
SAN FRANCISCO, May 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A California federal jury on Tuesday returned a complete defense verdict in favor of Armistice Capital LLC, Armistice Capital Master Fund Ltd., founder Steven Boyd, and Managing Director Keith Maher, clearing all defendants of securities fraud and insider trading claims brought by a class of Vaxart Inc. investors.
The verdict came after less than four hours of deliberation over two days, concluding a trial that began April 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria.
Plaintiffs had alleged that Armistice manipulated the market for Vaxart shares during the COVID-19 pandemic by leveraging false and misleading press releases to sell its position at artificially inflated prices, and that Boyd and Armistice possessed material nonpublic information at the time of sale. The defendants denied all allegations throughout the proceedings.
Defense counsel Charles Connolly of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP argued at trial that the plaintiffs’ case rested on isolated phrases rather than the full content of the Vaxart press releases, which were accurate and true, and that there was no evidence that Armistice, Boyd or Maher knew anything about the information in the press releases until after they were issued. “A reasonable investor does not just read the headlines,” Connolly said.
The case, In re: Vaxart Inc. Securities Litigation, case number 3:20-cv-05949, had its origins in stock sales Armistice executed on June 26 and June 29, 2020, following Vaxart announcements about a manufacturing agreement and the company’s inclusion in the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed program. Vaxart and its current and former executives, named as co-defendants in the original complaint, settled separately in 2022 for $12 million.
Armistice Capital was represented by Joshua A. Rubin, Lillian J. Rand, Charles F. Connolly, Stacey H. Mitchell, Kaitlin D. Shapiro, and David M. Giller of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.
Media Contact: Steven Boyd, Managing Partner, Armistice Capital, 510 Madison Avenue, New York, NY, 10022, (212) 231-4930 ir@armisticecapital.com
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SOURCE Armistice Capital
