According to the Irving Firemen’s Relief and Retirement Fund, Tesco PLC and its directors misled investors, purportedly causing the Texas pension fund to buy the company’s stock at prices that were artificially inflated. Because of this, says the fund, it sustained substantial losses when Tesco announced in September that it…
Fannie Mae (FNMA) and its shareholders have reached a $170M settlement in a lawsuit accusing the entity of misleading the plaintiffs about its risk management, finances, and mortgage exposure prior to its seizure by the U.S. government during the financial crisis of 2008. Now, a court must approve the agreement.…
JPMorgan Ordered to Face $10B Mortgage-Backed Securities Case A federal judge said that JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) must face a class action securities fraud lawsuit filed by investors accusing the bank of misleading them about the risks involved in $10B of mortgage-backed securities that they purchased from the firm…
The trial over whether the U.S. government unlawfully seized a majority stake in American International Group Inc. (AIG) during the bailout has started. The securities case was brought by Starr International Co., which is the charitable and investment firm helmed by former AIG CEO Maurice R. Greenberg. Starr was the…
Fidelity Investments has consented to pay $12 million to settle two class action employee lawsuits. The plaintiffs contend that the retirement plan provider was self-dealing in the FMR LLC Profit Sharing Plan and making money at their expense by offering employees high-cost fund options and making them pay excessive fees.…
Ruling in Halliburton v. Erica P. John Fund, the U.S. Supreme Court has left the fraud-on-the-market theory intact. However, they may have made it easier for large companies to get the courts to throw out class action securities cases sooner. Halliburton Co. wanted to block a class action lawsuit accusing…
Wells Fargo Settles Securities Lending Case for $62.5M Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) will pay $62.5 million to settle a class action securities fraud case. A group of retirement funds claim that the bank committed fraud and breached its fiduciary duty in its securities lending program. Now, a district court…
Timothy C. Davidson, a Florida investment adviser, is suing BlackRock (BLK). He says the money manager and other defendants breached their fiduciary duty by charging disproportionately high investment advisory fees for the BlackRock Global Allocation Fund (MDLOX). He says that the excessive fees had “no reasonable relationship” to the services…
According to a study commissioned by the US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, securities class action lawsuits are not a help to investors seeking to recover their investment losses. The study, which was released by Navigant Consulting, found that class action litigation costs investors close to $39 billion annually even…
Although a decision is not likely until June in Halliburton v. Erica P. John Fund, it doesn’t look as if the US Supreme Court will seek to overturn the “fraud on the market” theory, set up in 1988 in Basic Inc. v. Levinson. In that earlier ruling, it was determined…