Shift4 Investor Lawsuit Over Accounting Falls Short on Intent

Shift 4 Payments Inc. investors failed to adequately allege the payment processor took improper accounting and business actions to alleviate financial pressure on its CEO, a federal court ruled.

The investors didn’t show the necessary level of intent for securities fraud because their chronology of facts undermines their theory about the company’s—and CEO-founder Jared Isaacman’s—motive, Judge Joseph F. Leeson Jr. said. The investors will have another chance to plead their case, Leeson said in an opinion docketed Thursday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The investors alleged that Isaacman borrowed against his Shift4 holdings and ...