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  "documentTitle": "Burford Capital Ltd. (BUR LN)",
  "authorId": "51_Muddy_Waters",
  "authorName": "Carson C. Block",
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  "sourceTypeLabel": "Short seller",
  "presentationDate": "2019-08-07 00:00:00",
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  "notes": "The slide uses a specific case study (Napo) to illustrate accounting manipulation and unethical management practices.",
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      "text": "Through accounting sleight of hand, a cash investment partially provided by Invesco, and a reverse merger into a soon-to-collapse U.S. nanocap led by a highly questionable CEO, BUR turned a loss at trial into a purported 195% ROIC.",
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      "text": "ROIC: 195%",
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      "text": "In the 2013 disclosure, Napo was shown as the largest recovery from the 2011 vintage, which BUR calculated had generated a ROIC of 53%. Without the bailout of this case, BUR's 2011 Concluded Investment ROIC would have been only 2.9%.",
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      "text": "Napo is a stranger-than-fiction example of manipulating performance and profit metrics. Not only do we view BUR's management as having acted highly unethically in this instance, but we also see Invesco fund manager Mark Barnett as having been equally complicit...",
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      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "BUR first disclosed Napo as a \"Concluded Investment\" in its 2013 Annual Report, and claimed a total recovered of $15.8 million on a $7.4 million investment, which was purportedly a 113% ROIC. However, the case had not yet concluded.",
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      "text": "The fact that Napo actually lost the trial in 2014 did not sour the company's view of its investment. Rather than reverse the gain, BUR actually marked the investment up yet again – to a ROIC of 189%.",
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      "text": "Source: Burford Capital 2013 Annual Report, p. 11",
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      "text": "Footnotes 9-12 referencing external sources and legal documents.",
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      "text": "Concluded Investment Performance table showing vintage 2011 investments, total investment, total recovered, ROIC, and IRR.",
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