Burford Capital, the UK-listed litigation finance fund, claims it has uncovered evidence of “illegal market manipulation” in the run-up to short-selling from US-based Muddy Waters Research last week.

Burford, backed by blue-chip investors including Invesco and Neil Woodford, suffered a share price fall of more than 50% on August 7 after Muddy Waters launched a public attack against the company, accusing it of “egregiously misrepresenting” its results.