AbacusNext’s former CEO Alessandra Lezama and CTO Jerome Fodor have accused their former employer of securities fraud through buying back their held stock at an artificially lowered price ahead of its recent sale to private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners. The two filed a lawsuit in federal court March 8 against San Diego-based AbacusNext and its previous owners; AbacusNext will be filing a motion to dismiss the suit.
Lezama and Fodor worked at AbacusNext between 2013 and 2019. Through AbacusNext’s 2015 sale to private equity firm PSG, in a separate sale five months later, and through company compensation packages, the lawsuit claims, Lezama and Fodor came to hold shares of the company worth $3.792 million between them at a purchase price of $100 per share, as well as more than 40,000 fully vested stock options. Lezama and Fodor were terminated from the company in April 2019 and May 2019, respectively.
