Shareholder Issues - Litigation

LITIGATION

The graph below shows the number of Federal securities fraud class action legal actions over the past ten years, both prior to and following the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

http://securities.stanford.edu/

                       

Recent cases of securities class action litigation include the following companies.

Company Name (Ticker Symbol)

Description of Litigation or Investigation

(Click Here for the effect of announcement of the problem on the company’s stock price.)

The Williams Companies (WMB)

The complaints allege Williams and certain corporate officers inflated the stock price. For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

CompuCredit

(CCRT)

The complaint charges CompuCredit and its chief executive officer, David G. Hanna, with making false and misleading public statements about the company that artificially inflated its stock. In particular, the complaint alleges CompuCredit concealed information about a substantial rise in bad loans during the third quarter of 2000. For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

Tyco International

(TYC)

The complaint alleges the defendants failed to disclose: (a) that Tyco would achieve its earnings targets only through undisclosed acquisitions; (b) that the individual defendants sold in excess of $100,000,000 of their individual stock holdings to the company; and (c) that Tyco made large payments to insiders, including a $20,000,000 payment to one director and his charity.  Additionally, former-CEO Kozlowski was charged with avoiding more than $1 million in sales taxes on major artworks. For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL)

The complaint alleges Apple introduced its new personal computers, claiming that they would result in Apple achieving strong growth in the fourth quarter of 2000 and the first quarter of 2001.  As a result, Apple's stock climbed to a high of $64-1/8.  Four Apple officers then sold 370,000 shares for $22 million. Less than a month later, Apple announced a large four quarter revenue and earnings per share shortfall. For more information go to:  Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

Elan Corporation

(ELN)

The complaint alleges the defendants reported favorable financial results for Elan, while concealing expenses through joint ventures, recognizing income from companies in which Elan had invested (round-trip revenue) and concealing material related-party transactions. For more information go to: Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

PNC Financial Services Group

(PNC)

The complaint alleges defendants misrepresented PNC's financial results and issued false and misleading statements about PNC's financial condition.  PNC moved a substantial amount of non-performing assets off of the company's balance sheet, converting them into "preferred interests" in subsidiaries of American International Group (AIG) to accelerate the repositioning of its banking and venture capital businesses.  The complaint further alleges that while acting as auditor and a consultant for PNC, E&Y was also acting as a consultant for AIG.  As PNC's auditor, E&Y approved PNC's transactions with AIG while at the same time acting as an accounting adviser to AIG. For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

Martha Stewart Living (MSO)

Martha Stewart is under investigation for insider trading in connection to her close friend and ImClone former-CEO, Sam Waksal, following her sale of all 3,928 of her shares the day before the news was made public that the FDA refused to review ImClone's application for its Erbitux drug. For more information go to: Yahoo News Stories .

Adelphia Communications Corporation

(ADLAE)

The complaint alleges defendants concealed borrowings and understated debt levels and failed to adequately disclose the existence of billions of dollars of off-balance sheet debt. CEO John J. Rigas and his family had hundreds of millions in personal loans secured by Adelphia stock.  Adelphia paid him $241 million to repay these loans.  Additionally, his sons allegedly borrowed $2.3 billion from banks with Adelphia as the guarantor without recording it on Adelphia's balance sheet. For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

Merrill Lynch

(MER)

It was alleged that analysts at Merrill Lynch regularly published ratings for stocks that were misleading because they did not represent the analysts' true opinions and instead were intended to win business for the firm. For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

ImClone

(IMCL)

The complaint, alleges ImClone made materially false and misleading statements about the FDA approval process for its drug Erbitux and the positive impact on Company revenues.  The complaint alleges defendants filed their FDA application to convince Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. to purchase $1 billion in ImClone stock, including approximately $150 million from ImClone insiders, and to convince Bristol-Myers to make an additional $1 billion cash investment in the Company. Additionally, former-CEO Sam Waksal is accused of trying to sell $5 million worth of ImClone stock and tipping off friends and relatives after he learned that the FDA was about to reject the company's application for Erbitux. For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

Dynegy Inc.

(DYN)

The complaint alleges Dynegy and its officers inflated the price of the Company's stock to sell securities and to earn millions of dollars in bonuses.  For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse.

Reliant Resources Inc.

(RRI)

The complaint alleges that Reliant made statements that were materially false and misleading because they inflated revenue by counting round-trip trades. For more information go to: Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse.

WorldCom

(WCOM)

 The complaint alleges that WorldCom improperly booked $3.8 billion in expenses as capital expenditures, thus artificially increasing cash flow and profit over the previous five quarters.

Gerber Scientific

(GRB)

The complaint alleges Gerber Scientific made materially false and misleading statements about quarterly and annual financial performance that artificially inflated the cost of the stock and the Company lacked adequate internal controls and was therefore unable to ascertain the true financial condition of the Company. For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

ViroPharma Inc.

(VPHM)

The complaint alleges defendants issued highly positive statements regarding the Company's drug Picovir while it minimized or concealed potential obstacles to FDA approval. The FDA then decided to not approve the drug. For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

L90 Inc.

(LNTYE)

The complaint alleges defendants misrepresented L90's true prospects in an effort to conceal L90's improper acts until they were able to sell the Company to a third party.  For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

Seitel Inc.

(SEI)

The complaint alleges defendants improperly recognized revenue and net income during fiscal years 2000 and 2001. The complaint further alleges top insiders profited illegally from insider trading in Seitel's common stock and earned huge commissions and bonuses that were tied to reported revenue and earnings. For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

Peregrine Systems Inc. (PRGN)

The complaint alleges Peregrine made materially false and misleading statements regarding accounting inaccuracies of approximately $100 million.  Simultaneously, the board of directors announced that Peregrine's Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer and its Chief Financial Officer had both resigned all of their positions with the Company. For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

Computer Associates

(CA)

The complaint alleges defendants issued materially false and misleading statements that artificially inflated stock prices.  Three top CA officers benefited from a bonus based on CA’s stock price. Earning the bonus required the stock to close above $53.33 for 60 days within any 12 months between 1995 and 2000. For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse or CNN-Money Magazine Article .

Lucent Technologies

(LU)

The complaint alleges Lucent and two of its officers inflated the company's stock price by issuing financial statements that misrepresented the company's revenues and earnings.  Lucent improperly recognized an estimated $679 million in revenue.  For more information go to: SEC Filings or Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse .

 

Untitled Document
Copyright © 2002 by BOARDSTRATEGIES™. All rights reserved. Use subject to our terms and conditions and privacy statement.
QUESTIONS CAN BE SUBMITTED TO THE ADVISORY BOARD VIA EMAIL TO SecTec1@bellsouth.net or by clicking here.