A $40 million libel verdict awarded to a hedge fund and its principals will remain standing after the New Jersey Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal in the case.

The court said Tuesday it would not hear First Advantage Litigation Consulting’s challenge of a verdict awarded to Parsippany-based NuWave Investment Corp. and two of its principals, Troy Buckner and John Ryan. They filed the lawsuit over reports by a predecessor of First Advantage, Back Track Reports, accusing Buckner and Ryan of theft in their prior jobs at a commodities trading firm, Hyman Beck & Co., in Florham Park. Back Track elicited those allegations in interviews with principals at Hyman Beck.