Two international consulting firms that had earlier been named in a shareholder lawsuit filed against Hewlett Packard Co. have been given some respite. They have both been dropped from the lawsuit which had been filed by shareholders over HP’s disastrous acquisition of a British software firm.
The two consulting firms Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and KPMG LLP have been dropped from the shareholder lawsuit filed after Hewlett-Packard completed its acquisition of software company, Autonomy. The shareholder lawsuit was filed last November.
In November…
General Electric has agreed to settle a shareholder lawsuit that was filed by investors, who alleged that the company lied about its financial health during the 2008 financial crisis. The company has agreed to pay $40 million to settle the allegations.
In the lawsuit filed by shareholders, the investors accused both General Electric Co. and its Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt of lying about the company’s financial health. The lawsuit accused the company of hiding billions of dollars of bad assets from…
Mystery novelist Patricia Cornwell has been awarded $51 million in damages by a Boston jury, which found that her financial management company had been negligent of their fiduciary duty.
The award-winning novelist won $50.9 million in damages in a federal court in Boston. She had filed a lawsuit against her former financial management company, claiming in her lawsuit that the company, Anchin, Block and Anchin LLP, and its former principal Evan Snapper had been negligent in the handling of her finances.…
Leonard Riggio, the founder of Barnes & Noble has agreed to settle a shareholder lawsuit that alleged that he wrongfully profited by pushing the bookstore chain to buy a college textbook firm that was also owned by him. Under the terms of the settlement, Riggio, who also serves as the chairman of Barnes & Noble, will pay $29 million to settle those allegations.
The shareholder lawsuit had alleged that Riggio had unfairly profited from the buyout of the textbook firm, Barnes…
Since the financial crisis broke, the Securities and Exchange Commission has acted against more than 100 people and firms whose wrongdoing contributed to the crisis. The agency crossed a milestone last week when it filed civil fraud charges against 2 former bank executives who were charged with using a loan modification scheme to ‘whitewash’ real estate loans. However, criticism that the agency is not doing enough to crack down on companies responsible for the financial meltdown, continue.
The Securities and Exchange…
In a victory for Bank of America, a judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by investors who wanted the bank to buy back mortgage loans underlying securities of more than $1 billion. The case Walnut Place LLC versus Countrywide Home Loans Inc. had been filed in New York State Supreme Court.
The case involves home loans by Countrywide Financial Corp. Bank Of America brought out Countrywide Financial Corp. in 2008. Investors suing under the name Walnut Place filed a lawsuit…
The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission is asking Congress for authority to impose tougher financial penalties on companies and individuals who commit fraud.
Chairman Mary Schapiro sent a letter to Senators last week, asking Congress to allow changes to the current financial penalty system at the Securities and Exchange Commission. In her letter, she expressed frustration at the current laws that limit fines based on 2 methods. In one method, the penalty is limited to the equivalent of the…
Del Monte Corporation and Barclays Capital Inc. have agreed to settle shareholder lawsuits over Del Monte’s sale to an investor group. As part of the settlement, Del Monte will pay shareholders up to $65.7 million, while Barclays will pay shareholders $23.7 million. The settlement must be approved by the Delaware Court of Chancery.
The shareholders had filed a lawsuit against Del Monte’s buyout by the investor group KKR & Co. The shareholders alleged that the directors on Del Monte's board of…
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Hong Kong-based Longtop Financial Technologies Ltd. after the company was sued by an investor who claimed that the company had overstated profit margins.
In his lawsuit, the investor, Joe Milkus, alleges that people who purchased Longtop shares between June 2009 and April suffered severe losses because the shares fell 30% at the end of April. Around this time, questions had been raised about the company's finances. Milkus’ lawsuit has been filed in…
Under federal law, a judge will allow a securities fraud class action to proceed if plaintiff lawyers can provide strong facts to show that the defendant intended to deceive. Several plaintiffs’ lawyers in a securities fraud class action against Boeing, found that their overeager efforts to supply a confidential witness to prove that Boeing intended to deceive shareholders, backfired. The complaint was thrown out by the judge.
The class-action lawsuit held that the company deceived investors about developments related…